Reviews
" The Civil War and American Art is a glorious companion piece to a moving, beautifully curated, perspective-altering show. . . . Harvey's book is perfect for lovers of American art and history." - PopMatters, " The Civil War and American Art is a scholarly and a narrative achievement both harrowing and sublime. Eleanor Jones Harvey has written a keenly critical and often lyrical assessment of the war she calls all but "unpaintable." In genre painting that captured universal meanings out of local episodes in the ugly ironies of war, and especially in the new moods, metaphors, and forms that landscape painters drew from the war, Harvey demonstrates a profound, seismic influence of history on art. But she also brilliantly demonstrates that artists, even the photographers, could not so much re-make the actual history of our Armageddon as they could represent what we might indirectly see or learn from such a withering and mythic experience as modern war."--David W. Blight, Yale University, author of Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory, "Eleanor Jones Harvey's The Civil War and American Art is the rare book that connects the dots between art and history so well that the reader assumes that the subject is well-worn. It is not. The book…deserves to win awards in two disciplines: Art history and American history.…"-Tyler Green, Modern Art Notes, " The Civil War and American Art is a glorious companion piece to a moving, beautifully curated, perspective-altering show. . . . Harvey's book is perfect for lovers of American art and history." -- PopMatters, "The latest from Harvey. . . provides a nuanced, sensitive, and deeply informed accounting of a major period in the history of American art. . . . The comprehensive study manages to remain engaging across its redolent academic and historical interests, creating a sincere excitement appropriate to Harvey's always insightful and vital reckoning with America's scarred past."-- Publishers Weekly , starred review, "Harvey's book is perfect for lovers of American art and history. It has an absorbing, engrossing power of its own akin to the power of what Ken Burns's The Civil War had for the television audience of the '90s. It gives us a profound sense of what the Civil War really was like, how people felt and reacted to it, and its enduring impact on American life. . . . Extraordinary." -- popmatters.com, "The latest from Harvey. . . provides a nuanced, sensitive, and deeply informed accounting of a major period in the history of American art. . . . The comprehensive study manages to remain engaging across its redolent academic and historical interests, creating a sincere excitement appropriate to Harvey's always insightful and vital reckoning with America's scarred past."-- Publishers Weekly , starred review , "One of the great publishing triumphs of the Civil War Sesquicentennial."-- North Carolina Historical Review, "Eleanor Jones Harvey's The Civil War and American Art is the rare book that connects the dots between art and history so well that the reader assumes that the subject is well-worn. It is not. The book...deserves to win awards in two disciplines: Art history and American history...."--Tyler Green, Modern Art Notes , "Harvey skillfully integrates literature and journalism into a thoughtful and rich narrative of this pivotal period. An important cohesive assessment for scholars that is also broadly accessible and well-illustrated…"- Library Journal, starred review, "Harvey's catalogue text stands as a monumental, often thrilling feat of detailed scholarship"-Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker, "Eleanor Jones Harvey's The Civil War and American Art is the rare book that connects the dots between art and history so well that the reader assumes that the subject is well-worn. It is not. The book...deserves to win awards in two disciplines: Art history and American history...."--Tyler Green, Modern Art Notes, "Harvey's catalogue text stands as a monumental, often thrilling feat of detailed scholarship"--Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker, "Harvey skillfully integrates literature and journalism into a thoughtful and rich narrative of this pivotal period. An important cohesive assessment for scholars that is also broadly accessible and well-illustrated..."-- Library Journal, starred review, " The Civil War and American Art is a scholarly and a narrative achievement both harrowing and sublime. Eleanor Jones Harvey has written a keenly critical and often lyrical assessment of the war she calls all but "unpaintable." In genre painting that captured universal meanings out of local episodes in the ugly ironies of war, and especially in the new moods, metaphors, and forms that landscape painters drew from the war, Harvey demonstrates a profound, seismic influence of history on art. But she also brilliantly demonstrates that artists, even the photographers, could not so much re-make the actual history of our Armageddon as they could represent what we might indirectly see or learn from such a withering and mythic experience as modern war."--David W. Blight, Yale University, author of Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory, "One of the great publishing triumphs of the Civil War Sesquicentennial."- North Carolina Historical Review, "The latest from Harvey. . . provides a nuanced, sensitive, and deeply informed accounting of a major period in the history of American art. . . . The comprehensive study manages to remain engaging across its redolent academic and historical interests, creating a sincere excitement appropriate to Harvey's always insightful and vital reckoning with America's scarred past."- Publishers Weekly , starred review
