The Perfect Moment

[bell rings] The United States' so-called forever wars are typically fought overseas with the help of drone strikes and aircraft carriers, yet some are thoroughly domestic affairs without any military involvement to speak of.

Just ask cultural historian Isaac Butler, author of the new book The Perfect Moment: God, Sex, Art and the Birth of America's Culture Wars.

As Isaac makes clear, these wars have been raging on again and off again for a very long time, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

In The Perfect Moment, Isaac explores how controversial works of art from Martin Scorsese's movie The Last Temptation of Christ to queer performance art to early episodes of The Simpsons and more rocked American culture and politics from the mid-1980s to about 2000.

Today, we'll hear about a dispute over public school textbooks that quite literally turned violent in West Virginia, the photograph of a crucifix that outraged evangelical Christians across the nation, and the first time an American art museum was taken to court on felony charges of obscenity.

This is The Art of Crime, and I'm your host, Gavin Whitehead.

Welcome to another episode of Beach Reads, The Perfect Moment.

[upbeat music] It is my pleasure to welcome Isaac Butler to the podcast.