Capital Culture

A new book by Neil Harris is always an event, and Capital Culture will be no different. In this monumental and very readable book, Harris brings to life J. Carter Brown, Washington's National Gallery, and the cultural life of the national capital. Brown was the longest-serving director of the National Gallery (1969-1992), and his tenure had important consequences not just for that institution but for the American museum world as a whole. In telling this story, Harris leads readers to consider the role of powerful and charismatic cultural leaders, the relationship between politics and art, the birth of blockbuster exhibits such as the King Tut shows of 1976, and much else. The book is filled with many colorful characters aside from Brown--Smithsonian director Dillon Ripley, for instance, and J. Paul Getty appear throughout these pages. As with all of Harris's books, the research is deep and impeccable: he draws on interviews (with Brown, Ripley, and many others), on archival material, and on a lifetime of reading in American history and culture. The writing, too, justifies Harris's place as one of the most important and influential cultural historians of the last fifty years.