This book is a study of the beginnings of the modernist tradition in American culture, with special emphasis on the interchange of Americans with modernism in Europe. The first section discusses American precursors of modernism including Whistler, William and Henry James, and James Gibbons Huneker. There is a section on the influence of specific US cities on modernism. The final section concentrates on the interaction of Americans in European culture, first in London (with emphasis on Ezra Pound), Paris (the photographer Edward Steichen and the Stein family), and finally New York (the salon scene and the 1913 Armory Show of modern art).