{"product_id":"destruction-was-my-beatrice-jed-rasula-9780465089963","title":"Destruction Was My Beatrice: Dada and the Unmaking of the Twentieth Century","description":"In 1916, as World War I raged around them, a group of bohemians gathered at a small cabaret in Zurich, Switzerland. After decorating the walls with art by Picasso and other avant-garde artists, they embarked on a series of extravagant performances. Three readers simultaneously recited a poem in three languages; a monocle-wearing teenager performed a spell from New Zealand; another young man sneered at the audience, snapping a whip as he intoned his \"Fantastic Prayers.\" One of the artists called these sessions \"both buffoonery and a requiem mass.\" Soon they would have a more evocative name: Dada. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eDestruction Was My Beatrice\u003c\/em\u003e, modernist scholar Jed Rasula presents the first narrative history of Dada, showing how this little-understood artistic phenomenon laid the foundation for culture as we know it today. Although the venue where Dada was born closed after only four months and its acolytes scattered, the idea of Dada quickly spread to New York, where it influenced artists like Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray; to Berlin, where it inspired painters George Grosz and Hannah H ch; and to Paris, where it dethroned previous avant-garde movements like Fauvism and Cubism while inspiring early Surrealists like Andr  Breton, Louis Aragon, and Paul  luard. The long tail of Dadaism, Rasula shows, can be traced even further, to artists as diverse as William S. Burroughs, Robert Rauschenberg, Marshall McLuhan, the Beatles, Monty Python, David Byrne, and Jean-Michel Basquiat, all of whom--along with untold others--owe a debt to the bizarre wartime escapades of the Dada vanguard. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA globe-spanning narrative that resurrects some of the 20th century's most influential artistic figures, \u003cem\u003eDestruction Was My Beatrice\u003c\/em\u003e describes how Dada burst upon the world in the midst of total war--and how the effects of this explosion are still reverberating today.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Jed Rasula\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0465089968\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780465089963\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Basic Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 06\/02\/2015\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 384\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.30lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.40h x 6.10w x 1.50d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e 04\/06\/2015\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e 05\/01\/2015 pg. 89\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e 05\/01\/2015\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eShelf Awareness\u003c\/i\u003e 06\/19\/2015\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e 06\/28\/2015 pg. 31\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e 07\/05\/2015 pg. 26\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew Yorker (The)\u003c\/i\u003e 08\/31\/2015 pg. 89\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e 11\/01\/2015","brand":"Jed Rasula","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":46721261502719,"sku":"9780465089963","price":29.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_bf13c45a-ff36-4db6-9cf5-d0fe0e15a2f6.jpg?v=1742752334","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/destruction-was-my-beatrice-jed-rasula-9780465089963","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}