This overview of the history of architecture from the mid-nineteenth century through World War II places modern architecture’s evolution into global perspective, taking into account not just transformations in architectural aesthetics and building practices around the world but also the broader sociopolitical, economic, technological, environmental, and intellectual forces that influenced them . We consider changing modes of production and reception, disciplinary and institutional innovations, animating debates, and global interdependencies and interchanges . Going well beyond iconic buildings and canonical “isms,” we pose the following questions: In what ways did the new architecture of the period respond to, participate in, and mediate the unprecedented experiences of modernizing societies? How did urban and environmental crises, colonial enterprises and devastating wars, national and international agendas, social changes, and technological advances affect architects’ understanding of the spaces they were called upon to design? How, in turn, did buildings and projects reflect different societies’ self-images and aspirations to become modern? What can architecture’s manifestations over the course of this formative period tell us about the emergent modern world? In attempting to answer these questions, we take note of shifting historiographic paradigms and reflect on the genealogical relationship and relevance of this epoch to architectural thought and practice today.
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