Banned books, shocking art & the birth of the culture wars

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I am Terry Gross. The culture war never seems to end. My guest Isaac Butler takes us through part of its history in his new book The Perfect Moment, God, Sex, Art, and the Birth of America's Culture Wars. Butler says the conflict had a transformative effect on him because at the same time the culture wars hurtled toward their climax. Art saved his life.

His new book begins in 1974 in West Virginia, with the banning of many books and the county's new school curricula, with the power of the Christian right behind the ban. They were also behind the attacks on Martin Scorsese's film The Last Temptation of Christ and the taboo breaking artwork on a Robert Maplethorpe and David Voynorovich, who were accused of creating pornography, and Andrei Serrano, who was accused of creating blasphemous art. The story continues with attacks on the NEA's federal funding for the arts. Isaac Butler is the author of the previous books The World Only Spins Forward about the play Angels in America and The Method about the history of the acting technique known as the method.

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