Stephen F. Eisenman is Professor of Art History at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. His books include The Temptation of Saint Redon (1992), Gauguin's Skirt (1997), Nineteenth-Century Art, A Critical History, now in its third edition and The Abu Ghraib Effect (Reaktion Books, 2007). He lives in Highland Park, Illinois.

[a] potent book . . . This brilliantly argued volume should be read by all art historians - The Art BookIlluminating and timely . . . Eisenman's concepts and questions constitute a challenging discourse on politics and art. - Art in AmericaAn unflinching analysis that will long endure - as will our stark memories of the horrors unleashed by the administration of George W. Bush. - Professor David Craven, author of Art and Revolution in Latin America, 1910-1990Stephen Eisenman’s provocative discussion of the omnipresence of the imagery of aggression, domination, and subjugation in Western art is as disturbing as it is timely. Coming as it does in the wake of the exposure of American torture of detainees, it reminds us that what we call culture is as marked by the evidence of cruelty and brutality as is the history of warfare itself. His book is an exemplary demonstration of the inseparability of the aesthetic and the political. - Abigail Solomon-Godeau, Professor of Art History, University of California Santa Barbara

• Preface 7 1 Resemblance 11 2 Freudian Slip 18 3 Documents of Barbarism 42 4 Pathos Formula 60 5 Stages of Cruelty 73 6 Muscle and Bone 92 7 Theatre of Cruelty 101 8 Orientalism 108 Afterword: What is Western Art? 111 References 123 Acknowledgements 139 Photographic Acknowledgements 141

Stephen F. Eisenman is Professor of Art History at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. His books include The Temptation of Saint Redon (1992), Gauguin's Skirt (1997), Nineteenth-Century Art, A Critical History, now in its third edition and The Abu Ghraib Effect (Reaktion Books, 2007). He lives in Highland Park, Illinois.

[a] potent book . . . This brilliantly argued volume should be read by all art historians - The Art BookIlluminating and timely . . . Eisenman's concepts and questions constitute a challenging discourse on politics and art. - Art in AmericaAn unflinching analysis that will long endure - as will our stark memories of the horrors unleashed by the administration of George W. Bush. - Professor David Craven, author of Art and Revolution in Latin America, 1910-1990Stephen Eisenman’s provocative discussion of the omnipresence of the imagery of aggression, domination, and subjugation in Western art is as disturbing as it is timely. Coming as it does in the wake of the exposure of American torture of detainees, it reminds us that what we call culture is as marked by the evidence of cruelty and brutality as is the history of warfare itself. His book is an exemplary demonstration of the inseparability of the aesthetic and the political. - Abigail Solomon-Godeau, Professor of Art History, University of California Santa Barbara

• Preface 7 1 Resemblance 11 2 Freudian Slip 18 3 Documents of Barbarism 42 4 Pathos Formula 60 5 Stages of Cruelty 73 6 Muscle and Bone 92 7 Theatre of Cruelty 101 8 Orientalism 108 Afterword: What is Western Art? 111 References 123 Acknowledgements 139 Photographic Acknowledgements 141

Stephen F. Eisenman is Professor of Art History at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. His books include The Temptation of Saint Redon (1992), Gauguin's Skirt (1997), Nineteenth-Century Art, A Critical History, now in its third edition and The Abu Ghraib Effect (Reaktion Books, 2007). He lives in Highland Park, Illinois.

[a] potent book . . . This brilliantly argued volume should be read by all art historians - The Art BookIlluminating and timely . . . Eisenman's concepts and questions constitute a challenging discourse on politics and art. - Art in AmericaAn unflinching analysis that will long endure - as will our stark memories of the horrors unleashed by the administration of George W. Bush. - Professor David Craven, author of Art and Revolution in Latin America, 1910-1990Stephen Eisenman’s provocative discussion of the omnipresence of the imagery of aggression, domination, and subjugation in Western art is as disturbing as it is timely. Coming as it does in the wake of the exposure of American torture of detainees, it reminds us that what we call culture is as marked by the evidence of cruelty and brutality as is the history of warfare itself. His book is an exemplary demonstration of the inseparability of the aesthetic and the political. - Abigail Solomon-Godeau, Professor of Art History, University of California Santa Barbara

• Preface 7 1 Resemblance 11 2 Freudian Slip 18 3 Documents of Barbarism 42 4 Pathos Formula 60 5 Stages of Cruelty 73 6 Muscle and Bone 92 7 Theatre of Cruelty 101 8 Orientalism 108 Afterword: What is Western Art? 111 References 123 Acknowledgements 139 Photographic Acknowledgements 141