Manfredo Tafuri: Choosing History

The influential Italian architect, art historian and theorist Manfredo Tafuri (1935-1994) made a decisive contribution to the practice of architectural history during his lifetime, yet the breadth of his bibliography and the depth of his perception of historical issues remains largely unexplored even today. Many people know of Tafuri through his critical essays for Oppositions magazine in the 1970s, which were published under the guidance of Peter Eisenman. Tafuri was also known for his association with the radical Left in Italy during that same era. This volume, authored by the scholar Andrew Leach of the University of Queensland in Australia, is the first in the English language to consider Tafuri's contribution to architectural culture. As such, it opens up a long-overdue discussion on both the premises of Tafuri's practice and the historical questions that have consequently emerged.