Arizonarsquo;s art history is emblematic of the story of the modern West; and few periods in that history were more significant than the era of the New Deal. From Dorothea Lange and Ansel Adams to painters and muralists including Native American Gerald Nailor; the artists working in Arizona under New Deal programs were a notable group whose art served a distinctly public purpose. Their photography; paintings; and sculptures remain significant exemplars of federal art patronage and offer telling lessons positioned at the intersection of community history and culture.Art is a powerful instrument of historical record and cultural construction; and many of the issues captured by the Farm Security Administration photographers remain significant issues today: migratory labor; the economic volatility of the mining industry; tourism; and water usage. Art tells important stories; too; including the work of Japanese American photographer Toyo Miyatake in Arizonarsquo;s internment camps; murals by Native American artist Gerald Nailor for the Navajo Nation Council Chamber in Window Rock; and African American themes at Fort Huachuca. Illustrated with 100 black-andwhite photographs and covering a wide range of both media and themes; this fascinating and accessible volume reclaims a richly textured story of Arizona history with potent lessons for today.
#2156717 in eBooks 2016-06-07 2016-06-07File Name: B01GI5F69U
Review
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful. A guided trip through musical Co. Clare from a deeply knowledgeable guideBy Leacute;itheoirGearoacute;id Oacute; hAllmhuraacute;in is an Irish-music polymath. He is a scholar. a gifted teacher. an academic musicologist. a linguist. an entertaining raconteur and a master of several instruments (not to mention. a Clare native) ndash; in other words. he possesses every qualification you could ask for in a guide through the musical landscape (the soundscape. as Gearoacute;id would have it) of storied Co. Clare.The beginning of the book may be a bit of a slog because of the academic groundwork that uses a lot of big difficult words. But it soon settles down into a multi-dimensional narrative covering the history. geography. social milieu and. most importantly. the personalities underlying the music in Clare.For an art-form that came perilously close to extinction. the vitality and global reach of the dance music that Gearoacute;id documents is heartening [for those with an understanding of Irish. the punning Che Do Bheatha Musical Festival is a clever linking of Clare and Latin America] but it also is a sad reminder of the lost native ("as Gaeilge") song treasure that he also chronicles. Just as the found was nearly lost. what has been lost could have been fairly easily found if Pearses words at Donovan Rossas graveside ("not free merely. but Gaelic as well") had been given anything more than hypocritical lip service.Indeed. as the book details. what was saved wasnt thanks to the governing organs of state or church. If anything. as evidenced by the Dance Hall Act of 1935. these puritanical and grasping bodies were the musics enemies rather that friends. Instead the job was left to ordinary country folk. who were looked down on for it. and to a few outsiders such as Seacute;amus Ennis (fortuitously. a namesake of the county town) and Ciaraacute;n MacMathuacute;na.It may seem strange that someplace as isolated as Clare ndash; "a periphery on the edge of a periphery" and a place where. as a Cromwellian once put it. "there was not enough wood to hang a man. enough water to drown a man. or enough earth to bury a man" ndash; would become a "seminal and absolutely central conduit of musical experience on both sides of the Atlantic." But once upon a time. just as beer was safer to drink than disease-laden water. roads were so bad that water routes were the highways of the day. In Clare. to paraphrase the Dubliners musical group.it was a case of "thank God were [almost] surrounded by water" ndash; the county being a virtual peninsula with the Atlantic to the west and the Shannon to the south and east. It may be that Clare was accessible enough to get the music and isolated enough to keep it. As it puts it so nicely. the "book explores music roots and music routes in Clare through a century of austere colonialism and an equally strained century of postcolonialism. both of which exposed the region to intense musical traffic."I read the book in a pre-publication Kindle edition on an iPad which took me a lot longer to read than a paper version would have ndash; not because there is anything particularly difficult with an ebook but because I found myself continually wandering over the immediately available internet following up on ideas that Gearoacute;id brings up in the text and in extensive notes. I would read something provocative or just interesting that would send me off on. maybe. hourlong trips down exploratory byways before returning to drink some more at the well.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Flowing Tides describes plenty of great characters along with some wonderful photosBy CustomerFor anyone who enjoys Irish traditional music and is interested in the rich heritage of Clare music and musicians. this is one book not to be missed.Being a musician himself Gearoid writes from the heart with an authentic voice. Flowing Tides describes plenty of great characters along with some wonderful photos.~Vincent Keehan.
