Articulates the significance of early Middle Eastern civilization in the construction of American modernity.

Early Civilization and the American Modern explores how the teleological narrative that civilization and its benefits—science, law, writing, art, and architecture—began in Egypt and Mesopotamia addressed anxieties about the United States’ unique role in the long march of progress. To tackle this phenomenon, author Eva Miller highlights central collaborators of the creation of progressive visual narratives in key institutions, world’s fairs, and popular media such as Orientalist James Henry Breasted, astronomer George Ellery Hale, architect Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue, and decorative artists Lee Lawrie and Hildreth Meière.