Modern Americanness

Tracing the development and evolution of graphic design in the United States and its inextricable ties to American culture and visual identity

Venturing across five decades of American culture, this landmark book explores how modern graphic design emerged in the United States and how it became an intrinsic feature of the country's identity. Author and design professor Christopher Long tells this story in a wholly new way, exposing many long-forgotten figures and movements and resurrecting the debates and conceptions that were integral to the new art. In a series of deeply involving portraits of American artists and innovators who helped shape the very look of the modern age, Modern Americannesss offers a sweeping story of the country's visual culture and its distinctiveness across a variety of designed objects: magazine covers, food labels, event posters, chapbooks, advertisements, propaganda and much more.

Christopher Long is the Martin S. Kermacy Centennial Professor in the School of Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin.