Preface to Modernism

Berman traces the conceptual lineage of modernism, examining its evolution in Western art and literature through empiricism, idealism, and romanticism. Using modernist literary and visual movements as examples, Berman demonstrates how modern social, political, and scientific developments--including capitalism, socialism, humanism, psychoanalysis, fascism, and modernism itself--have altered attitudes toward time, space, self, creativity, the natural world, and community.