From the seventeenth century until today, the "modern" has served as a key category by which to understand an ever-changing present. Art and architecture have played a key role in this pursuit, as the means by which "the modern" was to manifest itself. The essays in this new anthology trace the modern project through its multifarious manifestation in order to understand contemporary culture in a deeper sense than discussions of "modernism" and "post modernism" usually offer. Drawng on architectural and urban history as well as philosophy and sociology, the book outlines the complex and conflicting roots of modernity by tracing its manifestations in architecture and the city.