Arts in Society by Paul Barker

Arts in Society comprises a set of lucid essays on photography and painting, films, design, TV and theatre, buildings and towns – discussion points about culture in the 60s and 70s.

Contributors include:

Angela Carter on male pin ups and on make- up
John Berger on war photography and on Francis Bacon
Michael Wood on John Lennon, Roy Lichenstein, A Clockwork Orange, Bob Dylan and WC Fields
Reyner Banham on the potato crisp and on container terminals
EP Thompson on Britain’s penchant for humbug
Paul Barker on “Art Nouveau Riche” and on Kes
Paul Meyersberg on If…
Andrew Weiner on T. Rex and on Tom Jones
Dennis Potter on TV Plays
Albert Hunt on Joe Orton and on Morecambe and Wise
…and more

Paul Barker is the former editor of New Society. He regularly contributes to Radios 4 and 3, and the national press, on social and cultural issues. He also writes regularly for Prospect.

Reviews of Arts in Society

	30 October 2007
Publication: The Times
"Always the essays are strong and authoritative..."
	30 October 2007
Publication: the Guardian
"These aren't simply essays in criticism. The pieces are about how things actually work: why they are what they are."
	30 October 2007
Publication: the Observer
"These days, every university seems to have a chair in Big Brother studies. But back in the Sixties, treating popular culture and mass entertainment as worthy of intelligent, passionate analysis was something of a revolutionary idea... These might be archive pieces, but they deserve to be rediscovered and embraced by the critics of today."
	01 August 2006
Publication: BBC - Radio 3 - Night Waves
"Arts in Society draws on an extraordinary galaxy of talent... (it) quickly became a classic... immensely enjoyable... reaches out to a broad audience rather than a specialist audience; (giving) the maverick view."
	16 June 2006
Reviewer: Boyd Tonkin, Book Reviewer Publication: The Independent
First published in 1977, this path-breaking collection of essays on modern culture from New Society magazine retains all its vigour and verve... The sheer quality of writing, and of thinking, keeps them fresh. Boyd Tonkin

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