Surveys the representations and constructions of the human being in American art.

Humans are organisms, but “the human being” is a term referring to a complicated, self-contradictory, and historically evolving set of concepts and practices. Humans explores competing versions, constructs, and ideas of the human being that have figured prominently in the arts of the United States. These essays consider a range of artworks from the colonial period to the present, examining how they have reflected, shaped, and modeled ideas of the human in American culture and politics. The book addresses to what extent artworks have conferred more humanity on some human beings than others, how art has shaped ideas about the relationships between humans and other beings and things, and in what ways different artistic constructions of the human being evolved, clashed, and intermingled over the course of American history. Humans both tells the history of a concept foundational to US civilization and proposes new means for its urgently needed rethinking.

About the Authors

Laura Bieger, professor of American Studies, Political Theory and Culture at the University of Groningen, is author of Belonging and Narrative: A Theory of the American Novel and �sthetik der Immersion: Raum-Erleben zwischen Welt und Bild. Las Vegas, Washington und die White City.

Joshua Shannon, professor of Contemporary Art History and Theory at the University of Maryland, is author of The Recording Machine: Art and Fact During the Cold War and The Disappearance of Objects: New York Art and the Rise of the Postmodern City.

Jason Weems, associate professor of American Art and Visual Culture at the University of California, Riverside, is the author of Barnstorming the Prairies: How Aerial Vision Shaped the Midwest and curator of Interrogating Manzanar: Photography, Justice, and the Japanese-American Internment.

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