“This is undoubtedly a moment marked by a serious interest in the actions America is taking on the world stage—actions that have been described as a cause for 'grave concern.' We do not attempt to authoritatively engage these concerns here nor do we wish to insinuate that elevated interest in America's cultural affairs is somehow unique to our present historical moment. We do, however, think that this sampling of discourse by and about a country's visual artists leads to insights about its politics and society not gained elsewhere. […] At the very least, it gives a sense of what it is like to live in the United States today, and results in some inspired debate. We hope that this book serves not only as a valuable compendium of recent writing about contemporary art, but also as inspiration to seek further understanding of these 'Uncertain States.'” So Noah Horowitz and Brian Sholis note in the introduction to this unique compilation of writing around art and cultural politics in America since 2000. Published in collaboration with the Serpentine Gallery, London, and the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, as an addendum to the traveling exhibition Uncertain States of America, curated by Daniel Birnbaum, Gunnar Kvaran, and Hans Ulrich Obrist, the USA Reader was designed by Dexter Sinister. It is a thought-provoking collection that will become an important sourcebook on American culture at the start of the new millennium. Contributors Giorgio Agamben, Dora Apel, Jack Bankowsky, David Barringer, Bernadette Corporation, John Bowe et al., Johanna Burton, Paul Chan, Critical Art Ensemble, Trisha Donnelly, Andrea Fraser, Isabelle Graw, Tim Griffin, Matthew Jesse Jackson, Chris Kraus, Miwon Kwon, Robert Morris, Molly Nesbit, Seth Price, Kymberly N. Pinder, Retort, Ralph Rugoff, Gregory Sholette, Julian Stallabrass, Kirk Varnedoe, Hamza Walker, and Matt Wolf

A groundbreaking study of the extraordinary photographers, writers, printmakers, and publishers who formed a flourishing modernist community in Kentucky Dozens of American cities witnessed the founding of camera clubs in the first half of the 20th century, though few boasted as many accomplished artists as the one based in Lexington, Kentucky. This pioneering book provides the most absorbing account to date of the Lexington Camera Club, an under-studied group of artists whose ranks included Ralph Eugene Meatyard, Van Deren Coke, Robert C. May, James Baker Hall, and Cranston Ritchie. These and other members of the Lexington Camera Club explored the craft and expressive potential of photography. They captured Kentucky's dramatic natural landscape and experimented widely with different techniques, including creating double and multiple exposures or shooting deliberately out-of-focus images. In addition to compiling images by these photographers, this book examines their relationships with writers, publishers, and printmakers based in Kentucky at the time, such as Wendell Berry, Guy Davenport, Jonathan Greene, and Thomas Merton. Moreover, the publication seeks to highlight the unique contributions that the Lexington Camera Club made to 20th-century photography, thus broadening a narrative of modern art that has long focused on New York and Chicago. Featuring a wealth of new scholarship, this fascinating catalogue asserts the importance and artistic achievement of these often overlooked photographers and their circle.

"As for the more long-term solutions, this is certainly a job for the avant-garde, be it in the shape of architects, supercilious tourist intellectuals, secret societies or some other semi-conspiratorial cluster... This demands an avantgarde a little more proactive... and responsive than a Brechtian Villa Aurora... It's hardly a surprise that, over time, most Americans have become suspicious of people sympathetic to avant-gardism, assuming them all to be fascist hyena pigs, ipso facto no less. But in point of fact, America offers a rich tradition of politicized avant-garde conspiracies, the Black Panthers being only the most impressive recent example to have caught the public eye. To be honest, anything in my own book was long tucked away in their laundry list already." Solution 168-185: America is the fourth book in the Solution series. Opting for the United States of America, "still the most proficiently colonial place I know," Zolghadr provides a compilation of highly entertaining "solutions," where the objective is not the education of America so much as the pleasure of a text that purports to be just that. Tirdad Zolghadr is an independent writer/curator based in Berlin. He writes for frieze and other publications, and is editor-at-large for Cabinet magazine. Zolghadr most recently organized the national pavilion of the United Arab Emirates, Venice Biennale 2009, and the long-term project Lapdogs of the Bourgeoisie (with Nav Haq). He's a curatorial advisor to the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi. Zolghadr currently teaches at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College.

Introduction: crisis of certainty -- Cotton guesses -- The daily "probabilities"--Weather prophecies -- Economies of the future -- Promises of love and money -- Epilogue: specters of uncertainty

There are so many books on so many aspects of the history of the United States, offering such a wide variety of interpretations, that students, teachers, scholars, and librarians often need help and advice on how to find what they want. The Reader's Guide to American History is designed to meet that need by adopting a new and constructive approach to the appreciation of this rich historiography. Each of the 600 entries on topics in political, social and economic history describes and evaluates some 6 to 12 books on the topic, providing guidance to the reader on everything from broad surveys and interpretive works to specialized monographs. The entries are devoted to events and individuals, as well as broader themes, and are written by a team of well over 200 contributors, all scholars of American history.

An assessment of how the Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Roberts is significantly influencing the nation's laws and reinterpreting the Constitution includes in-depth analysis of recent rulings and their implications.