Tom Benton could have been a great writer if he hadn't have made such an important name for himself as a Regionialist painter. This book describes, in a passionate honesty, Benton's beliefs on Art and life. Anyone who wants to learn more about the man behind the irrascible myth should read this book!

The subject that Matthew Baigell deals with so thoroughly in this book is avoided too often. For anyone looking for a new perspective on the Holocaust, this book is very satisfying. Baigell's research is both revealing and sensitive to the emotions surrounding the horror of the Holocaust. The only downfall of the book is that the artwork within was not reproduced in full color. I would especially encourage educators to examine this book for its curriculum possibilities.

Baigell's volume is in many ways an important text. Well written, the work is not a comprehensive history of 20th century art; rather it is a series of targeted essays drawn together by similar means of analysis and a range of related themes explored in the different essays.

Baigell's larger purpose is to explore themes of identity relations and formations within the sphere of American art. While not concerned with the Cold War as such, his study has the advantage of not historically reifying the post-1945 period, forcing an a priori break in the historical narrative where one may not exist. In fact, one of the great strengths of this book is it explores the development of similar themes throughout the 20th century--- such as nationalism, the question of American identity, and the upwelling of what Baigell calls the Emersonian spirit of values and value creation. Not only are these important questions addressed, but they are also addressed in a way that overcomes the temptation to mark 1945 as some kind of fixed historical boundary for art history---which is far too often the case in art history.

Baigell is able to go about his task because of two very important assumptions within his method. First, Baigell refuses to consider "art" as an autonomous, hermetically sealed space of investigation appropriate only to aesthetic investigation. In fact, Baigell's method of criticism places art as a form of "cultural artifact," perhaps even cultural production. Also, Baigell is willing to admit in his analysis material written and spoken by the artist about the works of his paintings (very few women are considered in this study), but refuses to let his interpretation and analysis of the works be circumscribed by the artist's interpretation.

As I stated earlier, Baigell is mainly concerned with two overall themes, the fist being a search for "American-ness" and the relation of this search to questions of nationalism, ethnicity, religiosity, and political ideology. To this end he explores the left-wing nationalism of Thomas Hart Benton and Grant Wood, the anti-war critique offered by Robert Morris, black liberation as seen by John Stewart Curry, Jewishness in the works of Ben Shahn and Barnett Newman, and the optimistic spirit of benevolent capitalism as painted by Charles Sheeler. The other main theme, termed the Emersonian spirit, finds a home in an analysis of Jackson Pollack and other Abstract Expressionists, as well as the Stieglitz circle of American Landscape painting and Walt Whitman's influence on early 20th century art. In documenting these themes and concerns, Baigell is quite successful.

Overall, when understood as a series of targeted studies, the essays in this book are more successful. While Baigell seems to draw towards the same themes in many different essays, he is careful to point out that his essays are not meant to be exhaustive, and simply meant to illuminate two important facets of American culture as exhibited in these works. As for his essays themselves, they are best understood as mostly essays of correlation'drawing out themes in painting and art, rather than proving specific influences from theorist to artist. As such, his essays do not in general make strong, definitive claims. They set rather low goals as a rule, and don't have too much trouble achieving them. That in itself is not a criticism--just a reflection on the sort of work Baigell was trying to establish here at this time and place.

Baigell's work does have some problems though. In several essays he forages farther away from the influence of American intellectual history on painting, and offers explanations of artistic influence from Jewish mysticism, Zen Buddhism, and Freudian psychoanalysis. While provocative, these essays are the least successful of all, for it is clear that Baigell tends towards oversimplification of these other very complex areas of culture.

In short, Baigell is at his best in the connections between Art-ifacts and American intellectual history-- less so in other areas. Hopefully we can learn from not only Baigell's successes in this book, but also his shortcomings.

The huge colored cover led me to believe the book would be filled with likewise large color plates. Not so... most of the pictures are around 8" x 5" with the rest of the page left blank. Each picture has the history behind it which is great. Just wish the pictures themselves had been larger.