Lewis Mumford and American Modernism

Lewis Mumford and American Modernism examines the career and writings of America's leading critic of architecture and criticism. The author of numerous books and articles and regular columnist for the New Yorker, Mumford focused on the roles that architecture, technology, and urbanism play in modern civilization. Although a key figure in the introduction of European ideas to the United States, he sought an American basis for modern architecture.

Mumford was one of the first to write appreciatively of the achievements of the Chicago School, and he was a fervent supporter of Frank Lloyd Wright, whose buildings embodied the organic qualities that Mumford admired. Indeed, Mumford's writings have proved to be prescient, posing many challenging questions for architects and planners in a period of transition at the end of the twentieth century.