SUMMARY:

This book is an attempt to define the historical dimensions of modern architecture and evaluate its meaning in terms of modern life. Although it is not intended as a historical survey, it shows how the rise of the architecture of democracy is related to the roots and formulation of contemporary thought. Professor Scully traces the major developments which have taken place in modern architecture beginning with the democratic and industrial revolutions of the late eighteenth century and the subsequent breakdown of the old humanist, man-centered world. From the Baroque synthesis of freedom and order evolved two diversified tendencies: one was what the author calls "Romantic-Classicism", the other was "Romantic-Naturalism." Professor Scully examines the significant aspects of twentieth-century architecture from the first successful attempts made by Louis Sullivan to give steel construction its own form and expression, to the unique creative originality of Frank Lloyd Wright. He also discusses Art Nouveau in Europe, Gropius and the Bauhaus, and finally such influential figures as Mies van der Rohe, Alvar Aalto, and Le Corbussier. The author is Professor of the History of Art at Yale University from which he graduated with an M.A. in 1947 and a Ph.D. in 1949. He isan award-winning author of several other books on architecture.