Visualizing Labor in American Sculpture

Dabakis' study illuminates the contributions of both public monuments and genre sculptures to contemporary understandings of the value of labor. It is important and innovative in its insistence that constructing meanings for these works was a historically mediated and at times ideologically combative process that actively engaged patrons, artists, and also viewers. Helen Langa, The Journal of American History ...engaging, provocative, and beautifully designed book. This book's signal achievement is its effective melding of the traditional strengths of art history...For public historians, Dabakis opens up sources and approaches that enrich our consideration of the ways that public memory is expressed, shaped, and contested. The Public Historian a sophisticated combination of social and art historical analysis. American Historical Review Dabakis has done an extraordinary job researching each of these monumenting to discern the evolving and intertwing discourses about gender, work, and politics that surround each sculptural project...provides helpful historical background Winterthur Portfolio 36:1 Offering a refreshing thematic approach to a study of American sculpture, this book connects the subject of American labor in both large- and small-scale sculpture to the context of history, gender roles, and even the dynamics of labor-management. Choice