"The first monograph in English on Dutch architectural theory and the public debate on architecture in nineteenth-century Amsterdam, this book is also the first full-scale study of nineteenth-century architectural theory to take into account the recent reassessment of the Modernist bias in much architectural history.".

"Auke van der Woud reveals how, caught in the tide of expansion and change sweeping across Europe at the time, Dutch architects, patrons and builders fought to consolidate their country's history and cultural identity through architecture.

He shows that rival factions, in an attempt to sequester the mystique of the Dutch Golden Age, advocated various ideas and theories about Gothic, Classical and Dutch Renaissance architecture, but that in the end architectural practice made architectural theory irrelevant. Extensively illustrated with period photographs, many by the pioneer of Dutch photography, Jacob Olie, this book is an excellent introduction to the development of nineteenth-century architecture in The Netherlands."--BOOK JACKET.