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In this lively narrative, award-winning author Michael Kammen presents a fascinating analysis of cutting-edge art and artists and their unique ability to both delight and provoke us. He illuminates America's obsession with public memorials and the changing role of art and museums in our society. From Thomas Eakins's 1875 masterpiece The Gross Clinic, (considered "too big, bold, and gory" when first exhibited) to the bitter disputes about Maya Lin's Vietnam War Memorial, this is an eye-opening account of American art and the battles and controversies that it has ignited.From the Trade Paperback edition.

This article examines some of the major ways in which American history has been written, revised, and reinterpreted from partisan perspectives and for political purposes. It takes note of the Revolutionary founders' concerns about the ways in which their pivotal era (1765-1789) was likely to be misunderstood or distorted; how several of the most central events in the national narrative, such as the sectional conflict and Civil War, came to be misremembered for politically self-serving reasons; how presidents have misread or misrepresented American and international history to justify their policies; how the Supreme Court (and lower courts) has used history selectively to achieve outcomes (often desirable) that the justices felt were necessary; and finally, how the so-called culture wars of the early 1990s caused innocent words like "interpretation" and "revisionism" to become fighting phrases and the basis for shrill and often small-minded polemics between progressive and conservative agendas.

This article examines some of the major ways in which American history has been written, revised, and reinterpreted from partisan perspectives and for political purposes. It takes note of the Revolutionary founders' concerns about the ways in which their pivotal era (1765-1789) was likely to be misunderstood or distorted; how several of the most central events in the national narrative, such as the sectional conflict and Civil War, came to be misremembered for politically self-serving reasons; how presidents have misread or misrepresented American and international history to justify their policies; how the Supreme Court (and lower courts) has used history selectively to achieve outcomes (often desirable) that the justices felt were necessary; and finally, how the so-called culture wars of the early 1990s caused innocent words like "interpretation" and "revisionism" to become fighting phrases and the basis for shrill and often small-minded polemics between progressive and conservative agendas. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Inc., copyright 2008 The American Academy of Political and Social Science.]