Marxism and the history of art : from William Morris to the New Left /

Marxism, pronounced dead even before the collapse of the Soviet Union, begs resuscitation in the face of the threat of globalization to the value of labor. In the narrow sphere of academic art history, this small collection of historiographic essays may provide the necessary defibrillator. The first nine studies assess the historical location and contributions of those important intellectuals on the Left who helped frame the way art is understood now, including William Morris (by Caroline Arscott), Mikhail Lifshits (by Stanley Mitchell), Frederick Antal (by Paul Stirton), Francis Klingender (by David Bindman), Max Raphael (by Stanley Mitchell), Walter Benjamin (by Frederic J. Schwartz), Meyer Schapiro (by Andrew Hemingway), Henri Lefebvre (by Marc James Leger), and Arnold Hauser (by John Roberts). The last three essays more broadly consider trends in Anglo-European Marxist art historical thinking from the 1960s to the present (Andrew Hemingway, Jutta Held, Otto Karl Werckmeister). In addition to providing stimulating insights into the thinkers, texts, and movements that they treat, the essays offer readers a sampling of approaches to materialist readings of history. American authors are missing from the collection--an indication that this book is more necessary here than across the Atlantic. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Graduate students through professionals. A. J. Wharton Duke University