I've spent 40 yrs. in univ. teaching. I've read virtually everything Boime has published in book form, & after decades of studying art-crit. I've found Boime's work to be the single most useful, insightful, analytically informed discourse in published art-history that I've ever encountered--this judgment includes work by scholarly icons like Panofsky, too. The simple amount of knowledge of social & political history, & analytic acumen, that Boime appropriately & usefully brings to bear during his discussions of specific works of art is astonishing. Indeed, the books might function well as part of a profoundly historically oriented Political Science course (as opposed to the usual "Political Silence" classes delivered in U. S. schools).