Beautiful democracy [[electronic resource] ] : aesthetics and anarchy in a global era / / Russ Castronovo

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910453998203321
• Autore: Castronovo Russ <1965->
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Chicago, : University of Chicago Press, 2007
• ISBN: 9786612069697; 1-282-06969-1; 0-226-09630-0
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (302 p.)
• Disciplina: 306.4/70973
• Soggetti: Aesthetics, American; Arts - United States; Democracy - United States; Electronic books.; United States Civilization
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references (p. [255]-270) and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Frontmatter -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction. Aesthetics and the Anarchy of Global Culture -- 1. Flowers and Billy Clubs -- 2. American Literature Internationale -- 3. Beauty Along the Color Line -- 4 . "bombs of laughter" -- 5. Geo-Aesthetics -- Afterword -- Notes -- Works Cited -- Index
• Sommario/riassunto: The photographer and reformer Jacob Riis once wrote, "I have seen an armful of daisies keep the peace of a block better than a policeman and his club." Riis was not alone in his belief that beauty could tame urban chaos, but are aesthetic experiences always a social good? Could aesthetics also inspire violent crime, working-class unrest, and racial murder? To answer these questions, Russ Castronovo turns to those who debated claims that art could democratize culture-civic reformers, anarchists, novelists, civil rights activists, and college professors-to reveal that beauty provi