Death Before Sentencing
Making a case for substantial prison reform, this week's review examines the lack of accountability American county and local jail systems take for the avoidable deaths of detainees.
Posted on in Review of the Week
Posted on May 8, 2017 in Review of the Week
ed. by Judith A. Barter; with essays by Judith A. Barter et al Art Institute of Chicago, 2016
201p bibl index, 9780300214857 $50.00, 9780865592827 $30.00
Historians of American art routinely tease out stylistic and thematic qualities that identify Americanness in the art they study. The Art Institute of Chicago offers seven essays that explore the 1930s as a decade of diversity, when debates and struggles over style and content made their way onto local stages and into federal work projects. The contributors unfurl complexities of the moment: competing politics and aesthetic philosophies, underdogs and power structures, disparate sources, iconography, intentions. In addition, they reveal many “uniquely American” artworks originally endorsed as inheritors of European traditions. The title’s “fall” refers to economic circumstances—the stock market crash and ensuing Great Depression. Artistic directions expressed the nation’s social, economic, and historical realities and multiple ideological identities. One essay examines figurative painting of the misshapen, ill-fortuned, and chaotic in American society, here understood as having affinities with Daumier, Goya, and burgeoning popular culture. Another argues that modernist art was defended as a crucial barometer of advances in US society. The author rightly foregrounds the clearly articulated writings of Stuart Davis, who deemed abstract art an agent influencing contemporary life. Produced for an international exhibition, this significant volume considers issues that resonate for contemporary scholars and public alike.
Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.
Reviewer: A. Schoenfeld, Pratt Institute
Subject: Humanities – Art & Architecture – Fine Arts
Choice Issue: Dec 2016
Making a case for substantial prison reform, this week's review examines the lack of accountability American county and local jail systems take for the avoidable deaths of detainees.
Posted on in Review of the Week
To commemorate National Hispanic Heritage Month, this week's review analyzes the community-building and activist practices Mexican and Puerto Rican migrants employed in 20th-century Michigan.
Posted on in Review of the Week
This week's review offers a roadmap for teaching contemporary US history, providing instructors with tips to tackle recent divisive topics and engage students with primary sources.
Posted on in Review of the Week
Researching the experiences of day laborers in Denver, Colorado, this week's review examines wage theft and nefarious labor practices that reflect broader systemic labor issues in the US.
Posted on in Review of the Week