Mass Culture at Mid-Century

Karl Marx has given the concept of progress a unique interpretation which, I think, is not without influence on architectural practice. It would be proper, perhaps, to call this influence subconscious. The arts, said Marx, are determined in each era by the means of production specific to each era; and he gave to mechanized industry a high rank among those successive heavens to which man ascends through economic ameliorations. Thus, our art advances toward that supreme excellence in which architecture will become a form of industrial design.