Publisher's Synopsis
This book examines the antiwar work of one American artist in relation to the cultural history of the Cold War. The study provides new and detailed information on this important artist, while also contributing to the study of masculinity, dissent, art, violence, and war in the last half of the twentieth century. The study clearly reveals that artists' protests against American foreign policy began well before the official U.S. entry in the Vietnam War, and that not all combat veterans looked back fondly on their experience of the Good War. Finally, in drawing attention to the challenges of being a man in a hostile world, Westermann's art enters into a much broader consideration of gender long before this issue became topical in contemporary art. Illustrated. David McCarthy is Associate Professor of the history of art, and director of the American Studies Program at Rhodes College in Tennessee.
