Bridge Essay: The Emergence of Modernity

Does modernity emerge? And if so, when? How often? Where? This chapter addresses these fundamental questions about a term, modernity, that has variously been understood as a historical period, a type of historical event, a mindset or an attitude, a relative description, and an absolute one. It reviews both the history of modernity (the thing that the word “modernity” might refer to), the history of “modernity” (the term that names the thing), and the history of the various places, times, and people who have been considered modern or non-modern. It also looks at a series of other terms that circulate around modernity - perhaps most notably “classical,” “primitive,” and “postmodernity,” but also “modernism” and “modernization” - and the ways in which those terms both delimit and extend the meaning of the modern as a historical period.