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As partisan attacks have become increasingly bitter in American politics, contemporary culture has found ways to channel this outrage into the outrageous, responding with comedy and satire from both sides of the political spectrum. Ars Americana, Ars Politica cross-examines American politics, culture, and history by examining Irving Wallace's The Man, Richard Condon's Death of a Politician, P.J. O'Rourke's Parliament of Whores, Warren Beatty's film Bulworth, and Michael Moore's Stupid White Men to show how these popular artists have used soap-box partisanship and box-office artertainment to affect history.
Exploring both literature and culture, Peter Swirski examines a range of topics, such as the mythology of the American presidency, black men in the White House, the price of Reaganomics, and the corrosion of mass media, and figures and institutions, such as the Black Panthers, Richard Nixon, Fox News, and the cast of the Bush Administration.
A wildly entertaining and insightful investigation of contemporary polemics, jeremiads, and dunciads, Ars Americana, Ars Politica peels truth out of the partisan candy wrapper that is American political culture.
"A provocative and energetic book that reaches out beyond academia in an attempt to define the nature of American political literature." Financial Times
"Ars Americana is fascinating and original - and the subject of political literature is endlessly interesting and important. Written with a certain verve which carries the reader along!" Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States