Modernism at the Barricades is an erudite, wide-ranging, and provocative exploration of the twentieth-century avant-garde in all of its rich and multifaceted guises and incarnations. As Bronner shows, modernism sought to dash the beautiful illusions of art for art's sake to produce a resurrection of lived experience amid the ruins of a declining bourgeois civilization. If this ambitious aesthetic program 'failed,' it was, as Bronner demonstrates, a magnificent failure from which we stand to learn much today.
Richard Wolin, Graduate Center, City University of New York, and author of The Wind from the East: French Intellectuals, the Cultural Revolution, and the Legacy of the 1960s A champion of clarity with a style to match, Stephen Eric Bronner has produced a capacious and fascinating survey of some of modernism's greatest achievements. It is also, miraculously, a genealogy and an inspiration for cultural politics today. Bronner's book goes back to basics, enabling us to feel what it felt like when 'make it new' was new. With his trademark verve, ambition, and deep erudition, he not only covers the whole of modernism but also stands up for a beleaguered modernity.
Bruce Robbins, Columbia University, author of Upward Mobility and the Common Good: Toward a Literary History of the Welfare State A work of scope and substance that merits serious attention from modernist scholars everywhere.
David Weir Modernism/Modernity An unusually compelling and provocative, book that draws on [Bronner's] extensive knowledge of the artistic and political movements of the twentieth century... A smart, engaging, and compelling book... wonderful.
Simon Stow New Political Science [A] thought-provoking book.
Sean Sayers H-Socialisms