The development in France of the teaching of urban planning throughout the whole of the twentieth century has always traditionally included the historical dimension, as witnessed by the pedagogy adopted by the Institute of Urban Studies of the University of Paris (1919-1971) and as seen successively in the work both of Marcel Poëte and of Pierre Lavedan. However, as urbanism became more technical, history became progressively isolated in the new discipline. History shifted from being understood as a precondition for the urban project to becoming more of an autonomous research discipline. Poëte and Lavedan’s difficulties in postioning their own work gives insight into the complex relations between history, urban planning and research which have marked the discipline of urban studies throughout the century.