102 What is Architectural History?
problem. Its readers will assess its importance for scholarship
on the basis of its discoveries or its innovative analysis. The
study may claim a broader signifi cance to histories of a
period, or to knowledge of a fi gure, or to an issue or theme
that exceeds the subject to hand. A historian might regard a
history as contemporary where an architect sees it as past, in
these terms; or someone working within the university or the
museum might see the relevance of a research theme to the
problem of contemporary architectural practice where a pro-
fessional architect might not immediately do so.
This clearly raises the issue of communication across dis-
ciplines and disciplinary or professional attitudes. The critical
fortunes of an architectural history will depend on the
cogency of the historian’s argument for the signifi cance of
the details, not only to contemporary knowledge but also to
contemporary problems. A book, article or exhibition might
pertain to the knowledge of architectural history required by
an architect for their professional practice. It could as easily
relate to a more general understanding of human culture that
contains lessons of broader import for contemporary culture
and society.
The teaching of architectural history in professional
schools of architecture presents an important institutional
setting for this issue. I have knowingly conjured up a dire
qualifi cation for the content of architectural history courses,
one that would have historians of architecture predict the
range of historical examples, concepts and frameworks that
will serve the architect as a cultured professional. Of course,
someone who works constantly with the past can understand
how episodes and themes in architectural history can corre-
spond to those of present-day practice. This can partly be
ascribed to a capacity for abstraction and instrumentalization
that is fundamental for teaching, but it can also be under-
stood as part of the larger and longer process by which
knowledge is synthesized and reactivated over time. The
pedagogy of the classroom architectural historian can be at
odds with his or her activity and concerns in the fi eld, the
library or the archive.^12 Indeed, the bulk of work by archi-
tectural historians, who are commonly attached to schools
of architecture, heritage agencies and museums, or depart-
ments of art history, concerns what Carr called the ‘facts of