Despite being one of the foremost American intellectuals of the mid-twentieth century, Harold Rosenberg (1906–1978) was utterly incapable of fitting in—and he liked it that way. Signature cane in one hand and a cigarette in the other, he cut a distinctive figure on the New York City culture scene, with his radiant dark eyes and black bushy brows. A gangly giant at six foot four, he would tower over others as he forcefully expounded on his latest obsession in an oddly high-pitched, nasal voice. And people would listen, captivated by his ideas. With Harold Rosenberg: A Critic’s Life, Debra Bricker Balken offers the first-ever complete biography of this great and eccentric man. Although he is now known mainly for his role as an art critic at the New Yorker from 1962 to 1978, Balken weaves together a complete tapestry of Rosenberg’s life and literary production, cast against the dynamic intellectual and social ferment of his time. She explores his role in some of the most contentious cultural debates of the Cold War period, including those over the commodification of art and the erosion of individuality in favor of celebrity, demonstrated in his famous essay “The Herd of Independent Minds.” An outspoken socialist and advocate for the political agency of art, he formed deep alliances with figures such as Hannah Arendt, Saul Bellow, Paul Goodman, Mary McCarthy, Jean-Paul Sartre, Willem de Kooning, and Jackson Pollock, all of whom Balken portrays with vivid accounts from Rosenberg’s life. Thoroughly researched and captivatingly written, this book tells in full Rosenberg’s brilliant, fiercely independent life and the five decades in which he played a leading role in US cultural, intellectual, and political history.

Abraham Flexner was one of the most influential figures in 20th-century American education. This biography demonstrates his pervasive influence on education, from his early work in experimental primary schools to the founding of the prestigious Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton.

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). Set amid the most turbulent social and political period of modern times, Ninth Street Women is the impassioned, wild, sometimes tragic, always exhilarating chronicle of five women who dared to enter the male-dominated world of twentieth-century abstract painting -- not as muses but as artists. From their cold-water lofts, where they worked, drank, fought, and loved, these pioneers burst open the door to the art world for themselves and countless others to come. Gutsy and indomitable, Lee Krasner was a hell-raising leader among artists long before she became part of the modern art world's first celebrity couple by marrying Jackson Pollock. Elaine de Kooning, whose brilliant mind and peerless charm made her the emotional center of the New York School, used her work and words to build a bridge between the avant-garde and a public that scorned abstract art as a hoax. Grace Hartigan fearlessly abandoned life as a New Jersey housewife and mother to achieve stardom as one of the boldest painters of her generation. Joan Mitchell, whose notoriously tough exterior shielded a vulnerable artist within, escaped a privileged but emotionally damaging Chicago childhood to translate her fierce vision into magnificent canvases. And Helen Frankenthaler, the beautiful daughter of a prominent New York family, chose the difficult path of the creative life. Her gamble paid off: At twenty-three she created a work so original it launched a new school of painting. These women changed American art and society, tearing up the prevailing social code and replacing it with a doctrine of liberation. In Ninth Street Women, acclaimed author Mary Gabriel tells a remarkable and inspiring story of the power of art and artists in shaping not just postwar America but the future.

This final volume details the last decade of Marshall's life. This seventh and final volume of The Papers of George Catlett Marshall covers the last ten years of Marshall’s life, when he served as secretary of defense from September 1950 to September 1951 following a year as American Red Cross president. Dramatic swings in fortune for US and UN forces in Korea consumed him as defense secretary, yet Europe remained Marshall’s strategic focus and with it the establishment of a NATO military command, efforts to convince the French to accept German rearmament, congressional approval for a major US military buildup, and a Mutual Security Program for America’s allies. Marshall also participated in the decision to relieve General Douglas MacArthur, sparking public uproar and a Senate investigation. Marshall remained active and honored in retirement, particularly in 1953, when he led the US delegation to the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II and then became the first professional soldier to win the Nobel Peace Prize, a tribute to the Marshall Plan. Through it all, he maintained an extensive correspondence with national and international leaders. When he died on October 16, 1959, George Catlett Marshall was hailed by many as the nation’s greatest soldier-statesman since George Washington.

The country of the mind must also attack -- Librarians and collectors go to war -- The wild scramble for documents -- Acquisitions on a Grand Scale -- Fugitive Records of War -- Book Burning-American Style -- Not a Library, but a Large Depot of Loot.