The Art Historian: National Traditions and Institutional Practices

Despite its origins in European models, the practice of art history in the United States has evolved into institutional protocols distinct from those of countries such as Germany, France, England and the Netherlands. Fourteen international scholars examine how these varying disciplinary practices might be characterized, in theory and actuality, in the past and the present, comparing the function of higher education in different national contexts and the extent that professionalisation encourages or limits critical innovation. The volume features essays by Mieke Bal, Stephen Bann, Horst Bredekamp, Perry Chapman, Georges Didi-Huberman, Eric Fernie, Francoise Forster-Hahn, Carlo Ginzburg, Charles M. Haxthausen, Deborah Marrow, Karen Michels, Willibald Sauerlander, Alain Schnapp and Michael F. Zimmermann.