American Visions

Download or read book American Visions written by Robert Hughes and published by Vintage. This book was released on 1997 with total page 635 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Robert Hughes begins where American art itself began, with the Native Americans and the first Spanish invaders in the Southwest; he ends with the art of today. In between, in a scholarly text that crackles with wit, intelligence and insight, he tells the story of how American art developed. Hughes investigates the changing tastes of the American public; he explores the effects on art of America's landscape of unparalleled variety and richness; he examines the impact of the melting-pot of cultures that America has always been. Most of all he concentrates on the paintings and art objects themselves and on the men and women - from Winslow Homer and Thomas Eakins to Edward Hopper and Georgia O'Keeffe, from Arthur Dove and George Bellows to Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko -awho created them. This is an uncompromising and refreshingly opinionated exploration of America, told through the lens of its art.

Download or read book Visions in a Seer Stone written by William L. Davis and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2020-04-08 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this interdisciplinary work, William L. Davis examines Joseph Smith's 1829 creation of the Book of Mormon, the foundational text of the Latter Day Saint movement. Positioning the text in the history of early American oratorical techniques, sermon culture, educational practices, and the passion for self-improvement, Davis elucidates both the fascinating cultural context for the creation of the Book of Mormon and the central role of oral culture in early nineteenth-century America. Drawing on performance studies, religious studies, literary culture, and the history of early American education, Davis analyzes Smith's process of oral composition. How did he produce a history spanning a period of 1,000 years, filled with hundreds of distinct characters and episodes, all cohesively tied together in an overarching narrative? Eyewitnesses claimed that Smith never looked at notes, manuscripts, or books—he simply spoke the words of this American religious epic into existence. Judging the truth of this process is not Davis's interest. Rather, he reveals a kaleidoscope of practices and styles that converged around Smith's creation, with an emphasis on the evangelical preaching styles popularized by the renowned George Whitefield and John Wesley.

Download or read book Chicano Visions written by Cheech Marin and published by Bulfinch. This book was released on 2002-09-23 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originating in the early seventies, Chicano art long remained unrecognised by the art and gallery world. This text features the work of 26 Chicano artists and marks the transition of this unique and exciting movement into the critical fold of contemporary art.

Download or read book American Visions: The United States, 1800-1860 written by Edward L. Ayers and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2023-10-24 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “An inspiring book.… American Visions beautifully shows how remarkably resilient dreams of a better republic remained even in the darkest of times.” —Christoph Irmscher, Wall Street Journal A revealing history of the formative period when voices of dissent and innovation defied power and created visions of America still resonant today. With so many of our histories falling into dour critique or blatant celebration, here is a welcome departure: a book that offers hope as well as honesty about the American past. The early decades of the nineteenth century saw the expansion of slavery, Native dispossession, and wars with Canada and Mexico. Mass immigration and powerful religious movements sent tremors through American society. But even as the powerful defended the status quo, others defied it: voices from the margins moved the center; eccentric visions altered the accepted wisdom, and acts of empathy questioned self-interest. Edward L. Ayers’s rich history examines the visions that moved Frederick Douglass, Margaret Fuller, the Native American activist William Apess, and others to challenge entrenched practices and beliefs. So, Lydia Maria Child condemned the racism of her fellow northerners at great personal cost. Melville and Thoreau, Joseph Smith and Samuel Morse all charted new paths for America in the realms of art, nature, belief, and technology. It was Henry David Thoreau who, speaking of John Brown, challenged a hostile crowd "Is it not possible that an individual may be right and a government wrong?" Through decades of award-winning scholarship on the Civil War, Edward L. Ayers has himself ventured beyond the interpretative status quo to recover the range of possibilities embedded in the past as it was lived. Here he turns that distinctive historical sensibility to a period when bold visionaries and critics built vigorous traditions of dissent and innovation into the foundation of the nation. Those traditions remain alive for us today.

Download or read book American Visions of Europe written by John Lamberton Harper and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1996-06-13 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a biographical study of three American statesmen, concentrating on the development of their distinct attitudes and political programs with respect to the problem of Europe in American foreign policy: Roosevelt's partial internationalism, aiming at the retirement of Europe from world politics while avoiding American entanglement; Kennan's partial isolationism, aspiring to restore Europe's centrality and autonomy through temporary American engagement; and Acheson's accommodating interventionism, establishing the United States as a permanent power in Europe at the behest of European and American interests. The purpose of the book is to explain how and why they arrived at very different solutions to the problem of internecine conflict in Europe, and to show the continuing relevance of their ideas. Three learned and elegantly written portraits are set against the background of the dramatic events and foreign policy controversies of the twentieth century.

Download or read book American Visions of the Netherlands East Indies/Indonesia written by Frances Gouda and published by Amsterdam University Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A revealing reassessment of the American government's position towards Indonesia's struggle for independence.

Download or read book Visions of America and Europe written by Christina V. Balis and published by CSIS. This book was released on 2004 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Antologi. Indeholder en undersøgelse af de transatlantiske forbindelser siden terrorangrebene d. 11. september 2001 i USA samt den efterfølgende krig i Irak. Bogen søger at identificere de grupper, som skaber politiken og offentlighedens opfattelse af relationerne på begge sideraf Atlanten. Ligeledes forsøger den at spore oprindelsen til den opståede splid efter 11.september, samt at belyse de nuværende og fremtidige udfordringer til de bilaterale relationer og forholdet generelt mellem USA og Europa. Perspektiverne belyses ved fem europæiske bidragydere med fokus primært på England, Frankrig, Tyskland, Italien og Rusland og suppleret med tre amerikanske bidragydere.