Mammonart

Mammonart is Upton Sinclair's sweeping, combative study of art as a product of class, money, politics, and power. Moving from prehistoric cave drawing to modern literature, it argues that creativity has never stood apart from society's material struggles. Sinclair treats art as a social force shaped by those who fund it, censor it, praise it, and consume it, and he challenges the comforting idea that art exists "for its own sake." Across its satirical chapters, the book follows a prehistoric artist, exposes the class bias behind attacks on "propaganda," and insists that great art is always propaganda when it is vivid, skillful, and vital to human life. It defends the artist's duty to preserve reality honestly, even when that means confronting pain, conflict, and injustice. Sinclair also skewers literary gatekeepers and examines major figures such as Balzac and Victor Hugo, weighing genius against the corrupt worlds they depict or resist. Brilliant, provocative, and fiercely political, Mammonart is both a history of culture and an assault on the forces that try to control it. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.