Britain's Battle To Go Modern: Confronting Architectural Modernisms, 1900-1925

Historians traditionally have summarised Britain's road to modernism by highlighting exclusive residences and era-defining commercial buildings constructed from the late 1920s through 1939. While cautious to embrace "the new", Britain arrived eventually only to have its momentum stymied by World War II. This book attempts to correct this oversimplification by offering a social and cultural history of how the architectural profession-a small but important segment of British society-grappled with the cultural changes brought by modernisms in the early 20th century. Steven's research begins at the beginning of the 20th century in order to uncover the complexities of why it took almost a quarter century for architects and many in society to think seriously about "going modern"-a movement many were made aware of only when new art canvases from Europe reached home shores in 1910. This fractious and combative relationship offers additional insights into why immediately after the Great War the architectural profession and society found difficulty accepting the permanency of modernisms. Prolific discussions continued until the shared embarrassment of the British pavilion at the 1925 Exposition des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris became a catalyst for change.