The anthology examines how notions of progress, beauty, and cultural superiority structured the genre of nineteenth-century world histories of architecture, and shaped the discipline as we know it today.

The nineteenth century saw the emergence of a new genre of architectural writing: the grand history of world architecture. This genre often expressed a deeply Eurocentric worldview, largely dismissing non-Western architecture through narratives of historical progress and stylistic beauty. The architectural history canon as it was invented in the nineteenth century, deeply influenced our modern view on the beauty of the built environment, and as such on the preservation and transformation of the historical and contemporary city.