"By 1966, the composer Virgil Thomson would write, "Truth is, there is no avant-garde today." How did the avant garde dissolve, and why? In this thought-provoking work, Stuart D. Hobbs traces the avant garde from its origins to its eventual appropriation by a conservative political agenda, consumer culture, and the institutional world of art.
A historian with the Ohio Historical Society, Stuart D. Hobbs received his Ph.D. in American History from Ohio State University.
"A significant work for intellectual and cultural historians, this is a tight, . . . focused examination of an important aspect of recent American culture." (Choice) "Hobbs provides ample grounds for readers to ponder the interplay between particular movements in the arts and a larger American culture in the late 1950s and early 1960s." (American Historical Review)
