All That is Solid Melts Into Air is an academic text that was written by Marshall Berman. It was crafted between the years 1971 and 1981, and it was published in 1982 in New York City. The majority of the book looks at the sometimes incompatible relationship between modernism and the modernization of the social and economic facets of today's world. The title of the text is directly drawn from the manifesto authored by Karl Mark and Friedrich Engels entitled Communist Manifesto.
Throughout the book, Berman uses a number of texts to support his claims. In one section, he uses Faust, but Goethe, shows characteristics of modernization, including developing, loving, and dreaming, in a work of literature. In another, he selects a swath of Marxist texts as a vehicle to look at the self-destructive characteristics of modernization. In two other sections, a variety of writings are shown to be examples of modernist writings, including French poetry (especially that of Baudelaire) and a wide range of Russian literature (including works by Pushkin, Dostoyevsky, Bely, Gogol, and Mandelstam, among others). The book also, in the conclusion, makes some comments on the modernism in New York City in the 1960s and 1970s.
Even today, All That is Solid Melts Into Air is widely thought to be one of the greatest books on the modernism of all time. The book looks closely at some of the dramatic social changes that modernism caused for the lives of millions of people, and by delving into the analysis of numerous literary works, it offers one of the most comprehensive analyses of modernity that has been crafted to date. The text not only looks at the effects of modernism but also takes a closer look at the effects of modernization on the individual. As Berman notes, many people were met with feelings of alienation and disconnect from society, which often resulted in feelings of hopelessness and despair. He argues that the feelings of alienation were caused by the rapid changes that occurred during this period, which caused a loss of traditional values. In addition to looking at the effects of modernization on the individual, Berman also looks at the effects of modernization on the community, as it caused a loss of social cohesion. He notes that this loss of social cohesion led to an increase in inequality as well as a decrease in the quality of life for many people.
