Beauty and Power Global Design 1840-1914

<p><em>Beauty and Power</em> serves as an accessible general introduction to the origins</p><p>of modern design and an original contribution to understanding the</p><p>role that cross-cultural processes have played in design's history. How did</p><p>modern design in its origins begin to transform lives globally? This is the</p><p>first history of the origins of modern design intended for general readers</p><p>to discuss examples from Africa Asia and the Islamic World. <em>Beauty and</em></p><p><em>Power</em> not only accounts for cross-cultural sources and effects it supports</p><p>their centrality to the growth of modern design. </p><p><br></p><p>National competitiveness in this age of empire forms the basis of emerging global design.</p><p>Throughout the period and in all its cultural contexts a focus on the</p><p>display of wealth and power through ornament helped distinguish social</p><p>classes. Increasingly citizens in the West borrowed ornamental motifs</p><p>from non-Western cultures and the reverse was also true. While this book</p><p>presents these visual aspects of design it also seeks the meanings associated</p><p>with the visual traits. Increasingly those meanings emerged out of the</p><p>economic interaction between members of different nations.</p>