Architectural history has over the past half-century been delineated in fine detail. Today it is challenging to find a creative spirit involved with the design fields who has not been examined in depth; nearly every building of historical importance has been chronicled; timelines have been constructed and heroes selected. Major advances within the sciences have enlarged the scope of historical research and enriched how we experience and meld with the environments we build. Almost every country takes pride in its architectural achievements. Monuments of mortar and stone define themselves as vivid testimonies of a country's collective persona.

Mallgrave's intention in Writers on Architecture in America is much simpler. He brings together an episodic collection of voices—male and female, professional and lay—which compose not a chronicle of building events but tell a story in their own right. It is one related through a series of thematic essays that pose the question of how individuals of a freshly minted country—children and later adolescents in teenage defiance of their Anglo-Saxon past—press the search for a truly national building culture. Is it possible to do so within the span of a century, or two? Is it even desirable? In any case, the goal of a national architectural culture proved to be ever more elusive as efforts intensified.