Lewis Mumford & American Modernism

 Lewis Mumford and American Modernism examines the career and writings of America's leading critic of architecture. The author of numerous books on the history of architecture, Mumford focused on the roles that technology and urbanism have played in modern civilisation. One of the first to write appreciatively of the achievements of the Chicago school, he was also a fervent supporter of Frank Lloyd Wright, whose buildings embodied the organic, rather than technological, basis for modern architecture that Mumford strongly advocated. Indeed, his writings have proved to be prescient, forming the basis for architecture and urban planning at a time of transition and redefinition at the end of the twentieth century.

Review: "...Mumford's intellectual formation and professional career, the development and the content of his thoughts about American architectural criticism, and urban development, and his involvement in various planning initiatives are clearly presented and quite clearly and pithily set in the context of contemporaneous events." Choice
"...readers may find entertainment and insight in this volume....it is broad in scope, chronologically organized, and clearly written, it touches upon a great many topics which are already of interest to many architectural historians and students of American culture." Joan Draper, Journal of the Society of Architectural History