Modernity

What is the secret of the reliance of cultures to this degree on mythical illusions related to the past? And what is the actual way in which humans think when they do not speak? And how are high culture and low culture each connected to the other? And why do we need what is "progressive" and "new"? This book from the series "A Very Short Introduction" tells the story of "modernity" across various aesthetic and cultural fields, and sheds light on modern ideas related to the self, subjectivity, irrationality, and machines, as well as presenting many innovations and renewals contributed by modern thinkers and artists, clarifying how influential modern ideas gave rise to new forms of music, painting, and literature; which illuminated all aspects of life in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.