Inventing Modern: Growing up with X-Rays, Skyscrapers, and Tailfins

This is as much memoir as history, and works surprisingly well as both. While not offering a formal definition, Lienhard's take on the spirit of "modern" is largely that of boyish high adventure and daring intersecting with the cutting edge technology of the first half the 20th century. When two world wars and atomic weapons destroyed the adventure of it all, and replaced it with fear, then the alienation often associated with modernity begins for the author, with the question next being when will our culture regain its confidence.