{"product_id":"the-perfect-moment-god-sex-art-and-the-birth-of-americas-culture-wars","title":"The Perfect Moment: God, Sex, Art, and the Birth of America's Culture Wars","description":"\n\u003ctable align=\"center\" border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"2\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\"\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd class=\"productDetailSmallElements\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eBiographical Note\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eIsaac Butler\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of the NBCC Award winner \n\u003ci\u003e The Method \u003c\/i\u003eand the coauthor of \n\u003ci\u003eThe World Only Spins Forward\u003c\/i\u003e. Butler's writing has appeared in the \n\u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e, \n\u003ci\u003eNew York \u003c\/i\u003emagazine, \n\u003ci\u003eSlate\u003c\/i\u003e, \n\u003ci\u003eAmerican Theatre\u003c\/i\u003e, and more. For \n\u003ci\u003eSlate\u003c\/i\u003e, he created and hosted \n\u003ci\u003eLend Me Your Ears\u003c\/i\u003e, a podcast about Shakespeare and politics, and \n\u003ci\u003eWorking\u003c\/i\u003e, a podcast about the creative process. He is the co-creator of \n\u003ci\u003eReal Enemies\u003c\/i\u003e, a multimedia exploration of conspiracy theories in the American psyche. Butler holds an MFA in creative nonfiction from the University of Minnesota and teaches theater history and performance at the New School, NYU, and elsewhere. He lives in Brooklyn.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Butler ignites an urgent signal flare, illuminating how decades of coordinated efforts to stifle free expression snowballed into our present moment. Scrupulously researched and blissfully told, this gonzo history of American art and attrition proves that Butler is one of the most exciting writers of non-fiction today.\" --\u003ci\u003eEthan Hawke\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Critic and historian Butler offers a comprehensive overview of the religious right's targeting of artists and arts funding in the 1980s and '90s . . . Throughout, Butler incisively highlights the spiraling damage inflicted by the tepid responses of arts supporters like NEA chairman John Frohnmayer, who, desperate to protect the Endowment, agreed to diminish artists' freedom of expression, and of the liberal establishment as a whole, which squeamishly demurred from defending works . . . [ \n\u003ci\u003eThe Perfect Moment\u003c\/i\u003e] makes for a dramatic retelling of a sea change in American arts and politics.\" -- \n\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"An absorbing autopsy of America's first culture wars. . . Butler recasts the battles for artistic freedom of speech fought in the late-20th century, \"the World War I of American arts and letters,\" as a sobering prelude to today's gloves-off assault on the arts. . . A richly detailed genealogy of the continuing battle for artistic freedom in the U.S.\" -- \n\u003ci\u003eKirkus\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Butler, director, podcaster, and author of \n\u003ci\u003eThe Method\u003c\/i\u003e, traces this fraught era from a fight over textbooks in West Virginia in 1974 to the end of the twentieth century and beyond . . . Butler's insights into the end of the Cold War and the AIDS crisis, interviews with many of those involved, and excerpts from critical analysis of art pieces round out this freshly relevant exploration of a pivotal time for the arts in America.\" -- \n\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"This country has always had culture wars, but 1988 was the year everything broke open. Isaac Butler's new book looks at an era of AIDS activism, artistic expression, and an ascendent religious right . . . \n\u003ci\u003eThe Perfect Moment\u003c\/i\u003e ably and passionately underscores the legacy of the First Amendment, cornerstone of our Bill of Rights, besieged now as never before.\" -- \n\u003ci\u003eBoston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Isaac Butler is one of the pre-eminent writers covering pop cultural history right now. His latest book takes on an essential subject: the moment in the 1980s when art and politics collided in the U.S., changing the way both would be perceived in the decades that followed.\" -- \n\u003ci\u003eVol. 1 Brooklyn\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"With his deft and thoughtful study, Butler demonstrates that the inorganic, often orchestrated battles that edgy works of art provoked could operate as a parable about Middle America's manipulation by the religious right-and the cowardice of institutional liberalism in standing up against these outrages . . . \n\u003ci\u003eT\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003ci\u003ehe Perfect Moment\u003c\/i\u003e offers crucial insights into contemporary crises in American politics and much longer-standing cultural failures.\" -- \n\u003ci\u003eWashington Monthly\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"An engaging and deeply researched book that deftly maps the far right's attack on art and free speech in the 80s and 90s to the current day. The antagonistic players may have changed, but their tactics remain the same. Butler's storytelling is as strong as his reporting, showing us that while we can't undo the past, we can learn from it and reshape our future.\" -- \n\u003ci\u003eTricia Romano, author of THE FREAKS CAME OUT TO WRITE\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"With dozens of incisive portraits wound within a swiftly moving central narrative, Isaac Butler illuminates one of the most important histories of the past sixty years: the struggles for meaning and identity in American culture and politics. It's essential reading for followers of art history, political history or cultural criticism. \n\u003ci\u003eThe Perfect Moment \u003c\/i\u003ehelps us understand the forces that roil our present fractured moment and why the arts remain essential in defining American society.\" -- \n\u003ci\u003eNayland Blake, artist and author of MY STUDIO IS A DUNGEON IS THE STUDIO\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Isaac Butler is the Ernie Pyle of the 1980s culture wars, and \n\u003ci\u003eThe Perfect Moment\u003c\/i\u003e is a clear-eyed chronicle of the skirmishes, sorties, and struggles that have made up the conservative movement's all-out war on art--and artists--in America.\" -- \n\u003ci\u003eJune Thomas, author of A PLACE OF OUR OWN\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"[A]n incisive commentary on the dangers of censorship in a nation that proclaims freedom of speech as a fundamental constitutional right . . . \n\u003ci\u003eThe Perfect Moment \u003c\/i\u003eunderscores an urgent reality - that artists must find a way to sustain themselves through their work.\" -- \n\u003ci\u003eThe Arts Fuse\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"[A] timely reassessment of the culture wars is brought to you by someone raised on its front lines. . . [Butler] was inspired to write this book while watching the tides turn again in the 2020s: Where the left had once been the bastion of free expression, soon it was the right championing-and rebranding-'free speech' . . . Here history emerges a playbook for the new wave of culture wars ahead.\" -- \n\u003ci\u003eArt in America\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Entertaining and illuminating.\" -- \n\u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker on THE METHOD\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Engaging and meticulously researched . . . Butler's history is an indispensable account of a revolution in acting that ramified beyond the theater.\" -- \n\u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times on THE METHOD\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Meticulous, immersive.\" -- \n\u003ci\u003eThe Atlantic on THE METHOD\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Marvelous . . . A vital book about how to make political art that offers lasting solace in times of great trouble, and wisdom to audiences in the years that follow.\" -- \n\u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post on THE WORLD ONLY SPINS FORWARD\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher Marketing\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe prize-winning author of \u003ci\u003eThe Method\u003c\/i\u003e reveals the forgotten origins of America's culture wars-a story of late 20th century art vs. censorship, brimming with intense drama and fierce moral urgency.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIt's 1988, the final year of the Reagan presidency, and the curtain is closing on the Cold War. In the absence of external adversaries, the American public is on the precipice of war with itself. The religious right, newly ascendant and emboldened, is determined to seize control of America's future. And the first battles will be fought over, of all things, contemporary art. \n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn \n\u003ci\u003eThe Perfect Moment\u003c\/i\u003e, cultural historian Isaac Butler reexamines this pivotal, misunderstood American era. Archconservatives like Jesse Helms, Pat Buchanan, and Pat Robertson fixed their sights on artists including Andres Serrano, Robert Mapplethorpe, David Wojnarowicz, and Karen Finley, capitalizing on the provocative politics of their work to stir a nascent evangelical coalition into moral panic. It was at this moment, Butler argues, that the far right perfected the tactics it still uses today to whip its base into frenzy-from banning books and sanitizing American history, to spreading medical misinformation. All too relevant today \n\u003ci\u003e, The Perfect Moment\u003c\/i\u003e is an incisive and meticulously researched account of this crucial period and a stirring ode to the power of the creative spirit. \n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations:\u003c\/strong\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/span\u003e 04\/06\/2026 (EAN 9781639733491, Hardcover)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003eBooklist\u003c\/span\u003e 06\/01\/2026 (EAN 9781639733491, Hardcover)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/span\u003e 06\/15\/2026 (EAN 9781639733491, Hardcover)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eContributor Bio:\u003c\/strong\u003eButler, Isaac\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eIsaac Butler\u003c\/b\u003e is the coauthor (with Dan Kois) of \n\u003ci\u003eThe World Only Spins Forward: The Ascent of \u003c\/i\u003eAngels in America, which NPR named one of the best books of 2018. Butler's writing has appeared in \n\u003ci\u003e New York \u003c\/i\u003emagazine, \n\u003ci\u003eSlate\u003c\/i\u003e, the \n\u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e, \n\u003ci\u003eAmerican Theatre\u003c\/i\u003e, and other publications. For Slate, he created and hosted \n\u003ci\u003eLend Me Your Ears\u003c\/i\u003e, a podcast about Shakespeare and politics, and currently co-hosts \n\u003ci\u003eWorking\u003c\/i\u003e, a podcast about the creative process. His work as a director has been seen on stages throughout the United States. He is the co-creator, with Darcy James Argue and Peter Nigrini, of \n\u003ci\u003eReal Enemies\u003c\/i\u003e, a multimedia exploration of conspiracy theories in the American psyche, which was named one of the best live events of 2015 by the \n\u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e and has been adapted into a feature-length film. Butler holds an MFA in creative nonfiction from the University of Minnesota and teaches theater history and performance at the New School and elsewhere. He lives in Brooklyn.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n","brand":"Bloomsbury Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51496196768022,"sku":"9781639733491","price":38.4,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0857\/9910\/8886\/files\/9781639733491.jpg?v=1783057298","url":"https:\/\/lusper.myshopify.com\/products\/the-perfect-moment-god-sex-art-and-the-birth-of-americas-culture-wars","provider":"Lusperbooks","version":"1.0","type":"link"}