Walter Gropius, the "grandfather" of steel and glass, conceived his architectural vision in the rubble of WWI and the decadence of Weimar in the decade after. His doctrine found fertile soil in America, where it was time to adopt a new architecture that expressed our now stronger than ever national identity. But Gropius' minimalist ideals were in stark contrast to the actual spirit of the times. Today, Americans look on their own architecture with furrowed brow.

In this engaging work of criticism founded on more than the sheer aesthetics of architecture, Tom Wolfe chronicles the trends of the form that ultimately brought us the ubiquitous and baffling "glass box" of modern commerce. In his hands, the strange saga of American architecture in the twentieth century becomes both high comedy and a fascinating journey through the social, political, and intellectual forces of the time.