--- - |2 We argue that the long‐term influence of actors in fields of cultural production depends on the opportunities for resource mobilization offered by external conditions combined with intense interaction among actors. Using a unique data set of 1,143 architects active between 1890 and 1940, at a time of large‐scale socioeconomic transformations and political disruption, we find by multiple regression analysis that exposure to industrialization and political upheaval, and halo effects in an architect's network of collaborators predict greater ultimate impact, while urbanization and professional affiliations do not. Theory of social movements and theory of cultural production thus have important implications for each other. - 'Sociological Forum, EarlyView. '