Brushes with History: Writing on Art from the Nation, 1865-2001

Beginning with some 1865 articles about P.T. Barnum's American Museum and finishing up with an Arthur Danto piece on Damien Hirst from 2000, Brushes with History: Art of The Nation, 1865-2001 offers an abundance of taste-making art criticism from one of the country's oldest lefty magazines. Edited by Peter G. Meyer director of the Public Works Project, ""a non-profit organization that produces protest art for public interest organizations"" the compilation includes salvos from Henry James, Marsden Hartley, Alfred Stieglitz, Meyer Shapiro, Clement Greenberg, Marianne Moore and Max Kozloff, all the way up to current contributors Christopher Hitchens and Katha Pollitt, in a virtual overview of American popular art criticism. (Oct.)