Essays by Christian G. Appy, Andrew J. Bacevich, John Prados, and others offer "history at its best, meaning, at its most useful." —Howard ZinnFrom the launch of the "Shock and Awe" invasion in March 2003 through President George W. Bush's declaration of "Mission Accomplished" two months later, the war in Iraq was meant to demonstrate definitively that the United States had learned the lessons of Vietnam. This new book makes clear that something closer to the oppos...

The first major biography of the pathbreaking, perpetually influential surrealist artist and iconoclast whose inspiration can be seen in everyone from Jasper Johns to Beyoncé—by the celebrated biographer of Cézanne and BraqueIn this thought-provoking life of René Magritte (1898-1967), Alex Danchev makes a compelling case for Magritte as the single most significant purveyor of images to the modern world. Magritte’s surreal sensibility, deadpan melodrama, and fine-tu...

The long-awaited, fresh and accurate new translation of the correspondence of Paul Cézanne. For this richly-illustrated edition, Alex Danchev has gone back to the original manuscripts, clearing up decades of questionable scholarship. Cézanne was a singular thinker and an uncompromising seeker after artistic truth qualities that shine through in the letters which reveal the mans very human hopes and fears as he strove to harness his artistic passion. The result is a collection of over 250 l...

The Iraq War and Democratic Politics contains the work of leading scholars concerned with the political implications of the Iraq War and its relationship to and significance for democracy. The book shuns simplistic analysis and provides a nuanced and critical overview of this key moment in global politics. Subjects covered include:* the underlying moral and political issues raised by the war* US foreign policy and the Middle East* the fundamental dilemmas and...

With 32-pages of full-color inserts, and black-and-white illustrations throughout.Alex Danchev gives us the first comprehensive assessment of the revolutionary work and restless life of Paul Cézanne to be published in decades. One of the most influential painters of his time and beyond, Cézanne was the exemplary artist-creator of the modern age who changed the way we see the world.With brisk intellect, rich documentation, and eighty-eight color and fifty-tw...

Today we view Cézanne as a monumental figure, but during his lifetime (1839-1906), many did not understand him or his work. With brilliant insight, drawing on a vast range of primary sources, Alex Danchev tells the story of an artist who was never accepted into the official Salon: he was considered a revolutionary at best and a barbarian at worst, whose paintings were unfinished, distorted and strange. His work sold to no one outside his immediate circle until his late thirties, and he mai...

The first major biography of the pathbreaking, perpetually influential surrealist artist and iconoclast whose inspiration can be seen in everyone from Jasper Johns to Beyoncé—by the celebrated biographer of Cézanne and BraqueIn this thought-provoking life of René Magritte (1898‒1967), Alex Danchev makes a compelling case for Magritte as the single most significant purveyor of images to the modern world. Magritte’s surreal sensibility, deadpan melodrama, and fine-tu...

Valtesse de la Bigne was a celebrated nineteenth-century Parisian courtesan. She was painted by Manet and inspired Emile Zola, who immortalised her in his scandalous novel Nana. Her rumoured affairs with Napoleon III and the future Edward VII kept gossip columns full.But her glamourous existence hid a dark secret: she was no Comtesse. She was born into abject poverty, raised on a squalid Paris backstreet; the lowest of the low. Yet she transformed herself into an enchantress who po...

The innovative works of the Post-Impressionist Paul Cézanne laid the foundations of a new and radically different form of art in the twentieth century. Challenging the conventional values of art in his time, Cézanne’s insistence on personal expression and the integrity of the painting itself, regardless of subject matter, have since earned him universal praise among his fellow artists, with Matisse and Picasso calling him "the father of us all." Delphi’s Masters of Art Se...

"[An] epic account of life and loves among artists and writers in Paris from belle époque to world slump." —William Feaver , The SpectatorA legendary capital of the arts, Paris hosted some of the most legendary developments in world culture—particularly at the beginning of the twentieth century, with the flowering of fauvism, cubism, dadaism, and surrealism.In Bohemian Paris, Dan Franck leads us on a vivid and magical tour of the Paris of ...

Modigliani (1884-1920) was a painter of great unhappiness in his native Italy and felt only sorrow in his adopted country of France. Out of this discontent came forth Modigliani’s original work, which was influenced by African art, the Cubists, and drunken nights in Montparnasse. His portrayal of women—sensual bodies, almost aggressive nudity, and mysterious faces—expresses their suffering and feelings of being unloved and unjustly disregarded. Modigliani died at the age of 36.