Radical Thinkers

In these diatribes on the marketing of culture and the branding of identity, the development of spectacle—architecture and the rise of global cities, Hal Foster surveys our new political economy of design. Written in a lively style, Design and Crime explores the historical relations of modern art and modern museum, the conceptual vicissitudes of art history and visual studies, the recent travails of art criticism, and the double aftermath of modernism and postmodernism in an attempt to illuminate the conditions for critical culture in the present.“Foster is spot-on ... exactly the kind of book the design world should want.”—Bookforum

“Elegant and incisive essays.”—Boston Review

“In a polite and even schmoozy art world, Foster stands out for being willing to make barbed comments on design gods.”—National Post

“Foster makes a lot of sense.”—Village VoiceHal Foster is Townsend Martin Professor of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University. A co-editor of October magazine and books, he is the editor of The Anti-Aesthetic, and the author of Design and Crime, Recording, The Return of the Real, Compulsive Beauty and The Art-Architecture Complex.