The treatment of contemporary critics is also spotty. Maestros of the Pen'' also excludes most criticism of recorded music. Consequently, it fails to address the decisive ways in which recording technology has altered the experience and dissemination of music. These omissions might have undermined the book, but Grant handles his chosen concerns with such intelligence that potential objections become mere qualifications. This may not be a comprehensive history, but it is consistently cogent and thoughtful.
Grant focuses mostly on individual critics.
Examining the lives and opinions of nearly 50 major music journalists, from 19th-century Transcendentalists like J. S. Dwight to contemporary neoconservatives like Samuel Lipman, he uses careers as lenses to view broader cultural developments, and he has a natural gift for the biographical sketch. He concentrates on two eras, which he calls the First and Second Empires. The first was the Gilded Age, from the end of Reconstruction to World War I, which saw the rise of music reviewers as a professional class of critics. Commanding immense readerships in daily newspapers, these cultural mandarins dominated the flow of information and ideas in a way not equaled before or since. The imperious and argumentative Krehbiel typified the cultural eminence of these critics.