The south Bronx
The book ends with a description of the South Bronx, where Berman grew up. He explores how it was transformed into a wasteland due to the building of the expressway. This innovative project destroyed entire boulevards and caused vast destruction to the area. The imagery used to describe the south Bronx emphasizes the destruction and negative impact that modern advancements can have. Berman argues that the destruction of this location was a direct result of “progression” and “modernity.” He argues that technology and modern advancements can create grim and ugly things if left unchecked.
Modernization in New York City
Berman describes the positive urban advancements made by Moses in New York City. He explores examples of where Moses has taken an area of industrial waste and turned it into something positive. For example, Berman says that "Moses' first great achievement, at the end of the 1920s, as the creation of a public space radically different from anything that had existed anywhere before: Jones Beach State Park". This beach was an immense, striking landscape that made great use of the space.
Modernity
Practical modernity within society or urban "progression" is depicted as being a double-edged sword. Berman uses the following quote to describe his argument:
“To be modern is to find ourselves in an environment that promises us adventure, power, joy, growth, transformation of ourselves and the world – and, at the same time that threatens to destroy everything we have, everything we know, everything we are.”
The imagery surrounding modernity is both positive and negative in the text, which represents its duality.
The Modernist
The Modernist artist is depicted as introverted, self-facing and pessimistic after the experiences of World War I. Although they had an impact on the way we think about modernity, Berman argues they were entirely separate from practical implementations of modernity within society. Ultimately, he argues that there is a separation between the literary and artistic movement of modernism and the practical implementation of socio-economic modernization. He says that there was an end to the "dialogue between modernism and modernization."
