All That Is Solid Melts Into Air
The Experience of Modernity

Berman, Marshall

Publisher: Penguin, New York, USA
Year First Published: {18766 All That Is Solid Melts Into Air ALL THAT IS SOLID MELTS INTO AIR The Experience of Modernity Berman, Marshall Penguin New York USA Berman examines the clash of classes, histories, and clutures in the modern world, and ponders our prospects for coming to terms with the relationship between a liberating social and philosophical idealism and a complex, bureaucratic materialism. 1982 1988 384pp BC18766-AllThatisSolid.jpg B Book 0-14-010962-5 CB425.B458 909.82 In All that Solid Melts into Thin Air Berman confronts the central ambiguity of modernism, the attempt by men and women to become objects of modernization in order to understand the world and cultivate it into their home. Berman creates an open-ended dialogue with the reader such that he/she may include their own experiences as an extension of the three-phased history of modernism he outlines within the book. These three historical phases of modernity begin with the first phase ranging from the 16th century to the 18th century, when human civilization is still adapting to modern life. The dichotomous second phase beginning in the 1790s, when concepts of modernity materialized, is initially characterized by a revolutionary public. In the latter half, 19th century society becomes preoccupied with a nostalgic desire to gain knowledge about non-modern civilizations. Finally, with the last phase in the twentieth century, modernity as a process embraces the entire world, yet simultaneously becomes fragmented as society no longer relates to modern art and cultural forms in a useful manner. This is because too many distinct and contradictory ways of understanding modernity render it incapable of lending meaning to people's lives. Berman attempts to address this challenge of fragmentation, caused by the advent of post-modernism in the 70s, by proposing a reappropriation of the dialectical 19th century modernists. Consequently, we will reconnect the contradictory forces of modernist society; including disjointed geographical borders, identities and cultures; that present themselves as obstacles to understanding the modern world. Influenced by thinkers including Rousseau, Nietzsche, Marx, Baudelaire, Goethe and Kierkegaard, the initial three sections of the book examine the impact of works by modernist thinkers. In the first section we learn how Goethe's Faust expresses the modernist quest, whereas the second section questions if Marx's Communist Manifesto (the source for the book title) can account for the relationship between bourgeois economy and modernist culture. Next Berman discusses the importance of Baudelaire's art in providing nineteenth century society with an awareness of their modernity and modern art forms. In contrast, the final two sections of the book focus on geographical places that exemplify modernism. Therefore, section five discusses how Russia experienced economic underdevelopment in opposition to the West's growth. In particular, Berman examines how the imperial and cosmopolitan city of St. Petersburg is a source to explore modern life. The final section of the book illustrates how New York has simultaneously come to represent modernist ruin, modern life imagined and modern man's capacity to build. [Abstract by Amanpreet Dhami] Table of Contents Preface Introduction: Modernity-Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow I. Goethe's Faust: The Tragedy of Development First Metamorphosis: The Dreamer Second Metamorphosis: The Lover Third Metamorphosis: The Developer Epilogue: The Faustian and Pseudo-Faustian Age II. All That Is Solid Melts Into Air: Marx, Modernism and Modernization 1. The Melting Vision and Its Dialectic 2. Innovative Self-Destruction 3. Nakedness: The Unaccommodated Man 4. The Metamorphosis of Values 5. The Loss of a Halo Conclusion: Culture and the Contradictions of Capitalism III. Baudelaire: Modernism in the Streets 1. Pastoral and Counter-Pastoral Modernism 2. The Heroism of Modern Life 3. The Family of Eyes 4. The Mire of the Macadam 5. The Twentieth Century: The Halo and the Highway IV. Petersburg: The Modernism of Underdevelopment 1. The Real and Unreal City "Geometry Has Appeared": The City in the Swamps Pushkin's "Bronze Horseman": The Clerk and the Tsar Petersburg Under Nicholas I: Palace vs. Prospect Gogol: The Real and Surreal Street Words and Shoes: The Young Dostoevsky 2. The 1860's: The New Man in the Street Chernyshevsky: The Street as Frontier The Underground Man in the Street Petersburg vs. Paris:Two Modes of Modernism in the Streets The Political Prospect Afterword: The Crystal Palace, Fact and Symbol 3. The Twentieth Century: The City Rises, the City Fades 1905: More Light, More Shadows Biely's Petersburg: The Shadow Passport Mandelstam: The Blessed Word With No Meaning Conclusion V. In the Forest of Symbols: Some Notes on Modernism in New York 1. Robert Moses: The Expressway World 2. The 1960's: A Shout in the Street 3. The 1970's: Bringing It All Back Home Notes Index CX7770 1 true true false CX7770.htm [0xc0010ff9e0 0xc001523b90 0xc00153a180 0xc0022b8630 0xc0022e31a0 0xc0001a4480 0xc000c42f90 0xc0024760c0 0xc002477800 0xc00029f7d0 0xc00045fe60 0xc000472570 0xc0004f9980 0xc00053a3c0 0xc00053b710 0xc00013e240 0xc00074c7e0 0xc0008e68a0 0xc000abbf20 0xc0008abad0 0xc0008d05d0 0xc000ecf110 0xc00053ec60 0xc0001ed470 0xc000220420 0xc0004f5230 0xc000553d70 0xc001274450 0xc001274510 0xc001274600 0xc001274840 0xc0019f3e00 0xc001a1c300 0xc001ad87b0 0xc001bb0780 0xc000381f20 0xc00041ea80 0xc00133e4b0 0xc0013bc0f0 0xc0023cec60 0xc0024df770 0xc0021dbe00 0xc00033f7d0 0xc000421170 0xc000457e30 0xc000535620 0xc00112c780 0xc00138f230 0xc00138f3e0 0xc001f72a50 0xc002136510 0xc00273ffb0 0xc0027697d0] Cx}
Year Published: 1988
Pages: 384pp ISBN: 0-14-010962-5
Library of Congress Number: CB425.B458 Dewey: 909.82
Resource Type: Book
Cx Number: CX7770

Berman examines the clash of classes, histories, and clutures in the modern world, and ponders our prospects for coming to terms with the relationship between a liberating social and philosophical idealism and a complex, bureaucratic materialism.

Abstract:
In All that Solid Melts into Thin Air Berman confronts the central ambiguity of modernism, the attempt by men and women to become objects of modernization in order to understand the world and cultivate it into their home. Berman creates an open-ended dialogue with the reader such that he/she may include their own experiences as an extension of the three-phased history of modernism he outlines within the book. These three historical phases of modernity begin with the first phase ranging from the 16th century to the 18th century, when human civilization is still adapting to modern life. The dichotomous second phase beginning in the 1790s, when concepts of modernity materialized, is initially characterized by a revolutionary public. In the latter half, 19th century society becomes preoccupied with a nostalgic desire to gain knowledge about non-modern civilizations. Finally, with the last phase in the twentieth century, modernity as a process embraces the entire world, yet simultaneously becomes fragmented as society no longer relates to modern art and cultural forms in a useful manner. This is because too many distinct and contradictory ways of understanding modernity render it incapable of lending meaning to people's lives. Berman attempts to address this challenge of fragmentation, caused by the advent of post-modernism in the 70s, by proposing a reappropriation of the dialectical 19th century modernists. Consequently, we will reconnect the contradictory forces of modernist society; including disjointed geographical borders, identities and cultures; that present themselves as obstacles to understanding the modern world.

Influenced by thinkers including Rousseau, Nietzsche, Marx, Baudelaire, Goethe and Kierkegaard, the initial three sections of the book examine the impact of works by modernist thinkers. In the first section we learn how Goethe's Faust expresses the modernist quest, whereas the second section questions if Marx's Communist Manifesto (the source for the book title) can account for the relationship between bourgeois economy and modernist culture. Next Berman discusses the importance of Baudelaire's art in providing nineteenth century society with an awareness of their modernity and modern art forms. In contrast, the final two sections of the book focus on geographical places that exemplify modernism. Therefore, section five discusses how Russia experienced economic underdevelopment in opposition to the West's growth. In particular, Berman examines how the imperial and cosmopolitan city of St. Petersburg is a source to explore modern life. The final section of the book illustrates how New York has simultaneously come to represent modernist ruin, modern life imagined and modern man's capacity to build.

[Abstract by Amanpreet Dhami]

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction: Modernity-Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

I. Goethe's Faust: The Tragedy of Development
First Metamorphosis: The Dreamer
Second Metamorphosis: The Lover
Third Metamorphosis: The Developer
Epilogue: The Faustian and Pseudo-Faustian Age

II. All That Is Solid Melts Into Air: Marx, Modernism and Modernization
1. The Melting Vision and Its Dialectic
2. Innovative Self-Destruction
3. Nakedness: The Unaccommodated Man
4. The Metamorphosis of Values
5. The Loss of a Halo
Conclusion: Culture and the Contradictions of Capitalism

III. Baudelaire: Modernism in the Streets
1. Pastoral and Counter-Pastoral Modernism
2. The Heroism of Modern Life
3. The Family of Eyes
4. The Mire of the Macadam
5. The Twentieth Century: The Halo and the Highway

IV. Petersburg: The Modernism of Underdevelopment
1. The Real and Unreal City
"Geometry Has Appeared": The City in the Swamps
Pushkin's "Bronze Horseman": The Clerk and the Tsar
Petersburg Under Nicholas I: Palace vs. Prospect
Gogol: The Real and Surreal Street
Words and Shoes: The Young Dostoevsky
2. The 1860's: The New Man in the Street
Chernyshevsky: The Street as Frontier
The Underground Man in the Street
Petersburg vs. Paris:Two Modes of Modernism in the Streets
The Political Prospect
Afterword: The Crystal Palace, Fact and Symbol
3. The Twentieth Century: The City Rises, the City Fades
1905: More Light, More Shadows
Biely's Petersburg: The Shadow Passport
Mandelstam: The Blessed Word With No Meaning
Conclusion

V. In the Forest of Symbols: Some Notes on Modernism in New York
1. Robert Moses: The Expressway World
2. The 1960's: A Shout in the Street
3. The 1970's: Bringing It All Back Home

Notes
Index

All That Is Solid Melts Into AirThe Experience of Modernity

Subject Headings

All That Is Solid Melts Into Air
The Experience of Modernity