In this lively polemic, Paul B. Jaskot confronts art history's ideological preoccupation with the art object. To unbind art history from this fixation, Jaskot proposes a shift: to centre systems of power in our art-historical inquiry, rather than the art object. Modelling this shift, Jaskot asks: what does an art history of oppression, power and barbarism look like? The study that follows is divided into three parts-empire, war and labour-which draw from a constellation of examples ranging from the architecture of Nazi Germany and the Pre-modern era to the trans-Atlantic slave trade and contemporary exhibition making. Also featuring a photo essay by Steve Harp, this book presents a sweeping historical analysis of structural oppression, but more broadly, a prescient case for how art history can make a meaningful contribution to understanding systems of power and why such a project is needed now more than ever. Paul B. Jaskot's The Tyranny of the Object: An Introduction to the Barbarism of Art History is the third title for Power Polemics, a series that puts art hard up against political and personal viewpoints from some of the leading thinkers and writers in the field today.
