This new account of international modernism explores the complex motivations behind this revolutionary movement & assesses its triumphs & failures The work of the main architects of the movement such as Frank Lloyd Wright Adolf Loos Le Corbusier & Mies van der Rohe is re-examined shedding new light on their roles as acknowledged masters Alan Colquhoun explores the evolution of the movement fron Art Nouveau in the 1890s to the megastructures of the 1960s revealing the often contradictory demands of form function social engagement modernity & tradition