Book excerpt: Adept at moving between the examination of modern and contemporary architecture, art, literature and music, Robert Maxwell is a respected scholar whose critical writings articulate the role architecture plays in contemporary culture. In Ancient Wisdom And Modern Knowhow, Maxwell considers the notion of 'doubt' encountered by the modern architect. In ten chapters that draw upon writers and topics as diverse and engaging as Andre Malraux and his concept of the Musée Imaginaire, Colin Rowe and his exploration of "Mannerism in Modern Architecture" as well as Rowe's book with Fred Koetter, Collage City, and examining works by artists including Albrecht Du?rer, Picasso and Duchamp and architects including James Stirling, Zaha Hadid, Frank Gehry and Daniel Libeskind, Maxwell steps effortlessly through a range of ideas and concepts, to create an engaging and provocative thesis. Ancient Wisdom and Modern Knowhow is the second of two new books to be published by Artifice books on architecture by Professor Robert Maxwell, Emeritus Professor of Architecture at Princeton University. The first, A Few Years of Writing Interspersed with some Facts of Life, was published in autumn 2012.