Synopses & Reviews
From the European revolutions of 1848 through the Italian independence movement, the American Civil War, and the French Commune, the era Albert Boime explores in this fourth volume of his epic series was, in a word, transformative. The period, which gave rise to such luminaries as Karl Marx and Charles Darwin, was also characterized by civic upheaval, quantum leaps in science and technology, and the increasing secularization of intellectual pursuits and ordinary life. In a sweeping narrative that adds critical depth to a key epoch in modern artand#8217;s history,
Art in an Age of Civil Struggle shows how this turbulent social environment served as an incubator for the mid-nineteenth centuryand#8217;s most important artists and writers.
Tracing the various movements of realism through the major metropolitan centers of Europe and America, Boime strikingly evokes the milieus that shaped the lives and works of Gustave Courbet, Edouard Manet, and#201;mile Zola, Honorand#233; Daumier, Walt Whitman, Abraham Lincoln, and the earliest photographers, among countless others. In doing so, he spearheads a powerful new way of reassessing how art emerges from the welter of cultural and political events and the artistand#8217;s struggle to interpret his surroundings. Boime supports this multifaceted approach with a wealth of illustrations and written sources that demonstrate the intimate links between visual culture and social change. Culminating at the transition to impressionism, Art in an Age of Civil Struggle makes historical sense of a movement that paved the way for avant-garde aesthetics and, more broadly, of how a particular style emerges at a particular moment.
Review
and#8220;True to form in his extraordinary series on the social history of modern art,
Art in an Age of Civil Struggle extends into the late nineteenth century Albertand#160;Boimeand#8217;s commanding perspective on the dynamics of cultural development within the nascent industrial and capitalist democratic societies of Europe and the United States. Boimeand#8217;s now-indispensable erudition and scholarship are always accessible and enjoyable, fostering a sense of the readerand#8217;s participation in this art historical journey toward explanations of a social and cultural order increasingly familiar to us now in ours.and#160;His brilliant achievement as a teacher and writer is to show how, in the end, this history has led to where we are now.and#8221;
Review
"True to form in his extraordinary series on the social history of modern art, Art in an Age of Civil Struggle extends into the late nineteenth century Albert Boime's commanding perspective on the dynamics of cultural development within the nascent industrial and capitalist democratic societies of Europe and the United States. Boime's now-indispensable erudition and scholarship are always accessible and enjoyable, fostering a sense of the reader's participation in this art historical journey toward explanations of a social and cultural order increasingly familiar to us now in ours. His brilliant achievement as a teacher and writer is to show how, in the end, this history has led to where we are now."-Jonathan Harris, University of Liverpool
Review
and#8220;A powerful and original successor to the previous volumes in a series that has become indispensable to all those of us who teach or study nineteenth-century art.and#8221;
About the Author
Albert Boime is professor of art history at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Table of Contents
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Illustrations
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Introduction
and#160;and#160;and#160; 1and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Springtime and Winter of the People in France, 1848and#8211;1852
and#160;and#160;and#160; 2and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Radical Realism and Its Offspring
and#160;and#160;and#160; 3and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Radical Realism Continued
and#160;and#160;and#160; 4and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; The Pre-Raphaelites and the 1848 Revolutions
and#160;and#160;and#160; 5and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; The Macchia and the Risorgimento
and#160;and#160;and#160; 6and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Cultural Inflections of Slavery and Manifest Destiny in America
and#160;and#160;and#160; 7and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Biedermeier Culture and the Revolutions of 1848
and#160;and#160;and#160; 8and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; The Second Empireand#8217;s Official Realism
and#160;and#160;and#160; 9and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Edouard Manet: Man About Town
and#160; 10and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; The Franco-Prussian War, the French Commune, and the Threshold of Impressionism
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Coda: Menzel and the Transition to Empire
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Notes
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Photo Credits
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Index