Art and Its Relation to Society

Cheney Sheldon . A World History of Art. (The Viking Press: New York, 1937)

Boas F. Primitive Art. (Harvard University Press: Cambridge, 1927)

The standard work today on the anthropology of art.

Bosanquet B. History of Aesthetic. (Allen and Unwin: London, 1922)

A book exemplifying the idealistic conception of the relation of art to cultural development.

Coulton G. G. Art and the Reformation. (Basil Blaekwell: Oxford, 1928)

Damrosch Walter . NBC Music Appreciation Hour. 1932–33. (National Broadcasting Co., Inc.: New York, 1932)

Dewey John and Others. Art and Education. (Barnes Foundation Press: Philadelphia, 1929)

Dewey J Art as Experience. (Minton, Balch and Co.: New York, 1934) A book that stresses the intimate relation between art and society and the importance of each for the other. An antidote to all insulative theories of art.

Fletcher Bannister . History of Architecture. (Charles Scribner's Sons: New York, 1921)

Harrison Jane E. Ancient Art and Ritual. (Henry Holt and Co.: New York, 1913) A book exemplifying most of Tolstoy's fallacies, but hidden under a cloak of scholarship and erudition. Very valuable for making one aware of the pitfalls of esthetic-social thinking.

Hirn Yego . Origins of Art. (The Macmillan Co.: New York, 1937)

Lifshitz Mikhail . The Philosophy of Art of Karl Marx. (Critics Group Press: New York, 1938)

Munro Thomas . “Modern Art and Social Problems.” Art Education Today: 1938. (Teachers College Bureau of Publications: New York, 1938)

Munro Thomas . “Art and world citizenship.” American Magazine of Art, October, 1938

Parrington V. L. Main Currents in American Thought. (Harcourt, Brace and Co.: New York, 1927) A very fine book in which literary art is used as a means of showing the rationale of social movements. A model of its kind, for it describes the force and contents of works of art that have been influential as causes or effects of social movements and leaves open questions of esthetic evaluation.

Phillips L. M. Art and Environment. (Henry Holt and Co.: New York, 1911)

Plekhanov George V. Art and Society. (Critics Group Press: New York, 1937)

Read Eerbert . Art and Society. (The Macmillan Co.: New York, 1937)

Santayana G. Reason in Art. (Charles Seribner's Sons: New York, 1906) A good illustration of the spirit of a naturalistic approach towards the relation of art to society.

Sfengler O. Decline of the West. (Alfred A. Knopf; New York, 1926) Good example of a widespread conception of social phenomena on the analogy of an organism that is born, matures, declines, and dies — with accompanying evaluations. Not to be too readily discarded as a complete absurdity.

Stolper F. J. P. , and Fenn Henry , Integration at Work: Six Greek Cities. (Teachers College Bureau of Publications: New York, 1939)

Taine H. Lectures on Art. (Henry Holt and Co.: New York, 1875)

Taine H. The Ideal in Art. (Leypoldt & Holt: New York, 1869) History of English Literature. (Colonial Press: New York) The outstanding example of the identification of esthetic values with the cultural interests of social epochs. These books deserve careful study from the point of view of method however much one may disagree with expressed judgments on men and their works.

Tolstoy Leo . What Is Art and What Is Religion. (Thomas Y. Crowel Co.: New York, 1898) Sincere, and mistaken, identification of art with religious movements, valuable as exemplifying all the fallacies of method in esthetics.

Veblen Thorstein . Theory of the Leisure Class. (Viking Press: New York, 1935)