- History & Criticism (522)
Bestsellers
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Paris in Ruins
- Love, War, and the Birth of Impressionism
- By: Sebastian Smee
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Incisive and absorbing, Paris in Ruins captures the shifting passions and politics of the art world, revealing how the siege and the chaos of the Commune had a profound impact on modern art, and how artistic genius can emerge from darkness and catastrophe.
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a fascinating historical, political, cultural, and artistic nexus in time
- By James Hanley on 11-28-24
By: Sebastian Smee
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Color
- A Natural History of the Palette
- By: Victoria Finlay
- Narrated by: Victoria Finlay
- Length: 15 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In this vivid and captivating journey through the colors of an artist’s palette, Victoria Finlay takes us on an enthralling adventure around the world and through the ages, illuminating how the colors we choose to value have determined the history of culture itself....
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A scrumptious, colorful adventure. Must read
- By Anonymous User on 07-26-23
By: Victoria Finlay
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All That Glitters
- A Story of Friendship, Fraud, and Fine Art
- By: Orlando Whitfield
- Narrated by: Orlando Whitfield
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
All That Glitters is a dazzling insider’s account of the contemporary art world and the stunning rise and fall of the charismatic American art dealer Inigo Philbrick, as seen through the eyes of his friend and fellow dealer.
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Gripping
- By Anonymous User on 09-01-24
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Ninth Street Women
- Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler: Five Painters and the Movement That Changed Modern Art
- By: Mary Gabriel
- Narrated by: Lisa Stathoplos
- Length: 40 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Five women revolutionize the modern art world in postwar America in this "gratifying, generous, and lush" true story from a National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize finalist (Jennifer Szalai, New York Times)....
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Painful pronunciation issues!
- By Curious Artist Librarian on 05-20-19
By: Mary Gabriel
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The Secret Lives of Color
- By: Kassia St. Clair
- Narrated by: Kassia St. Clair
- Length: 8 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The unforgettable, unknown history of colors and the vivid stories behind them....
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More about pigments than social history
- By Jason Toon on 12-13-20
By: Kassia St. Clair
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Art & Fear
- Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking
- By: David Bayles, Ted Orland
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 3 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Art & Fear explores the way art gets made, the reasons it often doesn't get made, and the nature of the difficulties that cause so many artists to give up along the way....
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Amazing!
- By Anonymous User on 05-10-12
By: David Bayles, and others
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Paris in Ruins
- Love, War, and the Birth of Impressionism
- By: Sebastian Smee
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Incisive and absorbing, Paris in Ruins captures the shifting passions and politics of the art world, revealing how the siege and the chaos of the Commune had a profound impact on modern art, and how artistic genius can emerge from darkness and catastrophe.
-
-
a fascinating historical, political, cultural, and artistic nexus in time
- By James Hanley on 11-28-24
By: Sebastian Smee
-
Color
- A Natural History of the Palette
- By: Victoria Finlay
- Narrated by: Victoria Finlay
- Length: 15 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this vivid and captivating journey through the colors of an artist’s palette, Victoria Finlay takes us on an enthralling adventure around the world and through the ages, illuminating how the colors we choose to value have determined the history of culture itself....
-
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A scrumptious, colorful adventure. Must read
- By Anonymous User on 07-26-23
By: Victoria Finlay
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All That Glitters
- A Story of Friendship, Fraud, and Fine Art
- By: Orlando Whitfield
- Narrated by: Orlando Whitfield
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
All That Glitters is a dazzling insider’s account of the contemporary art world and the stunning rise and fall of the charismatic American art dealer Inigo Philbrick, as seen through the eyes of his friend and fellow dealer.
-
-
Gripping
- By Anonymous User on 09-01-24
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Ninth Street Women
- Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler: Five Painters and the Movement That Changed Modern Art
- By: Mary Gabriel
- Narrated by: Lisa Stathoplos
- Length: 40 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Five women revolutionize the modern art world in postwar America in this "gratifying, generous, and lush" true story from a National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize finalist (Jennifer Szalai, New York Times)....
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Painful pronunciation issues!
- By Curious Artist Librarian on 05-20-19
By: Mary Gabriel
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The Secret Lives of Color
- By: Kassia St. Clair
- Narrated by: Kassia St. Clair
- Length: 8 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The unforgettable, unknown history of colors and the vivid stories behind them....
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More about pigments than social history
- By Jason Toon on 12-13-20
By: Kassia St. Clair
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Art & Fear
- Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking
- By: David Bayles, Ted Orland
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 3 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Art & Fear explores the way art gets made, the reasons it often doesn't get made, and the nature of the difficulties that cause so many artists to give up along the way....
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Amazing!
- By Anonymous User on 05-10-12
By: David Bayles, and others
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The Rise
- Creativity, the Gift of Failure, and the Search for Mastery
- By: Sarah Lewis
- Narrated by: Sarah Lewis
- Length: 6 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
It is one of the enduring enigmas of the human experience: many of our most iconic, creative endeavors are not achievements but conversions, corrections after failed attempts....
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Inspiring and artful
- By Anonymous User on 06-13-16
By: Sarah Lewis
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The Story of Art Without Men
- By: Katy Hessel
- Narrated by: Katy Hessel
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Have your sense of art history overturned and your eyes opened to many artforms often ignored or dismissed. From the Cornish coast to Manhattan, Nigeria to Japan, this is the history of art as it's never been told before....
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Great book, no pdf?
- By Amazon Customer on 08-11-24
By: Katy Hessel
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Twelve Caesars
- Images of Power from the Ancient World to the Modern (Bollingen Series)
- By: Mary Beard
- Narrated by: Mary Beard
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
This audiobook narrated by best-selling author Mary Beard explores how images of Roman autocrats have influenced art, culture, and the representation of power....
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This foray into art history is a disappointment.
- By Stephen J Chiulli on 11-10-21
By: Mary Beard
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The Monuments Men
- Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History
- By: Robert M. Edsel, Bret Witter
- Narrated by: Jeremy Davidson
- Length: 14 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
At the same time Adolf Hitler was attempting to take over the western world, his armies were methodically seeking and hoarding the finest art treasures in Europe.....
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Interesting listen
- By Laurie on 12-22-09
By: Robert M. Edsel, and others
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The Unseen Truth
- When Race Changed Sight in America
- By: Sarah Lewis
- Narrated by: Sarah Lewis
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The award-winning art historian and founder of the Vision & Justice project uncovers a pivotal era in the story of race in the United States when Americans came to ignore the truth about the false foundations of the nation’s racial regime.
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Learning to see, and unsee.
- By Anonymous User on 10-30-24
By: Sarah Lewis
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On Photography
- By: Susan Sontag
- Narrated by: Jennifer Van Dyck
- Length: 6 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
First published in 1973, this is a study of the force of photographic images, which are continually inserted between experience and reality....
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I'm Glad I Bought, Despite Some Negative Reviews
- By DEF on 10-18-13
By: Susan Sontag
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Beauty
- A Very Short Introduction
- By: Roger Scruton
- Narrated by: Chris MacDonnell
- Length: 6 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In this Very Short Introduction audiobook, the renowned philosopher Roger Scruton explores the concept of beauty, asking what makes an object beautiful and examining how we can compare differing judgments of beauty when it is evident all around us that our tastes vary so widely....
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Introduction to Beauty
- By Adam Shields on 05-03-19
By: Roger Scruton
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Hilma af Klint
- A Biography
- By: Julia Voss, Anne Posten - translator
- Narrated by: Doria Bramante
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The Swedish painter Hilma af Klint (1862-1944) was forty-four years old when she broke with the academic tradition in which she had been trained to produce a body of radical, abstract works the likes of which had never been seen before....
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Ruined by narration
- By Adeliese Baumann on 11-23-23
By: Julia Voss, and others
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Postmodernism
- A Very Short Introduction
- By: Christopher Butler
- Narrated by: Christine Williams
- Length: 4 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Postmodernism has become the buzzword of contemporary society over the last decade. But how can it be defined? In this highly engaging introduction, the mysteries of this most elusive of concepts are unraveled, casting a critical light upon the way we live now....
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Misleading Title
- By Anonymous User on 01-06-23
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The Upside-Down World
- Meetings with the Dutch Masters
- By: Benjamin Moser
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Arriving as a young writer in an ancient Dutch town, Benjamin Moser found himself visiting—casually at first, and then more and more obsessively—the country's great museums....
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Great Book
- By Anonymous User on 02-29-24
By: Benjamin Moser
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Rembrandt Is in the Wind
- Learning to Love Art Through the Eyes of Faith
- By: Russ Ramsey, Makoto Fujimura
- Narrated by: Zach Hoffman, John Behrens
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Rembrandt Is in the Wind is an invitation to discover some of the world's most celebrated artists and works and how each of them illuminates something about God, people, and the purpose of life....
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Creating Beauty as Our Lifework
- By Anonymous User on 07-02-22
By: Russ Ramsey, and others
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Michelangelo, God's Architect
- The Story of His Final Years and Greatest Masterpiece
- By: William E. Wallace
- Narrated by: Simon Callow
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Michelangelo, God's Architect is the first book to tell the full story of Michelangelo's final two decades, when the peerless artist refashioned himself into the master architect of St. Peter’s Basilica and other major buildings....
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Michelangelo, architect, urban designer, artist
- By Marco on 09-16-20
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Mad Enchantment
- Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies
- By: Ross King
- Narrated by: Joel Richards
- Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
We have all seen, whether live, in photographs or on postcards, some of Claude Monet's legendary water lily paintings....
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Wonderful book. Awful awful narration.
- By Anonymous User on 06-23-17
By: Ross King
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Picasso's War
- How Modern Art Came to America
- By: Hugh Eakin
- Narrated by: Mack Sanderson
- Length: 15 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A riveting story of how dueling ambitions and the power of prodigy made America the cultural center of the world—and Picasso the most famous artist alive—in the shadow of World War II....
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Better Books on Picasso Available
- By john burke on 08-17-22
By: Hugh Eakin
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Hot, Cold, Heavy, Light, 100 Art Writings 1988-2018
- By: Peter Schjeldahl, Jarrett Earnest - introduction
- Narrated by: Peter Schjeldahl
- Length: 15 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Hot Cold Heavy Light collects 100 writings that taken together form a group portrait of many of the world’s most significant and interesting artists. From Pablo Picasso to Cindy Sherman, Old Masters to contemporary masters, paintings to comix, and saints to charlatans....
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needs pictures
- By Anonymous User on 02-19-20
By: Peter Schjeldahl, and others
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Poststructuralism
- A Very Short Introduction
- By: Catherine Belsey
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 3 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Poststructuralism changes the way we understand the relations between human beings, their culture, and the world. This Very Short Introduction traces the key arguments that have led poststructuralists to challenge traditional theories of language and culture....
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Brilliantly done, excellent narration
- By Anonymous User on 11-26-24
By: Catherine Belsey
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Minor Feelings
- An Asian American Reckoning
- By: Cathy Park Hong
- Narrated by: Cathy Park Hong
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Poet and essayist Cathy Park Hong fearlessly and provocatively blends memoir, cultural criticism, and history to expose fresh truths about racialized consciousness in America. Part memoir and part cultural criticism, this collection is vulnerable, humorous, and provocative....
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Essential
- By Anonymous User on 03-04-20
By: Cathy Park Hong
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Plutarch's Lives, Volume 1 of 2
- By: Plutarch
- Narrated by: B. J. Harrison
- Length: 41 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Plutarchs's (46-120 A.D.) epic chronicle of the lives of great Grecians and Romans....
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TABLE of CONTENTS here:
- By Amazon Customer on 02-24-16
By: Plutarch
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A Little History of Art
- Little Histories Series
- By: Charlotte Mullins
- Narrated by: Rachael Beresford
- Length: 11 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Charlotte Mullins brings art to life through the stories of those who created it and, importantly, reframes who is included in the narrative to create a more diverse and exciting landscape of art....
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Give it a solid meh.
- By Anonymous User on 09-05-24
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William Blake vs the World
- By: John Higgs
- Narrated by: John Higgs
- Length: 11 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A wild and unexpected journey through culture, science, philosophy, and religion to better understand the mercurial genius of William Blake....
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Best book ever
- By idamae on 11-04-22
By: John Higgs
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Art Is Life
- Icons and Iconoclasts, Visionaries and Vigilantes, and Flashes of Hope in the Night
- By: Jerry Saltz
- Narrated by: Jerry Saltz, Mark Bramhall
- Length: 16 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Jerry Saltz is one of our most-watched writers about art and artists and a passionate champion of the importance of art in our shared cultural life. Since the 1990s he has been an indispensable cultural voice: Witty and provocative, he has attracted contemporary listeners to fine art....
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WRONG for audio program
- By Anonymous User on 11-07-22
By: Jerry Saltz
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Caravaggio
- Painter of Miracles
- By: Francine Prose
- Narrated by: Ann Richardson
- Length: 4 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Francine Prose's life of Caravaggio evokes the genius of this great artist through a brilliant reading of his paintings. Caravaggio defied the aesthetic conventions of his time....
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The written
- By Anonymous User on 10-03-24
By: Francine Prose
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Fierce Poise
- Helen Frankenthaler and 1950s New York
- By: Alexander Nemerov
- Narrated by: Alison Fraser
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A dazzling biography of one of the 20th century's most respected painters, Helen Frankenthaler, Fierce Poise is an exhilarating ride through New York's 1950s art scene and a brilliant portrait of a young artist through the moments that shaped her....
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Fierce Poise
- By adnil on 06-16-21
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Botticelli's Secret
- The Lost Drawings and the Rediscovery of the Renaissance
- By: Joseph Luzzi
- Narrated by: Keith Szarabajka
- Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A true historical “detective story” full of insight about how we look at art―and the artists and eras that produced it....
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Great story
- By Anonymous User on 12-09-22
By: Joseph Luzzi