Inner Uncertainty

Wright began work at the very moment when American architecture was undermined by the most dangerous reaction since the time of its origin.  The classic and Gothic fashions which in those years overwhelmed the constituent facts of American architecture had, of course, nothing to do with tradition.  They mean nothing more than the giving of an artificial backbone to people who were weak in their emotional structure.  Behind the screens of their houses - miniature Versailles, Tuscan villa, or medieval manor - or their skyscrapers in sacred Gothic shapes, these people could hide their inner uncertainty.  This had its deplorable consequences for the profession of architecture.  The architect who wished to live by his profession had to conform to the vogue or give up.

- Sigfried Giedion, Space, Time and Architecture, p. 425.