From the Publisher
“This ambitious work offers a novel treatment of aesthetic ideals, positioning beautywhether raw, cultivated or manufacturedat the core of the American enterprise. Lukes’s use of sources is both deft and discerning. He employs a range of disciplinary lenses, compelling us to see beauty as more than visual pleasure, as more than mere luxury. It has long been, instead, a critical component of the story of American liberalism.” (Mary Cathryn Cain, Chair of the History Department, Agnes Scott College, USA and winner of the 2006 Jerome Stern Prize for best article appearing in “Studies in American Culture”)
“In Politics and Beauty in America, Timothy J. Lukes examines the intersection of two expansive domains. He is not the first to take up this task, but his quest to avoid reducing either politics to aesthetics or the reverse, makes his work rare indeed. Lukes is concerned with beauty and its vicissitudes as it goes from being something we discover and explore to being something we adapt and use. His arguments are learned, subtle and deep, as he makes the case that we diminish, indeed risk altogether losing, aspects of beautyits ability to elicit passion, its inaccessibility, its permanencewhen we deploy it for pragmatic purposes. Lukes provides ballast for his theoretical argument by offering detailed discussions of the different ways beauty has been used in influential portrayals of “women, wilderness and automobiles” in American culture. This is a remarkable work, one to be grappled withnot least by those like myself whose views it unsettles.” (James Johnson, Professor of Political Science, University of Rochester, USA author of “The Priority of Democracy” (Princeton University Press) and 2004-2009 member of the Editorial Board of the “American Political Science Review”)
“What is the point of Beauty? That’s the question we ask in the modern liberal world, because we’ve forgotten and downgraded an ideal of disinterested Beauty. To make this argument, Lukes explores an unusual and fascinating American mix, ranging from Barnum’s promotion of Jenny Lind, to Muir’s elevation of wilderness and ingenuity, to GM’s Harley Earl and the adulation of the machine. What are the political repercussions of abandoning Psyche for Belle and can we recover the vision and imagination we’ve lost?” (Arlene Elowe MacLeod, Department of Politics, Bates College, USA and author of “Accommodating Protest”)
“In this book, Timothy J. Lukes advances our understanding of a distinctly American conception of beauty, which is closely tethered to its utility. He offers fresh interpretations and thought-provoking juxtapositions. Of particular note, Lukes provides a three dimensional portrait of John Muir that demonstrates the compatibilityfor better and worsebetween his view of wilderness and American liberalism.” (John M. Meyer, Professor ofPolitics and Environmental Studies, Humboldt State University, USA and author of “Engaging the Everyday: Environmental Social Criticism and the Resonance Dilemma”)
“The subject of beauty in America is a worthy theme that has been greatly neglected by political theorists of all stripes. This new book by Timothy J. Lukes shows one way to approach this huge and important subject. If the measure of a valuable academic book is whether it provides the reader with food for thought to use in one’s one lectures or scholarly work, Lukes has met that standard again and again throughout this book.” (Joseph Phelan, National Endowment for the Humanities and Adjunct Professor, University of Maryland University College, USA)