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The Perfect Moment: God, Sex, Art, and the Birth of America's Culture Wars
The prize-winning author of The Method reveals the forgotten origins of America's culture wars-a story of late...
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The prize-winning author of The Method reveals the forgotten origins of America's culture wars-a story of late 20th century art vs. censorship, brimming with intense drama and fierce moral urgency.
It's 1988, the final year of the Reagan presidency, and the curtain is closing on the Cold War. In the absence of external adversaries, the American public is on the precipice of war with itself. The religious right, newly ascendant and emboldened, is determined to seize control of America's future. And the first battles will be fought over, of all things, contemporary art. In The Perfect Moment, cultural historian Isaac Butler reexamines this pivotal, misunderstood American era. Archconservatives like Jesse Helms, Pat Buchanan, and Pat Robertson fixed their sights on artists including Andres Serrano, Robert Mapplethorpe, David Wojnarowicz, and Karen Finley, capitalizing on the provocative politics of their work to stir a nascent evangelical coalition into moral panic. It was at this moment, Butler argues, that the far right perfected the tactics it still uses today to whip its base into frenzy-from banning books and sanitizing American history, to spreading medical misinformation. All too relevant today, The Perfect Moment is an incisive and meticulously researched account of this crucial period and a stirring ode to the power of the creative spirit.Author: Isaac Butler
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 06/23/2026
Pages: 384
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.36lbs
Size: 9.52h x 6.39w x 1.28d
ISBN: 9781639733491
Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 04/06/2026
Booklist 06/01/2026
Kirkus Reviews 06/15/2026
About the Author
Isaac Butler is the author of the NBCC Award winner The Method and the coauthor of The World Only Spins Forward. Butler's writing has appeared in the New York Times, New York magazine, Slate, American Theatre, and more. For Slate, he created and hosted Lend Me Your Ears, a podcast about Shakespeare and politics, and Working, a podcast about the creative process. He is the co-creator of Real Enemies, a multimedia exploration of conspiracy theories in the American psyche. Butler holds an MFA in creative nonfiction from the University of Minnesota and teaches theater history and performance at the New School, NYU, and elsewhere. He lives in Brooklyn.
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