This paper is aimed at the development of an analytical method to handle thermal buckling of laminated composite circular cylindrical shells. An eighth-order governing differential system for predicting this response is formulated from an energy approach. With the focus on simply-supported, antisymmetric angle-ply laminated composite cylinders subjected to circumferentially-varying temperatures, Galerkin's method is employed, where the corresponding numerical results provide insight into the response of the critical buckling temperature to such factors as lamination angles, number of layers, stacking sequence, goemetric aspect ratios and various temperature functions. For example, in the case of antisymmetric laminates, the coupling effect between bending and compression vanishes as the number of layers increases. This phenomenon is confirmed for common composite materials such as Graphite/Epoxy and Boron/Epoxy.