AIDS, Art & the Origins of the Culture War

AIDS, Art & the Origins of the Culture War: Selected Writings of Robert Atkins presents three-and-a-half decades of articles and essays about contentious assaults on the rights of individuals, institutions and, by extension, all Americans. A staff columnist for the Village Voice during the 1980s and 90s, Atkins produced both eye-witness reporting and thoughtful analysis from 1987 and the debut of the AIDS Memorial Quilt in Washington DC to the most recent piece in the book, his 2019 review of Benjamin Moser's biography of Susan Sontag. The book is organized thematically and divided into three, sometimes overlapping sections: "AIDS: The Body Politic Under Pressure," "Making Sense of Censorship," and "Queer Expressions & Icons." A new and comprehensive essay, "When the Culture War Became the Culture," is a stunning survey of post-World War II, US society. With dozens of images of both controversial artworks and newsmakers, the book weaves a complex tapestry of social change. En masse, Atkins' acute readings of politics, media, technology and political struggle help account for the combative character of US society today and imply what we might learn from the past to help modify our fractious present.