Beautiful Democracy: Aesthetics and Anarchy in a Global Era (ISBN 0226096297)

well researched:
The author collects a striking range of materials for this examination of ideas about art and aesthetics at the turn of the 20th century, from university dissertations to Charlie Chaplain and all kinds of texts and objects in between. It is refreshing to see a work of cultural studies scholarship that acknowledges and explores the progressive possibilities of aesthetics. On the other hand, the range of materials explored sometimes makes the arguments indistinct; there is a risk of defaulting to a "both/and" position that loses critical purchase. Did people believe aesthetic objects and experience could foster middle-class order (and tamp down working-class dissent), or did they fear/hope it could incite violence and open new solidarities? Well, both--but that answer is to be expected when "aesthetics" means flowers, sculpture, lynching, novels, bodily sensation, and esperanto. Nevertheless, there are sharp sub-arguments in this book and many fascinating discussions that offer a textured look at the period of about 1880-1930.