Fischer's book, translated cleanly by Anna Bostock, addresses art from the levels of medium, message and magic. Thought-provoking and influential, _The Necessity of Art_ is also quite readable and not at all dogmatic. Book is divided into five sections:

The function of art
The origins of art
Art and capitalism
Content and form
The loss and discovery of reality

Perhaps the most-quoted passages come from "content and form", which was indeed for me the most interesting section of the book. Form as solidified social experience fits into his analysis extremely well and the idea is developed here in a fascinating manner.

This book reminded me of the biographies on Roberto Clemente and Teddy Roosevelt that I used to pick up in elementary school, but with slightly more technical subject matter. There are some interesting stories about Delbruck's life and discoveries, but these are written in a juvenile manner and the book does not live up to its title - very little discussion of the impact of molecular biology on other scientific fields or society in general is provided. The important experiments of Delbruck, Luria, and others are also described poorly. There are much better books on the origins of molecular biology. For some fun, hagiographic info on Delbruck this might work - for anything more, it won't.