When Nikolaus Pevsner first wrote this book, architecture had just come through a very radical transition. Architects were very heavily into the Modern way of life every where surrounded by machines and industrial man made objects. Architecture though had also lost its roots. There was a sense of distance with the past. The architects cry in the mid 1930s was to loosen the chains that had previously bound the designer to an eclectic façade. Modernism had stripped away the symbolism that was individualistic and culturally bound. But there was a new symbolism, one which sang in harmony with the time.

Starting with the prints of William Morris, Nikolaus Pevsner articulates the broad influence that the arts and crafts had on many parts of Europe and the United States. In Europe, the impressionist paintings of Monet, Cézanne, and Rousseau gave a rise to a new dimension in art. One which was to be introduced into the world of architecture by Antonio Gaudi in Spain. However the industrial revolution was also leaving its impression upon more outwardly reaching architects which manifested in the works of August Perret, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and F.L. Wright. The object of everyday use also became target for the designer to enhance and remake as the needs of the time demanded. C.F.  This was a time when architects and designers had grown tired of the elaborate decorative tradition and yearned for something less complex, less frazzled, and more reflective of their time.

The Great Exhibition is another milestone for Pevsner. Technical advances were on display, but here the advance in industry had meant a lapse in all shape and form, the machine was trying to imitate and reproduce art and had failed. The exhibition did not live up to the expectation and proved only to show a loss of craftsmanship. The neobaroque style failed to reach Britain as it did the other parts of the world, as Britain architecture followed a different path.

Pevsner relates not only to architecture but also to all movements in art through his period of concern. New ideals in painting were coming from the continent. Just as William Morris dreamed of a medieval revival, leading artists including Cézanne and Gaugin wanted a new style without a return to period decoration and superficial beauty, but the inspiration of nature and simple geometry, strong colors and primitive shapes. The main idea was to produce art not for arts sake but for personal reasons, expression of pattern and passion. Literature followed a similar transformation. With all of artistic movements symbolism was the key and this was in some cases a weakness and in others a strength. The strong and self-disciplined led to fulfillment and the Modern Movement of the twentieth century, while the weak and self-indulgent led to the blind alley of Art Nouveau.

The use of new materials has a large part to play in Pevsners account of the development of the Modern Movement. In the 1860s iron was being used structurally in the majority of buildings but its use on the façade was almost unheard of. The realization of irons beauty probably came about with the construction of iron bridges. The beauty of the Clifton Suspension bridge, asks Pevsner, could surely not have been coincidental? Iron Construction was a new era of architectural design, not witnessed since the building of Amiens, Beauvais, and Cologne.  

Nashs Brighton Pavilion is a masterpiece and the first use of exposed iron in a royal residence. Conservatories were being designed using such methods and the Crystal Palace became the most outstanding example of nineteenth century glass and iron architecture. Architecture and engineering met at railway stations claims Pevsner; consequently people came to see bridges, conservatories, and stations as a new kind of architecture. Viollet-Le-Duc was probably irons staunchest promoter calling for people to embrace manufacturing advances and not hide architecture in the past.

From the 1890s steel was taking irons place and from then on the most advanced architectural thoughts included steel, the innovation being the skyscraper.

Pevsners account is enlightening, and well written. It is highlighted and expanded by 150 images displaying the transformation of which Pevsner writes. These images in themselves show the development of the new style. The book plots the historical period well with many examples and reverences to other subsidiary movements, which were affected by similar changes during the time. Pevsner puts over his argument clearly which makes it easy to read and be absorbed by. The structure of each chapter is well planned with the consideration of each factor which helped, or hindered the innovations of the Modern Movement. The book is