The author proposes to look at modernism taking into account Dzthe differential historical temporality in which it was inscribed.dz He suggests a conjunctural explanation to understand modernist practices which will imply an intersection of different historical temporalities, and says that modernism can be best understood Dzas a cultural field of force triangulated by three decisive coordinatesdz: 1) Academicism under the Old Regime, 2) modernization led by the second industrialrevolution (Communications, travel, etc), 3) a time of transition and anxiety as tradition gave way to modernity. It was WWII not the first that destroyed the three coordinates outlined by Anderson cutting also the vitality of modernism. After WWII the old aristocratic and agrarian system collapsed and bourgeois democracy universalized. After that Anderson argues, nothing worthwhile was produced except Abstract Expressionism which he calls the last genuine Avant Garde in the West. His study is an analysis of Marshall Bermanǯs Old That is Solid Melts into Air. (F.M.).