In this text, Berman offers a compelling exploration of modernity and life in the modern world. Berman’s text is full of ideas concerning modernity, and how it functions. He also regularly questions whether it is a good thing, drawing on historical, literary and personal examples to illustrate his arguments. He defines modernity in the following passage:
"There is a mode of vital experience -- experience of space and time, of the self and others, of life's possibilities and perils -- that is shared by men and women all over the world today. I will call this body of experience "modernity."
Berman draws upon some landmark literary texts in order to illustrate his argument. This includes an exploration of Faust and its relationship to modern technology. Berman also looks at Marxist texts, Russian literature and French poetry in his assessment of modernity. Overall, Berman argues that socio-economic modernization in a practical sense is not compatible with the artistic modernist movement. Despite this, literature has had a great impact on our understanding of what modernity is, and how it functions.
At the end of the text, Berman includes an interesting personal account of his experiences of modernism in New York. He criticizes some aspect of modernism, showing that it reveals that some people's lives in society are prioritized above others. However, throughout the text, Berman maintains that modernist has the possibility to create exciting and joyous changes and advocates embracing the adventure of modernity.
Ultimately, the concept of modernity is a complex and difficult one. The author shows how acts of urban "modernity" can be both negative and positive. However, he does believe that humans can successfully adapt if they are open to the ever-changing nature of modernity:
"I believe that we and those who come after us will go on fighting to make ourselves at home in this world, even as the homes we have made, the modern street, the modern spirit, go melting into air."
