Beauty and Power, Global Design, 1840-1914

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Beauty and Power serves as an accessible general introduction to the origins

of modern design and an original contribution to understanding the

role that cross-cultural processes have played in design's history. How did

modern design in its origins begin to transform lives globally? This is the

first history of the origins of modern design intended for general readers

to discuss examples from Africa, Asia, and the Islamic World. Beauty and

Power not only accounts for cross-cultural sources and effects, it supports

their centrality to the growth of modern design.

National competitiveness in this age of empire forms the basis of emerging global design.

Throughout the period and in all its cultural contexts, a focus on the

display of wealth and power through ornament helped distinguish social

classes. Increasingly, citizens in the West borrowed ornamental motifs

from non-Western cultures and the reverse was also true. While this book

presents these visual aspects of design, it also seeks the meanings associated

with the visual traits. Increasingly, those meanings emerged out of the

economic interaction between members of different nations.