Mark Carroll is Lecturer in Music at the Australian National University, Canberra.

'It is an intelligently written … study which assembles a great deal of contemporary thinking on the issue of modernism in the early 1950s … Carroll's own reflections are well-considered and helpful not only to a fuller understanding of the issues, but in clarifying the thinking of some of those he cites.' Musical Times

• List of figures; Acknowledgements; Introduction: issues and perspectives; 1. Back to the future: Nabokov's selection criteria for L'Oeuvre du XXe siècle; 2. Nabokov, Shostakovich and the view from the bridge; 3. Articles of war: the Prague Manifesto and the Progressistes; 4. Creative freedom or political obligation? Serialism and Stalinism in France; 5. Culture and confrontation at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées; 6. Neither you nor they: the avant-garde and neutralité; 7. Music and Sartrean commitment; 8. René Leibowitz and the musician's conscience; 9. A forlorn hope: Sartre's 'virtual' audience; 10. Serialism, scientism and the post-war world view; Epilogue: the aftermath of L'Oeuvre du XXe siècle; Appendix: the musical programme L'Oeuvre du XXe siècle; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

Mark Carroll is Lecturer in Music at the Australian National University, Canberra.

'It is an intelligently written … study which assembles a great deal of contemporary thinking on the issue of modernism in the early 1950s … Carroll's own reflections are well-considered and helpful not only to a fuller understanding of the issues, but in clarifying the thinking of some of those he cites.' Musical Times

• List of figures; Acknowledgements; Introduction: issues and perspectives; 1. Back to the future: Nabokov's selection criteria for L'Oeuvre du XXe siècle; 2. Nabokov, Shostakovich and the view from the bridge; 3. Articles of war: the Prague Manifesto and the Progressistes; 4. Creative freedom or political obligation? Serialism and Stalinism in France; 5. Culture and confrontation at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées; 6. Neither you nor they: the avant-garde and neutralité; 7. Music and Sartrean commitment; 8. René Leibowitz and the musician's conscience; 9. A forlorn hope: Sartre's 'virtual' audience; 10. Serialism, scientism and the post-war world view; Epilogue: the aftermath of L'Oeuvre du XXe siècle; Appendix: the musical programme L'Oeuvre du XXe siècle; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

Mark Carroll is Lecturer in Music at the Australian National University, Canberra.

'It is an intelligently written … study which assembles a great deal of contemporary thinking on the issue of modernism in the early 1950s … Carroll's own reflections are well-considered and helpful not only to a fuller understanding of the issues, but in clarifying the thinking of some of those he cites.' Musical Times

• List of figures; Acknowledgements; Introduction: issues and perspectives; 1. Back to the future: Nabokov's selection criteria for L'Oeuvre du XXe siècle; 2. Nabokov, Shostakovich and the view from the bridge; 3. Articles of war: the Prague Manifesto and the Progressistes; 4. Creative freedom or political obligation? Serialism and Stalinism in France; 5. Culture and confrontation at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées; 6. Neither you nor they: the avant-garde and neutralité; 7. Music and Sartrean commitment; 8. René Leibowitz and the musician's conscience; 9. A forlorn hope: Sartre's 'virtual' audience; 10. Serialism, scientism and the post-war world view; Epilogue: the aftermath of L'Oeuvre du XXe siècle; Appendix: the musical programme L'Oeuvre du XXe siècle; Notes; Bibliography; Index.