“All That Is Solid Melts into Air”

Several years ago I began a study of modernity. I meant to explore both the history of ideas—such ideas as “modern times,” “modern society,” “the modern predicament,” and so on—and the human realities that these ideas were meant to grasp. I found that two large bodies of thought and discussion about modernity have appeared in the last 20 years, organized around two separate and distinct ideas: Modernization and Modernism.

“Modernization” has come to signify a complex of social, economic, and political processes: sustained economic development, industrial expansion, urban growth, bureaucratic regulation and rationality, mass media, mass participation in politics—including at least the pretense of democracy—large-scale social planning, shattering of traditional cultures and forms of life, continuous pressure to raise productivity and make progress. “Modernism” has come to denote a family of artistic and intelle...