In this book Thomas McEvilley proposes a new vision for the critical enterprise while confronting ideas which have exalted art above constructive involvement with the world for two centuries. The persistence of the Romantic idea of Self is discovered at the heart of Modernism, along with ideas of Spirit secretly enshrined in the distinction between abstraction and representation. Shedding new light on the roots of Modernism, the collapse of the idea of history, and the subsequent development of a global discourse, McEvilley brings to Art & Discontent a commanding knowledge of ancient Greek and Egyptian art, Western and non-Western philosophies, and the most avant garde of contemporary art. Explaining why our Modernism was not unique and is being superseded, he suggests the functions that art can perform in a post-Modern culture.