Constitutional Modernism: Architecture and Civil Society in the Cuban Republic, 1933-1959 examines the development of architecture, planning, and law as cultural forces in Cuba between 1933 and 1959. It shows that architects were, along with other professionals and intellectuals, participants in the attempt to establish a stable civil society through the promulgation of a new Cuban constitution in 1940. The book argues that constitutionalism, as a shared discursive mode, was elaborated through architectural concepts and practices as well as legal ones, and offers a new view of architectural modernism as a political and social instrument.

Timothy Hyde is assistant professor of architecture at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, where he teaches courses in history and theory and serves as area coordinator for the history and philosophy of design concentration of the graduate design studies degree. His research focuses on modern architecture and culture, and his writings range from a genealogy of mat-building, to a précis of the work of John Johansen, to an explication of Reyner Banham's concept of the gizmo. He is currently pursuing an extended study of entanglements between architecture and law, research that includes his book project A Constitutional Modernism: Architecture and Civil Society in Republican Cuba, as well as his essay, "Some Evidence of Libel, Criticism, and Publicity in the Architectural Career of Sir John Soane," published in Perspecta. He received his BA from Yale University, MArch from Princeton University, and PhD from Harvard University.