Mary Conover Mellon Professor of Art Nicholas Adams discusses his new book: Gunnar Asplund's Gothenburg: The Transformation of Public Architecture in Interwar Europe (Penn State, 2014). "This brilliant book offers a unique insight into one of the most cherished models of modern monumentality: the Gothenburg Courthouse extension, designed by Swedish architect Gunnar Asplund and completed in 1936. Setting his subject in an international perspective, Nicholas Adams carefully addresses questions on modern law and modern architecture, reaching far beyond the actual case. Through his inclusively contextual approach, we learn that the introduction of modernism in public architecture was a difficult task, operating on different levels of a democratic society through the interplay of architect, commissioner, and—not least—public opinion." ~ Anders Bergstöm, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm.