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The Humanistic Tradition, Book 6: Modernism, Globalism, and the Information Age
Gloria K. Fiero
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill
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ASIN: 0072910232 |
Book Description
"The Humanistic Tradition is quite simply the finest book of its type. Fiero manages to integrate the political, cultural, and social history of the world into one coherent and fascinating whole. It is a masterpiece of scholarship . . . balanced, interesting, easy to read, and consummately beautiful. Our professors praise its accuracy and scope and our students unanimously say it is their favorite textbook." — Sonia Sorrell, Pepperdine University
The Humanistic Tradition features a flexible, topical approach that helps students understand humankind's creative legacy as a continuum rather than as a series of isolated events. This widely acclaimed interdisciplinary survey offers a global perspective, countless illustrations, and more than 150 literary sources. Available in multiple formats, The Humanistic Tradition explores the political, economic, and social contexts of human culture, providing a global and multicultural perspective which helps students better understand the relationship between the West and other world cultures.
Customer Reviews:
I've never read this either...........2006-04-19
However giving the book a one star review based on the fact that you had a bad experience with Amazon is unacceptable. Your poor rating hurts the author much more then it hurts Amazon. Many a casual browser will not even browse further past a one star rating. And despite your experience many a writer makes a great deal of money from sales on this site.
I don't know, I never recieved my order.......2006-02-24
I would have no idea how to rate this product since I never recieved it. I do know however, that I will never be ordering from Amazon.com again. It was the poorest internet experience I have ever had, and I had heard such amazing things about this company. Live and learn I suppose.
Book Description
The prize-winning biographer Robert D. Richardson has written a masterly and utterly moving portrait of James' pivotal member of the Metaphysical Club, author of The Varieties of Religious Experience, eldest sibling in the singular James family. William James, ten years in the making, draws on a vast number of unpublished letters, journals, and family records. Richardson paints extraordinary scenes from what James himself called the "buzzing blooming confusion" of his life, beginning with childhood, as he struggled to achieve amid the domestic chaos and intellectual brilliance of Father, brother Henry, and sister Alice. Through impassioned scholarship, Richardson illuminates James's hugely influential works: the "Varieties", "Principles of Psychology", "Talks to Teachers", and "Pragmatism".
Customer Reviews:
Excellent for Scholars, Less Interest for Other Readers.......2007-08-07
This book will resonate perfectly with scholars trained in philosophy and psychology. Biographer Richardson traces William James' evolving thought patterns with a thoroughness no writer could exceed. For the average reader, though, I suggest the book will have value mostly because of the interesting lives of William James and his novelist brother Henry.
Certainly I had been unaware of William's lifelong health problems. Too, the book provides fascinating tidbits about his courtship with his eventual wife Alice. Note his highly formal writing style in a love letter to her: "My duty is to win your hand if I can. . .What I beg of you now is that you should let me know categorically whether any absolute irrevocable obstacle already exist to that consummation."
Another highlight for me--William James' rejection of "copied religion." He has no use for the person whose "religion has been made for him by others, communicated to him by tradition, determined to fixed forms by imitation and retained by habit." James noted that "the founders of every church owed their power originally to the fact of their direct personal communion with the divine."
I enjoyed the book as a life story well told.
The Complete Communicator: Change Your Communication-change Your Life!
HENRY JAMES'S OLDER BROTHER........2007-06-10
I read often on Henry James and through that have always gathered some tangential information concerning his older brother, William.
When I saw this book at our local library could not pass up the opportunity to read a full biography of William James. The desire to do so reaped rewards of insight into not only William but the entire James family. Though William and Henry were separated in many ways as individuals, they were also connected in many ways. Henry felt great loss with William's passing, and William asked Alice to be with Henry when his time came. Henry when near death felt the closeness of William at Lamb House, Rye.
No matter what drives your desire to read this book, much biographical and empirical information will be gained, and William James now has a swell biography all his own which I can place on the my shelves next to all the Henry James material.
Recommended.
Semper Fi.
What a Terrific Biography!.......2007-03-20
Robert Richardson has written a masterful biography. It is hard to imagine how it could be improved upon and it deserves recognition as the essential study of America's best known philosopher. There are still a few young people feeling their way through life who remind me of the youthful William James. W.J. really did not amount to much til he was past 40. His youth was a confusing matrix of indecision, false starts and immobilizing depression. How apt that James did not disparage the popular self-help writers of his day. (One of his endearing traits was his willingness to listen to rivals, opponents and crackpots.) I think Richardson's biography will make a terrific self-help book for young Jamesian types.
Richardson calls his book an intellectual biography. By that, he means to show how James's life can be understood through his work. He specifically states in the prologue it is not to be interpreted the other way round. Clearly, James's life was affected by his own thought and writing. After he achieved recognition, he was able to more effectively control his daemons, rise above his seasonal existential crises and come to embody the actualized voice of American philosophy. However, the James epistomology is pre-Freudian. He never acknowledged that the unconscious could conduct its own guerrilla attacks on life and definitively shape experience. His early life seems especially laden with familial burdens that threatened to marginalize his life and reputation. In fact, James's all consuming adoption of empirical interpretations may have been a reaction to his father's over-idealized religious tracts. Philosophically, W.J. turned out about 180 degrees removed from his dear old dad. Richardson remains mum on whether James ever acknowledged the role of polarity. More than anything however, the author demonstrates how James's writing was influenced by his own history- i.e. he turned his own experience into philosophy.
It is reasonable to expect a biography to touch upon every important theme in his subject's published works. James spent two thirds of his life awaiting his genius, so we don't hear about his formal philosophy til late in the book. I am no authority on the James canon, but I think everything I ever read by him or about him was addressed by Richardson. I am content that the intellectual issues were sufficiently aired. Of course, W.J.'s prose was not highly systemitized. (Outlines are for idealist philosophers.) Indeed it is to his enduring worth that all his tracts were infused with rhetorical panache. Richardson notes that Rebecca West observed that "one of the James brothers grew up to write fiction as though it were philosophy, and the other to write philosophy as though it were fiction." R.R. does a great job of limning the loving/distant relationship between William and Henry. In fact, all his friendships are given prominence, and my curiosity has been stirred over several lesser known colleagues. In conclusion, this is the most satisfying biography I've read in a long time. It will be enjoyed by all manner of psychologists, philosophers and intellectual historians.
superb biography.......2007-03-13
This is an excellent, very well documented biography of one of America's most interesting intellectuals. Through detailed quotations from personal letters, careful exploration of James's physical and domestic environment, and meticulous exploration of what James read and who he talked with, Richardson gives us the kind of familiarity with James and his ideas that might have come from knowing James personally. One of the best books I've read in the past couple of years.
Ever Not Quite.......2007-02-21
Robert Richardson characterizes his splendid biography of William James (1842 -- 1910) as seeking "to understand his life through his work, not the other way around." Richardson succeeds admirably in giving the reader the thought of William James in the many fields to which he made seminal contributions: psychology, religious studies, philosophy, pedagogy, and literature. He also offers an inspiring picture of James the man. Indeed, as Richardson shows, James's life is closely intertwined with his thought. Richardson taught for many years at the University of North Carolina and is currently an independent scholar. He has written biographies of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry Thoreau together with this biography of William James.
Richardson's book is written in five broad parts which subsume ninety short and readable individual sections. The first two parts of the book cover James's "Zigzag" childhood as his family, under his father, the redoubtable Henry James, Sr. crossed the Atlantic Ocean back and forth many times in search of education. James's relationship with his astonishing family, which Richardson calls the "James nation" -- his father and mother, novelist brother Henry, sister Annie, and brothers Garth and Wilkie form one of the motifs of this book.
As a young man WilliamJames was prone to ill-health, depression, and feeling of purposelessness. More than once, he considered suicide. These traits remained with him throughout life as James fought to control them and turn them to his advantage through effort, activity and will. Famously, James read the French philosopher Renouvier in 1870 which inspired him to conclude that "Our first act of freedom, if we are free, ought in all inward propriety to be to affirm that we are free." James subsequent courtship of and marriage to Alice Gibbens and his attainment of a teaching position at Harvard further committed him to a life of purposeful activity and to a confidence in himself.
The remaining three parts of Richardson's book center, respectively, upon James's great two-volume "Principles of Psychology" of 1890, his "Varieties of Religious Experience" of 1902, and, late in life, his work as a philosopher in his development of pragmatism, radical empiricism and pluralism. Richardson admirably ties James's work together to show how the philosophy arose from James's early interest in physiology and anatomy. James did revolutionary work in developing the physical basis of mental states and feelings. His interest in a full exploration of experience, together with his reading of the works of his father, led him as well to a feeling for religion and to human activity on the vision that what was noblest in man was mirrored in the universe. Richardson quotes the following passage from James as the epigraph to his book:
"If this life be not a real fight, in which something is eternally gained for the universe by success, it is no better than a game of private theatricals from which one may withdraw at will. But it feels like a real fight -- as if there were something really wild in the universe which we, with all our idealities and faithfulnesses, are needed to redeem."
James large works and famous lecture series, such as the "Varieties", "Pragmatism" and "A Pluralistic Universe" are given close attention as are many of James's essays and lesser-known works. I enjoyed reading about James's first book in which he summarized his father's religious beliefs in the course of an introductory essay of over 100 pages.
Richardson aptly relates James to American intellectual currents, exemplified by Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman, Melville, Holmes, Royce, Charles Peirce, and many others. He portrays James's thought as forward-looking, activist, pluralist, and based upon an openness to all forms of human experience -- including, notoriously, spiritualism. Richardson describes James as a founder of modernism in his teaching on the flow of consciousness. He is certainly correct about this, but it is also true that James's thought as it developed was highly metaphysical and speculative, much more so than in a great deal of contemporary philosophical thought. Richardson makes the apt point that in his emphasis of constant change and flow, James followed in the path of Heraclitus, the obscure but fascinating pre-Socratic philosopher. At many points in his study, Richardson suggests that James's primary achievement was in providing an answer to Plato and to the world of fixity, completeness, and eternal nonphysical ideas.
In 1910, shortly before his death, James wrote an essay called "A Pluralistic Mystic" about his long-time friend Benjamin Paul Blood, an eccentric philosopher, poet and mystic from upstate New York who was among the first to experiment with mind-altering drugs. Blood had written that reality and experience could never be captured by any formula:
[t]he slow round of the engraver's lathe gains but the breadth of a hair, but the difference is distributed back over the whole curve, never an instant true -- ever not quite."
In his essay on Blood, James made the phrase "ever not quite" his own. In summing up his life work in the essay, James joined cause with his subject, Blood, and concluded in language inspiring, fiery, and extravagant: "Let my last word, then, speaking in the name of intellectual philsophy, be his work: -- There is no conclusion. What has been concluded, that we might conclude in regard to it? There are no fortunes to be told, and there is no advice to be given. -- Farewell!"
Richardson has written an inspiring and learned book about a great American thinker and about the promise of leading a life of purposeful activity. Those moved to read or to reread William James may wish to pursue the two large collections of his most famous writings available from the Library of America.
Robin Friedman
Book Description
Drawing extensively from various disciplines including ethnology, geography, geology, and environmental studies, this groundbreaking book addresses shifting concepts of time, history, and landscape in relation to the work of pioneering American artists during the first half of the 20th century. Paintings, watercolors, and photographs by renowned artists such as Frederic Remington, Georgia O’Keeffe, Ansel Adams, Thomas Hart Benton, Dorothea Lange, and Jackson Pollock are considered alongside American Indian ledger drawings, tempuras, and Dineh sandpaintings. Taken together, these works document the quest to create a specifically American art in the decades prior to World War II.
The Modern West begins with a captivating meditation on the relationship between human culture and the physical landscape by Barry Lopez, who traveled the West in the artists’ footsteps. Emily Ballew Neff then describes the evolving importance of the West for American artists working out a radically new aesthetic response to space and place, from artist-explorers on the turn-of-the-century frontier, to visionaries of a Californian arcadia, to desert luminaries who found in its stark topography a natural equivalent to abstraction.
Beautifully illustrated and handsomely designed, this book is essential to anyone interested in the West and the history of modernism in American art.
Book Description
Invisible Gardens is a composite history of the individuals and firms that defined the field of landscape architecture in America from 1925 to 1975, a period that spawned a significant body of work combining social ideas of enduring value with landscapes and gardens that forged a modern aesthetic. The major protagonists include Thomas Church, Roberto Burle Marx, Isamu Noguchi, Luis Barragan, Daniel Urban Kiley, Stanley White, Hideo Sasaki, Ian McHarg, Lawrence Halprin, and Garrett Eckbo.
They were the pioneers of a new profession in America, the first to offer alternatives to the historic landscape and the park tradition, as well as to the suburban sprawl and other unplanned developments of twentieth-century cities and institutions. The work is described against the backdrop of the Great Depression, the Second World War, the postwar recovery, American corporate expansion, and the environmental revolution.
The authors look at unbuilt schemes as well as actual gardens, ranging from tiny backyards and play spaces to urban plazas and corporate villas. Some of the projects discussed already occupy a canonical position in modern landscape architecture; others deserve a similar place but are less well known. The result is a record of landscape architecture's cultural contribution - as distinctly different in history, intent, and procedure from its sister fields of architecture and planning - during the years when it was acquiring professional status and struggling to define a modernist aesthetic out of the startling changes in postwar America.
Customer Reviews:
A Very Thorough Presentation.......2001-06-28
Invisible Gardens is a well-written, lively introduction to the confluence of landscape architecture and modernism during the middle decades of the twentieth century. Although somewhat like a textbook in its style of presentation, the writing throughout is clear, incisive and often quite absorbing. And there are plenty of black and white photos and architectural renderings which accompany the text to enhance its ability to inform. But only twelve colour plates were included in Invisible Gardens. I felt a bit let-down personally by this aspect of the project. I thought the book could have used additional high quality colour plates of the often spectacular commissions under review to balance the density of the text. And to convey visually what often needs to be seen to be properly appreciated.
Book Description
The first book to explore Modernism from a truly international perspective, Modernism: Designing a New World offers a reassessment of the concept and reveals the fundamental ways in which it has shaped our world and its visual culture.
Modernism flourished between 1914 and 1939, and became a key point of reference for 20th-century architecture, art, and design. This important, lavishly illustrated book demonstrates the movement's continued influence, on everything from the chairs we sit on to the buildings we occupy. The range of objects illustrated-including the fine arts as well as architecture, furniture, manufactured products, film, and graphic design-reflect the period's emphasis on the unity of the arts. Key artists and designers include Mondrian, Le Corbusier, Bourke-White, Eisenstein, and Breuer, along with lesser-known figures from around the globe.
Book Description
Many people think modernist architecture never flowered in California north of the San Fernando Valley. NorCalMod dispels that notion in a copiously illustrated history showcasing extraordinary examples of its proud contribution to the Bay Area and environs. As a style, modernist architecture was hotly debated in its day (why create modern structures where such distinctive Victorian and Arts and Crafts buildings already existed?) pulling heavyweights such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Lewis Mumford, and Walter Gropius into the fray. Ultimately, that existing "Bay Region Style" would remain the area's architectural hallmark, but not before hundreds of important modernist projects, many still standing yet unjustly neglected today, had been established. The remarkable photos in this book open our eyes to a long-lost chapter in the history of California architecture and make NorCalMod a volume to be enjoyed by those interested in California history and style as well as by architecture students and professionals.
Customer Reviews:
Of both particular and general value; a fine piece of work........2007-05-30
This is an accessible, well-written and thoughtful book; a rarity in current architectural discourse.
Furthermore, it is handsomely designed and illustrated with beautiful archival photography.
Though it focuses on the seemingly narrow topic of the neglected/suppressed history of modern architecture in Northern California, its value is much broader.
More generally, it provides lucid insights into the mechanisms of architectural history and, by extension, the very nature by which we come to understand and appreciate our built environment in the present age.
Great, Important Work.......2007-05-17
This underappreciated topic finally gets the attention it deserves. Great photos, interviews, etc which are obviously the result of extensive research. Color photos would have been nice.
Book Description
"I can think of no better way . . . to more efficiently and compactly review the ambitious, ingenious, irreverent, and sometimes exasperating art of our time."
-Art Journal Widely praised when it first appeared in 1995, Art Since 1940 tells the story of six decades of art in America and Europe through a series of in-depth biographical profiles of individual artists, astutely linked by illuminating discussions of the cultural influences on their work. Artnews hailed this lively volume as "a fascinating book" by "a superb critic and art historian." For this Second Edition, the author adds a new final chapter and extensively reworks the last quarter of the book to incorporate current thinking on the art of the last 20 years. 351 photographs, 246 in full color, 8 1/2 x 11" JONATHAN FINEBERG, winner of a Pulitzer Fellowship for critical writing and author of scores of articles, books, and catalogues on modern and contemporary art, is professor of art history at the University of Illinois. He lives in Urbana, Illinois.
Customer Reviews:
Illuminating Book.......2006-07-05
I used this book when I was a student and have referred to it multiple times since I graduated. Simply said, I love it. It presents the work of artists of the major movements in a clear way, without the jargon that is so common in other art books. I would recommend it for anyone interested in modern and contemporary art or anyone who has been to a museum of modern art and not understood what they are looking at. It is also a great affirmation to all of us working in creative fields that there are actual people producing this work, and Fineberg beautifully illuminates these personalities.
Ewwww..............2006-03-23
Let me start off by saying that I'm not a fan of contemporary art. That being said, this book is incredibly difficult to read. For me, each sentence took several re-reads before I could get some type of clue as to what he was trying to say. I consider myself a good reader and this book was way out there with the uppity language. My husband would get a kick out of me reading sentences to him, just because they were impossible to understand. If you like this sort of thing, then you might like the book. I, however, did not like the book. I also did not like how they would describe a work of art in great detail, yet show you a totally different piece from that artist. It made if difficult to visually see what they were talking about. My professor did a much better job explaining the material covered in this book.
No Photography!.......2004-10-01
By this book, 1940 marked the time that photography died and was replaced by vast amounts of performance art. Can you seriously present a "survey" of contemporary art without even acknowledging photography in any form?
Bad Religion.......2004-05-15
This book by Finberg is professionally written, edited, and with lots of high quality color examples of the art being discussed. It covers a wide range of individual artists and art movements from the 1940's onward. The problem with book is that the range is not wide enough. Fienberg doesn't give equal treatment to art forms, and the visual arts even begin to take a backseat to performances and installations. It can be argued that new genres of art have emerged and should be discussed, but certainly not at the expense of other forms in a book presented as "art since the 1940's". There is a lot of art since the 1940's that isn't mentioned, though it should be, either because of significant cultural impact, or because of influence on artists that are discussed in the book. For example, there is no mention of animation of any kind, and relatively little coverage of realism, figurative work, design, comics, or advertising. Whether certain people like it or not, Ansel Adams, Walt Disney, Gottfried Helnwein, H.R. Giger, Dr. Suess, and Playboy magazine have had a major impact and more worldwide recognition than virtually all of the artists Fineberg discusses. While some may cast these off as unworthy of discussion in a book about "high art", knowledge of the evolution and integration of the "low arts" is essential to understand concepts of "pop art", "appropriation", "feminist art", and "post modernism". Fineberg's tone is celebratory with certain artists more than others, and makes odd choices on which artists to give the most attention to. The reason I titled this review "bad religion" is because this book is like a sermon about art by someone who is presenting their own doctrine, rather than telling the whole story. If you read this hoping to be educated about art, you are out of luck, unless your goal is to sound intellectual while sipping wine at the opening reception of the next retrospective show of minimalist art in Los Angeles, New York, or Chicago. Oh, it might also be useful if you are writing a paper for an art history class...
excellent!.......2002-11-12
I purchased this book for my Contemporary Art class. It's chock full of great information, and lots of excellent quality samples of art throughout. Worth getting if you're interested in 'educating' yourself in the vernacular of art -- both modernism and contemporary.
Average customer rating:
- beating their cannons into canon
- Eh.
- Language is a barrier!
- art since 1900: modernism, antimodernism, postmodernism
- Ideological Claptrap
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Art Since 1900: Modernism, Antimodernism, Postmodernism
Hal Foster ,
Rosalind Krauss ,
Yve-Alain Bois , and
Benjamin Buchloh
Manufacturer: Thames & Hudson
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ASIN: 0500238189 |
Amazon.com
Here's an exceptional rarity: a large, sweeping art history text book so well-done it almost makes the reader wish she or he were back in school. It's rather amazing that it took so long for a book like Art Since 1900: Modernism, Antimodernism, and Postmodernism to exist: a balanced, seven hundred page historical tome written with multiple perspectives in mind. As any undergrad knows, H.W. Janson's ubiquitous History of Art was written as if art history were some sort of race to colonize ideas and imagery; you'll likely not miss Janson's fetish for pointing out who did what first. Penned by a nimble crew who all teach at Ivy League universities, Art Since 1900, which mirrors the development of psychoanalysis and the creation of a huge international art scene, is on a smaller scale a history of contemporary theory and the art world almost as much as it is the art itself. Attention is paid throughout to important exhibits and texts, pointing out the rippling effect throughout the art community of these mirrors and portals. The book is arranged so that there are one or two essays per year. In such a novel format, often undervalued movements are given as much respect as Cubism and Minimalism. There are entire chapters here on Fluxus, feminist art, the Assemblage movement, Lettrism, the Independent Group, Gutai, Kineticism, the Harlem Renaissance, Aktionism, earthworks, video art, and the aesthetics of ACT UP. As with any history, there are personalities whose works are emphasized over that of others; the scant attention given to Jean-Michel Basquiat, for instance, is a rather large question mark. Quibbles aside, it's a very important, and nearly immaculate, work. --Mike McGonigal
Images from Art Since 1900
Book Description
A landmark in art history and the most anticipated art publishing event of the new millennium.
In this groundbreaking and original work of scholarship, four of the most influential and provocative art historians of our time have come together to provide a comprehensive history of art in the twentieth century, an age when artists in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere sought to overturn the traditions of the past and expectations of the present in order to invent new practices and forms.
Adopting a unique year-by-year approach, Foster, Krauss, Bois, and Buchloh present more than 100 short essays, each focusing on a crucial event—the creation of a seminal work, the publication of an artistic manifesto, the opening of a major exhibition—to tell the story of the dazzling diversity of practice and interpretation that characterizes the art of the period. All the turning points and breakthroughs of modernism and postmodernism are explored in depth, as are the frequent and sustained antimodernist reactions that proposed alternative visions of art and the world. Illustrating the authors' texts are more than 600 of the most important works of the century, many reproduced in full color.
The book's flexible structure and extensive cross-referencing allow readers to follow any one of the many narratives that unfold, whether that be the history of a medium such as photography or painting, the development of art in a particular country, the influence of a movement such as surrealism or feminism, or the emergence of a stylistic or conceptual category like abstraction or minimalism. Boxes give further background information on the important figures and issues.
In their insightful introductions, the four authors explain the different methods of art history at work in the book, providing the reader with the conceptual tools for further study. Two roundtable discussions —one at midcentury, the other at the close of the book—consider the questions raised by the preceding decades and look ahead to the art of the future. A glossary of terms and concepts completes this extraordinary volume. 600 illustrations, 400 in color.
The contributors:
- Yve-Alain Bois, Harvard University
- Benjamin Buchloh, Barnard College
- Hal Foster, Princeton University
- Rosalind Krauss, Columbia University
Customer Reviews:
beating their cannons into canon.......2007-04-18
I suspect that a number of these comments were inspired by a scathing review in the Wall Street Journal by Eric Gibson (the "culture war" ones at least). But maybe not...
I would have liked to write a more critical review of this book, although, or perhaps, because I liked it so much, but with all of these rather "blunt" opinions, it is hard to do anything but just praise it. Still, I'll throw out a couple of points of critique:
1. It is obvious that the authors are trying to create a kind of definitive history of 20th century art. This is in part based on their particular take, and indeed, sometimes this is more evident than others (esp. the closer you get to the present), but in general it is a very thorough book (presenting numerous positions). That they were among the founding editors of October should make it more interesting to read than otherwise. Needless to say, it should also be read in this way. There is definitely a certain direction to this work. But isn't that what writing and scholarship is all about? See also point 3.
2. I do wish that they would call into question some more of their own philosophical and political "foundations." For the most part, much like in October, their critique and development of Marxism, structuralism, psychoanalysis, "post-structuralism" etc. all seem to focus on a historical or art historical USE of these fields rather than going to the "heart of the matter" and maybe trying to address them on a philosophical or for that matter on a "real-political" level. It would be nice to be able to read the work from a philosophical or political vantage point too, not just an art historical one...they seem to SOMETIMES ironically mirror their "blunt" critic's weak position of lumping everything into one common trend of "continental philosophy" or "postmodernism" etc.
3. The tension between textbook and the "avant-garde" art critic: I find this to be sometimes a bit too much, end up asking myself, am I in some "contemporary art 101 class?" or am I directly "on the front"...but in the end I find this also to be interesting. Trying to make an institution, a textbook classic out of all of these disparate attempts to undermine such an idea... I hope the next version is less well-mannered and proper and a bit crazier (less a text book).
Eh........2006-11-10
The reproductions are good and very useful, but the language is a bit convoluted.
Language is a barrier!.......2006-08-07
The Publisher's Weekly review spoke volumns about this book. It was well written, however for the majority of the students in the class I attended this book left them more puzzeled than informed. One of the reasons the instructor order this title was due to the organization of the chapters. It is broken down according to dates and not periods. This was a novel new way to present art history because you suddenly realize how art periods overlaps. One period does not come and suddenly end, it is a melding of periods, especially in the 20th and 21st centuries. If you already have a basic knowledge of 20th century art this is well worth adding to your library. If you are new to 20th century art ask your instructor to supply you with alternative titles that are written less like a doctorial thesis.
art since 1900: modernism, antimodernism, postmodernism.......2006-07-02
great book at a much better price than I could get elsewhere, even with coupons, etc.
thanks!
Ideological Claptrap.......2006-03-02
As a professional art historian who teaches twentieth century art at public university, I find this book to be virtually worthless. Not only do the authors leave out artists from their book because they don't adhere to their own rigid ideological orthodoxies, but the book is very badly written; they undermine their own arguments by constantly lapsing into semi-meaningless jargon. A good postmodernist/ Marxist perspective in a general introduction to twentieth century would be useful, but these authors are too inept and arrogant to bring it off.
Book Description
In a Western world suddenly acutely interested in Islam, one question has been repeatedly heard above the din: where are the Muslim reformers? With this ambitious volume, Tariq Ramadan firmly establishes himself as one of Europe's leading thinkers and one of Islam's most innovative and important voices. As the number of Muslims living in the West grows, the question of what it means to be a Western Muslim becomes increasingly important to the futures of both Islam and the West. While the media are focused on radical Islam, Ramadan claims, a silent revolution is sweeping Islamic communities in the West, as Muslims actively seek ways to live in harmony with their faith within a Western context. French, English, German, and American Muslims--women as well as men--are reshaping their religion into one that is faithful to the principles of Islam, dressed in European and American cultures, and definitively rooted in Western societies. Ramadan's goal is to create an independent Western Islam, anchored not in the traditions of Islamic countries but in the cultural reality of the West. He begins by offering a fresh reading of Islamic sources, interpreting them for a Western context and demonstrating how a new understanding of universal Islamic principles can open the door to integration into Western societies. He then shows how these principles can be put to practical use. Ramadan contends that Muslims can-indeed must-be faithful to their principles while participating fully in the civic life of Western secular societies. Grounded in scholarship and bold in its aims, Western Muslims and the Future of Islam offers a striking vision of a new Muslim Identity, one which rejects once and for all the idea that Islam must be defined in opposition to the West.
Customer Reviews:
Another excellent work by Mr Ramadan.......2007-05-31
Thanks again to Mr. Ramadan for keeping the door and the dialoge open on a very pressing and important issue for many of us "Western" Muslims. As a new Muslim woman from Latin America living in the USA I find each day many of the issues presented by Mr Ramadan, thanks to his inside, I am able to better undertand my role in this society while living and embracing the "true" Islamic identity and tradition. Thanks also for the great lessons learned with "In the Footsteps of the Prophet". Thanks for the loving and unsugared portrait of the Prophet you presented in this excellent book , it did touch my heart.
Hard thinking man arrives at refreshing vision.......2007-05-15
Ramadan is a serious thinker, devoted to making a difference. He takes both his faith and his Western homeland seriously, and this for him is a single commitment to God and his neighbors. His concern is the quality of life in the future world order. And his vision for the potential contributions of Western Muslims is refreshing.
Where many Muslims assume that the practices of other cultures are ungodly unless proven otherwise, Ramadan turns such logic around. Like Imam Malik, he argues that all customs (urf) or institutions which "seek the good" (istislah) are valid, and should not be rejected unless they specifically violate a moral prohibition of the Quran and Sunna. In that case the challenge to Western Muslims is like that faced by the first Muslims in mainly non-Islamic Mecca, or by the biblical Joseph in Egypt - how to inspire better human relations, and improve care for society's needs.
Ramadan sees a special responsibility falling on Muslims in the West. Working within Western institutions yet maintaining real ties to the non-Western world, these believers have a chance to serve as a voice of conscience. In a world order of profound inequality, many Western Muslims have both the hope and the opportunity to make a difference. And to grasp that opportunity they must act as full-citizens, taking responsibility for building better institutions in cooperation with non-Muslims of goodwill. As Ramadan explores the possibilities for economic, political and cultural life, the future seems ever more interesting.
Citizen Muslim.......2006-09-27
Islamic philosopher Tariq Ramadan asks a fundamental question. Is it possible for a devout Muslim living here to also be a responsible and loyal American? As a member of what Ramadan calls the Other, I find it disturbing it even needs to be asked. It isn't trivial and Ramadan doesn't ask it on behalf of Muslims. He asks it of Muslims because they ask it of themselves. We have people living among us who are unsure of the answer, millions of them apparently, some of them second and third generation Americans. More than a few have concluded the answer is no. Their devotion to Islam supersedes and is incompatible with any duty to their adopted country. The question cuts to the heart of what Americans have been asking since 9/11. What on earth are these people so angry about and what in heavens name does it have to do with us? In attempting to answer Ramadan directs his comments to those Muslims living in the West for whom religion is at the center of daily life, Muslims who are struggling with a very real identity crisis. Ramadan isn't proposing an interfaith dialogue, though he thinks one is important. He is proposing an intra-faith dialogue. He wants to reopen a debate that has been closed for a thousand years.
At issue is the long held Islamic view of a world divided into two parts, dar al-Islam and dar al-harb, the abode of submission and the abode of war. This view didn't originate in the Koran or with the Prophet. It was developed later by Islamic scholars to offer a code of conduct for Muslims living in or traveling through areas not subject to Islamic rule, places where any exercise of an alien religion was usually restricted and often prohibited. Muslims in these conditions were called not to compromise their faith, to remain apart, at all costs to avoid assimilating. Sometime around the 10th century it became pretty much accepted dogma throughout Islam. It still is. It is a view that has been noted with alarm by modern Western commentators. It is at the root of the attitude among many Muslims to reject as un-Islamic all things Western. Ramadan argues that the doctrine can and should be revised in light of changed circumstance. It is no longer an appropriate view of Europe or of North America because in the modern West the Muslim is free to practice his religion.
Ramadan draws an all-important distinction between faith and culture. Islam requires Muslims to dress modestly but exactly how that applies in different societies is open to interpretation. There is also a difference between what is required by law and what is permitted. That alcohol may be legal does not force one to drink. There may be occasions when civil law presses an individual to violate his conscience, to participate say in an unjust war, but those occasions are rare and there are ways for Muslims to deal with them short of outright rejection of the offending legal system. Islam has adapted to differing cultures before. Indonesians are very different from Pakistanis and they can both be authentically Islamic.
This all seems obvious to us, the Other. That it does not seem obvious to so many Muslims is incomprehensible. Americans are accustomed to immigrants. We expect them to become naturalized, take their citizenship seriously, participate fully in our society, make it their own, even take on leadership roles. Ramadan wants his fellow Muslims to do that too, and he believes they will. He certainly believes they can, and without compromising their religion.
Must Read for Western Muslims.......2005-09-22
It is a must read for muslims living in western countries. The book deals with the issues of BELONGING(specially immigrant muslims), EXTREMELY IMPORTANT concept of Darul Harb and Darul Islam and a thorough discussion of what is required of a muslim living/working/studying in non-muslim lands in general.
He mentions the CORE characteristics that makes muslim ummah, THE BEST NATION i.e. Telling Mankind the real purpose of life and conveying the message of the prophets. When muslims live amongst non-muslims they automatically are calling non-muslims to Islam by the way they act, they work or do any thing else whether they actually call people to Islam or not.
Tariq Ramadhan gives the western muslims confidence and encourages them to stop being isolationist and engage fully in the society around them to make the situation better for themselves as a community and also to fulfill their obligation of transmitting the message of the prophets to their fellow citizens. Even if these concepts are not new to you as a muslim, it is a must to read and reflect upon what brother Tariq says. Our reading, reflecting and then actually DOING DAWAH can make a difference of us entering HELL or entering PARADISE in the hereafter. No matter how bad the situation becomes for muslims and how bad the non-muslims treat muslims, muslims can NEVER EVER forget their obligation to save themselves and the non-muslims from Hellfire and Tariq makes an excellent case for that.
You would for sure like reading this book. I don't agree with each and everything in the book but I pray for him for writing about the core issues we face as muslims. And don't even once look at the price, reading this book is far better then eating at your favorite restaurant.
As the issues indicate the book is primarily for muslims but would help non-muslims too specially the ones interested to find out about muslims in the west in particular and Islam in general. If you are a non-muslim then I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND "What Everyone Should Know About Islam and Muslims" by Suzanne Haneef apart from reading the FINAL REVELATION to mankind, THE HOLY QURAN.
Great Book.......2004-01-12
I believe this is one of the best books I have read in a long time. It was the first time a scholar elaborates on what it really means to be both Western and Muslim. He tackles just about every issue facing Muslims in the West - and while obvously not everyone will agree with him - he is the first one to really discuss these issues as far as I know.
Book Description
This beautifully illustrated book highlights the unique history of The Société Anonyme, Inc., an organization founded in 1920 by the artists Katherine S. Dreier (1877–1952), Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968), and Man Ray (1890–1976). As America’s first “experimental museum” for modern art, the Société Anonyme provided a means for artists, rather than historians, to chronicle the rise of modernism. Led by Dreier and Duchamp, the group eventually assembled a collection of more than one thousand artworks, which it presented to the public in a variety of innovative programs, publications, and exhibitions.
The incredible collection of the Société Anonyme now belongs to the Yale University Art Gallery, a gift from the Société and Dreier. It features the work of more than one hundred artists, many of whom are among the century’s most renowned—including Jean Arp, Duchamp, Max Ernst, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, El Lissitzky, Piet Mondrian, Man Ray, Kurt Schwitters, and Joseph Stella—as well as works by lesser-known artists whose contributions to modernism are substantial.
With new archival information, including personal correspondence between Dreier and the artists whose work she assembled, a host of previously unpublished images, essays by leading scholars, and an interview with artists Robert and Sylvia Mangold about the contemporary significance of this collection, this fascinating book is essential to our understanding of the reception and interpretation of modernism in America.
Customer Reviews:
Catalogs a wonderful exhibit.......2007-02-10
Here's the story--well told and illustrated--of modernist art in the U.S. Lots of revelations here--the woman who was the driving force behind the movement; the breadth and scope of the many, many artists who were part of it; and the amazing number of talented women who produced some incredible art in this context. The book is well researched and organized and is destined to be an important reference work.
Superior Art Exhibit Catalog.......2006-07-27
I recently attended the Societe Anonyme Exhibition at the UCLA Hammer Museum in Los Angles. The accompanying catalog is outstanding both in terms of the essay material and many photographs. I have a large collection of museum art catalogs and this one rates at the top. For anyone interested in the history of an important era in early Twentieth Century American modern art this monograph is a wonderful place to start.
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