Rachel N. Klein is Professor of History at the University of California, San Diego, and author of Unification of a Slave State: The Rise of the Planter Class in the South Carolina Backcountry.

• Introduction. The Importance of Taste: Intellectual Roots 1Chapter 1. Paintings in Public Life: The Rise of the American Art-UnionChapter 2. The Limits of Cultural Stewardship: The Fall of the American Art-UnionChapter 3. Art and Industry: Debates of the 1850sChapter 4. The Art of Decoration and the Transformation of Stewardship: The Making of the Metropolitan Museum of ArtChapter 5. Metropolitan Museum on Trial: Antiquities, Expertise and the Problem of RaceChapter 6. The Battle for Sundays at the MuseumEpilogue. Edith Wharton's MuseumNotesIndexAcknowledgments

"Rachel Klein's compelling, beautifully written, and insightful study adds importantly to our understanding of the complex historical relationship between art, nation-building, and the rise of individual-oriented consumer culture in nineteenth-century America. A smart, nuanced work that is also highly engaging and readable, Art Wars shows us that ideas of art and democracy have long been intertwined." (Alice Fahs, University of California, Irvine) "Art Wars provides a welcome addition to cultural and intellectual histories of New York in the nineteenth century by bringing together the history of antebellum art institutions like the American Art-Union and museums like the Metropolitan that came into being in the 1870s. Rachel Klein links these institutional stories to larger political and cultural transformations that accompanied the rise of industrial capitalism that so dramatically changed a city like New York. Art Wars will be a very important addition to the history of art institutions and the historiography of taste in the United States as well as to the intellectual and cultural histories of cities in the nineteenth century." (Jeffrey Trask, Things American: Art Museums and Civic Culture in the Progressive Era)

Rachel N. Klein is Professor of History at the University of California, San Diego, and author of Unification of a Slave State: The Rise of the Planter Class in the South Carolina Backcountry.

• Introduction. The Importance of Taste: Intellectual Roots 1Chapter 1. Paintings in Public Life: The Rise of the American Art-UnionChapter 2. The Limits of Cultural Stewardship: The Fall of the American Art-UnionChapter 3. Art and Industry: Debates of the 1850sChapter 4. The Art of Decoration and the Transformation of Stewardship: The Making of the Metropolitan Museum of ArtChapter 5. Metropolitan Museum on Trial: Antiquities, Expertise and the Problem of RaceChapter 6. The Battle for Sundays at the MuseumEpilogue. Edith Wharton's MuseumNotesIndexAcknowledgments

"Rachel Klein's compelling, beautifully written, and insightful study adds importantly to our understanding of the complex historical relationship between art, nation-building, and the rise of individual-oriented consumer culture in nineteenth-century America. A smart, nuanced work that is also highly engaging and readable, Art Wars shows us that ideas of art and democracy have long been intertwined." (Alice Fahs, University of California, Irvine) "Art Wars provides a welcome addition to cultural and intellectual histories of New York in the nineteenth century by bringing together the history of antebellum art institutions like the American Art-Union and museums like the Metropolitan that came into being in the 1870s. Rachel Klein links these institutional stories to larger political and cultural transformations that accompanied the rise of industrial capitalism that so dramatically changed a city like New York. Art Wars will be a very important addition to the history of art institutions and the historiography of taste in the United States as well as to the intellectual and cultural histories of cities in the nineteenth century." (Jeffrey Trask, Things American: Art Museums and Civic Culture in the Progressive Era)

Rachel N. Klein is Professor of History at the University of California, San Diego, and author of Unification of a Slave State: The Rise of the Planter Class in the South Carolina Backcountry.

• Introduction. The Importance of Taste: Intellectual Roots 1Chapter 1. Paintings in Public Life: The Rise of the American Art-UnionChapter 2. The Limits of Cultural Stewardship: The Fall of the American Art-UnionChapter 3. Art and Industry: Debates of the 1850sChapter 4. The Art of Decoration and the Transformation of Stewardship: The Making of the Metropolitan Museum of ArtChapter 5. Metropolitan Museum on Trial: Antiquities, Expertise and the Problem of RaceChapter 6. The Battle for Sundays at the MuseumEpilogue. Edith Wharton's MuseumNotesIndexAcknowledgments

"Rachel Klein's compelling, beautifully written, and insightful study adds importantly to our understanding of the complex historical relationship between art, nation-building, and the rise of individual-oriented consumer culture in nineteenth-century America. A smart, nuanced work that is also highly engaging and readable, Art Wars shows us that ideas of art and democracy have long been intertwined." (Alice Fahs, University of California, Irvine) "Art Wars provides a welcome addition to cultural and intellectual histories of New York in the nineteenth century by bringing together the history of antebellum art institutions like the American Art-Union and museums like the Metropolitan that came into being in the 1870s. Rachel Klein links these institutional stories to larger political and cultural transformations that accompanied the rise of industrial capitalism that so dramatically changed a city like New York. Art Wars will be a very important addition to the history of art institutions and the historiography of taste in the United States as well as to the intellectual and cultural histories of cities in the nineteenth century." (Jeffrey Trask, Things American: Art Museums and Civic Culture in the Progressive Era)