Art, Form, and Civilization

Western civilization is grappling with a profound crisis of unity and meaning, as analytical methods and intense specialization have fragmented knowledge and severed its connection to the holistic purpose of life: enabling humanity to embrace existence more fully. In this fragmented state, man is compartmentalized into roles such as economic, political, scientific, or philosophical beings, losing the harmony of a unified self that relates to others, nature, and the divine. This compartmentalization has led to disillusionment, as the optimism of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries has given way to the grim realities of economic depression, devastating wars, and societal disintegration. Thinkers like Lewis Mumford, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Erich Kahler argue for a return to integration—a recognition of the essential oneness of all life—as the only path forward. Art, with its unique ability to bridge divides and foster unification, is poised to play a critical role in this process, as it has in the past. This belief underpins the ideas in this book, which acknowledges the contributions of figures like Hans Poelzig and Cecilia Odefey Mundt, whose insights into art and civilization have guided its creation. Through art's potential to reconcile fragmented disciplines and inspire a more unified humanity, this work offers hope for a new synthesis capable of transcending the crises of modernity.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1952.