| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 96.1

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 96.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Visual Shock: A History of Art Controversies in American Culture. By Michael Kammen. (New York: Vintage, 2007. xxvi, 450 pp. Paper, $16.95, ISBN 978-1-4000-3464-2.)

Michael Kammen's purpose in this ambitious book is to "indicat[e] the nature, diversity, and persistence of major disputes generated by art since the 1830s, but also to reveal what has changed and why" (p. xvi). Organized "topically within a chronological framework," the chapters alternate focus among art forms, controversial subjects, problematic styles, and changing museum paradigms (p. xxvi). Sequentially, Kammen addresses memorials; nudity; problems prompted by modernist styles; murals; ideological issues; the 1960s; controversies prompted by large-scale public sculpture; the transformation of the art museum; diversity and inclusion; and a comparison of U.S. and European controversies. Without question Kammen demonstrates that art controversies have always been a part of our culture.

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