Shane White is the Challis Professor of History and an Australian Professorial Fellow in the History Department at the University of Sydney. Nearly 70 years ago now the great novelist Ralph Ellison asked: 'Can a people live and develop for over 300 years simply by reacting?’ He went on: 'Are...

Laura Auricchio is Associate Professor of Art History and Dean of the School of Undergraduate Studies at The New School in New York. ‘American art’ has always been created in a context of international exchange. In the 18th and 19th centuries, much of the art that we now consider American was...