Under the Hammer

When we think of breaking images, we assume that it happens somewhere else. We also tend to think of iconoclasts as barbaric. Iconoclasts are people like the Taliban, who blew up Buddhist statues in 2001. We tend, that is, to look with horror on iconoclasm.This book argues instead that iconoclasm is a central strand of Anglo-American modernity. Our horror at the destruction of art derives in part ...