Where does history stand for contemporary architecture? This ubiquitous, yet interminable, question is the driving force in Anthony Vidler's Histories of the Immediate Present. As a prominent historian of the Enlightenment with a compelling identity as a critic of contemporary practice, Vidler not only draws from previous experience but also explores new areas of historical inquiry, such as the postwar debates on architecture and criticism. Vidler analyzes four versions of modernism constructed between 1945 and 1975 by four historians: Emil Kaufmann, Colin Rowe, Reyner Banham, and Manfredo Tafuri. As straightforward as its major question seems, the book is powered by two distinct subjects. The first is methodological. Vidler admits that the "problem of history" is a relatively new phenomenon. The fact that the relation between history and contemporary design is even questioned, raising suspicion about history's relevance and creating a sense of insecurity for historians (Vidler included) about their chosen profession, indicates a received anachronism. The Renaissance architect had no such judgment, Vidler explains, since learning about architecture's past forms was learning architecture itself. The process by which architectural history became an object of separate study-in architecture and art history-was partially related to developments in design practice since the mid-nineteenth century, when the past was perceived as a book of possibilities to select or reject.
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