About the Author

Eleanor Jones Harvey is senior curator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Her books include The Voyage of the Icebergs: Frederic Church's Arctic Masterpiece (Yale) and The Painted Sketch: American Impressions from Nature, 1830–1880.

Reviews

“The Civil War and American Art is a scholarly and a narrative achievement both harrowing and sublime. Eleanor Jones Harvey has written a keenly critical and often lyrical assessment of the war she calls all but “unpaintable.” In genre painting that captured universal meanings out of local episodes in the ugly ironies of war, and especially in the new moods, metaphors, and forms that landscape painters drew from the war, Harvey demonstrates a profound, seismic influence of history on art. But she also brilliantly demonstrates that artists, even the photographers, could not so much re-make the actual history of our Armageddon as they could represent what we might indirectly see or learn from such a withering and mythic experience as modern war.”--David W. Blight, Yale University, author of Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory
*David W. Blight*

“Eleanor Jones Harvey’s The Civil War and American Art is the rare book that connects the dots between art and history so well that the reader assumes that the subject is well-worn. It is not. The book…deserves to win awards in two disciplines: Art history and American history.…"—Tyler Green, Modern Art Notes 
*Modern Art Notes*

“A great art history tour and coffee-table topper.”—Garden & Gun
*Garden & Gun*

“Provocative and insightful.”—Stephen May, Antiques and the Arts Weekly 
*Antiques and the Arts Weekly*

"The latest from Harvey. . . provides a nuanced, sensitive, and deeply informed accounting of a major period in the history of American art. . . . The comprehensive study manages to remain engaging across its redolent academic and historical interests, creating a sincere excitement appropriate to Harvey's always insightful and vital reckoning with America's scarred past.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review 
*Publishers Weekly*

Winner in the Photography/Art category at the 2013 Great Southeast Book Festival.
*JM Northern Media LLC*

"The Civil War and American Art is a glorious companion piece to a moving, beautifully curated, perspective-altering show. . . . Harvey’s book is perfect for lovers of American art and history.” —PopMatters
*PopMatters*

“Harvey skillfully integrates literature and journalism into a thoughtful and rich narrative of this pivotal period. An important cohesive assessment for scholars that is also broadly accessible and well-illustrated…”—Library Journal, starred review
*Library Journal*

“a beautiful companion volume…”—The Nation
*The Nation*

“Harvey’s catalogue text stands as a monumental, often thrilling feat of detailed scholarship”—Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker
*The New Yorker*

“One of the great publishing triumphs of the Civil War Sesquicentennial.”—North Carolina Historical Review
*North Carolina Historical Review*

Selected as a Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2013 in the Art & Architecture Category.
*Choice*