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Rating: 
Summary: Stop Killing Trees
Review: Imagine how many trees had to perish so that 400 pages of paper could be created to produce this work of utter uselessness. How many human beings really need to know about the artwork, in relation to politics, of the Han dynasty of BC China? Answer: Zero. No one on Earth (including China) needs this information for any cause, and it is truly sad that while millions of people in Asia are starving, Western scholars would waste their time and effort on such rancid minutia.
Rating: 
Summary: An Eloquent Scholarly Study
Review: This is a beautiful look at one of the most fascinating periods of early recorded history.The author, unlike many art historians, brings the reader to a real feeling for the works' affective impact on viewers then and now, and writes so beautifully that the subject matter becomes secondary to his overall sensitivity to art and human endeavor. An original and eloquent book. In 1991 this book was named the best book in pre-twentieth century Chinese Studies by the Association of Asian Studies (AAS) in the United States and was awarded the body's Levenson Prize. Any reader, even a non-specialist, can enjoy it, however. If you cannot read the whole book, read a chapter... or a paragraph; or a short selection. The writing shines with sensitivity and a beautiful clarity of thought and expression. The author's next published work, Pattern and Person, is forthcoming, and I greatly look forward to adding it to my collection of this scholar's writings.
Rating:
Summary: A crucial work
Review: This is a crucial work of scholarship on early Chinese art. It overturns prior emphases in art historical methodology to examine issues of style and ornament. Powers is a very careful scholar, and his work will be regarded as seminal.
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