Excerpt from Of Arms and Artists by Paul Staiti, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

The story of these artists adds a compelling dimension to the history of the United States. They breathed visual life into historical events and figures, and over the centuries their images have become our indispensable icons, the American equivalents of what the Iliad and the Aeneid meant to the ancient Greeks and Romans. We have come to believe in them and what they say about the Revolution and the Founders. They serve us as both historical documents and compelling mythology. And without them, Americans would not be able to feel as grounded as they are in their past, or as prepared to sustain their momentum into the future.

Excerpted from Of Arms and Artists by Paul Staiti. Copyright © 2016 by Paul Staiti. Excerpted by permission of Bloomsbury USA. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.