How to use this book
This book is written as an introduction to the conceptual
questions faced by those who write architectural history and
study the work of architectural historians. As such, it assumes
some basic knowledge of architectural history, its chronolo-
gies, canon and geographies, such as the reader might fi nd in
a more general survey of the history of architecture. Readers
of this book might be taking courses or conducting research
in architectural history while attached to a school of archi-
tecture, or in a department of art history; or they might be
undertaking a history programme where buildings and city
plans are thought to evidence historical phenomena that do
not originate in architecture. What is Architectural History?
introduces some of the key issues that have shaped the way
in which historical knowledge of architecture has been
formed, rallied and disseminated over the last century or so,
and aims to direct inquisitive readers to other writing that
explores aspects of this subject and its major fi gures in greater
depth.