Political Aesthetics
"Sartwell proposes to expound and defend the bold and provocative view that although not all art is political, all politics is aesthetic. . . . Designed as an unconventional and unorthodox treatment of aesthetics and politics, this book is nicely written without too much jargon and enlivened by flashes of wit and insight."—Choice(February 2011)"Beginning with the proposition that not all art is political but all politics is aesthetic, Crispin Sartwell challenges overly sharp distinctions between the domains of art, craft, rhetoric, poetics, and politics.Political Aestheticsis a lively and provocative book highly recommended for all who wish to think deeply about the complex relations between the aesthetic and the political."—Philip Alperson, Temple University"Crispin Sartwell's 'poetics of politics' is a fascinating and refreshingly original study of the interplay of aesthetic values and political values. His balance of theory and application results in a book that deserves a wide audience."—Theodore Gracyk, author ofListening to Popular Music"InPolitical Aesthetics, Crispin Sartwell writes both clearly and wittily, steers away from gratuitous abstraction, and maintains an engagingly direct tone. Sartwell's work on Nazi aesthetics and Riefenstahl, Speer, and Chaplin is sharp and deft, and his consideration of Republican Classicism in early America offers illuminating ideas about aesthetics of harmony, balance, and repose in relation to classical American concepts of politics and government."—Frederick M. Dolan, California College of the Arts and University of California, Berkeley, author ofAllegories of America