For more than a century the skyscraper has embodied the ambitions, the creativity, and the inequality of the modern world. This course will trace the history of the skyscraper from the late-nineteenth century to the present in a global perspective, focusing on the most important buildings and their role in reshaping skylines, building practices, and land-use patterns in cities around the world. Although tall buildings are often viewed as works of art, and products of building technology, they are primarily a form of commercial real estate development. The development of the tall building was rooted in the competition for space in crowded business districts, the rise of new forms of economic organization, and broader transformations arising from the creation of global capitalist economy. Thus while skyscrapers have been celebrated for creating an exciting, dense, and efficient urban landscape, they have also criticized as agents of disruption, congestion, and destruction. The history of tall buildings thus encompasses the history of efforts to regulate their development in the public interest.