A Brief Survey of Modern Design History
Edition: 2
Copyright: 2021
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$63.82 USD
A Brief Survey of Modern Design History covers the mid-19th century to the present day, with special emphasis on visual language, thematic connections, and socio-cultural implications. Students increase their visual literacy while learning to recognize inherent references to the cultural climate that informed various design objects and styles. This text includes an extensive bibliography with carefully curated resources for further research.
Section 1: 1850-1910
Significant Events for Cultural Context:
ca. 1760-1914 First and Second Industrial Revolutions, U.K./U.S./Germany
1848 Women’s Suffrage Movement begins, New York
1851 The Great Exhibition, London
1853-1856 Crimean War (Russian defeat)
1854 Treaty of Kanagawa: Japan opens borders for trading with U.S.
1861 Emancipation of Russian serfs
1865 13th Amendment to U.S. Constitution (ends slavery)
1868 Meiji Restoration, Japan
1883 War between Ndebele and Boers, Southern Africa
1904-1905 Russo-Japanese war
Section 2: 1910-1950
Significant Events for Cultural Context:
1910-1945 Japanese Korea (Korea under Japanese rule)
1914-1918 WWI
1917 Russian Revolution
1918-1921 Russian Civil War
1920 19th Amendment to U.S. Constitution (women gain the right to vote)
1923 Great Kantō earthquake, Japan
1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts, Paris
1929-1930s The Great Depression
1933 Chicago World’s Fair (“Century of Progress”)
1939-1945 WWII
Section 3: 1950-2000
Significant Events for Cultural Context:
1947-1991 Cold War
1950-1953 Korean War
1954-1968 Civil Rights Movement
1955-1975 Vietnam War
1955-1975 “Space Race” (USSR/USA)
1959 Boycott Movement (later called Anti-Apartheid Movement), England
1964-1973 Opposition to U.S. Involvement in the Vietnam War
1960s-80s Women’s Liberation Movement
1960s-70s Chicano Movement
1968 American Indian Movement founded
1968 “May 68” (Student and Worker Protests), France
1969-1980 Gay Liberation Movement
1970 Earth Day established
1973 Oil Crisis
1990 World Wide Web invented
1990-1991 Gulf War
1991 Dissolution of the Soviet Union
1993 Apartheid ended, South Africa
Section 4: The 21st Century
Significant Events for Cultural Context:
2001 Terrorist attacks (“9/11”), New York/Washington D.C.
2001 War in Afghanistan begins
2003-2011 Iraq War
2004 Facebook launched
2005 YouTube launched
2006 Twitter launched
2007-2009 Great Recession
2012 Central African Republic Civil War begins
2013 Black Lives Matter Movement begins
2020 COVID-19 Pandemic begins
Sarina Miller teaches and develops art and design history courses with an emphasis on visual literacy, cultural context, and the incorporation of interdisciplinary aspects. Some of her current research interests include cinematic design and the cross-cultural artistic influences between Japan and the West from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century. She holds a master’s degree in art history from Temple University.