The city as history

Abstract

The vast academic production about cities is proportional to theinterest of numerous branches of knowledge on the subject. Since itwas impossible to evaluate the entire production, even if limited onlyto areas selected for this presentation – architecture and history –, we chose the following topics: at the architects field, we chose those thatrefer to the historiography as subject of analysis of plans and citiesoperations planning, procedures for cleaning of areas of the city andthe processes involving issues of housing for low-income population.We discussed the concepts of history running through these studies,to strengthen the valuable and essential dialogue between history andarchitecture, and to inquire the most significant features of this approach.In the field of historians, we present a survey of research on urban issuesand critically analyze the contributions and explanatory paradigms ofthe field of history employed in studies of cities. The perception of anoblique presence of the city as a theme for the Brazilian historiographyjustifies and directs a critical assessment of the options from historians,as well as the discussion of dilemmas and possibilities of approach.