Beginning from the rise of modern history in the eighteenth century, this book examines how changing ideas in the discipline of history itself has affected architecture from the beginnings of modernity up to the present day. It reflects upon history in order to encourage and assist the reader in finding well-founded principles for architectural design. This is not simply another history of architecture, nor a 'history of histories'. Setting buildings in their contemporaneous ideas about history, it spans from Fischer von Erlach to Venturi, and beyond to architects working in the fallout from both the Modern Movement such as Aalto, Louis Kahn and Aldo van Eyck - and Postmodernism such as Rafael Moneo, Daniel Libeskind and David Chipperfield. This is not an armchair history but a lively discussion of our place between past and future that promotes thinking for making.