[3] The book sees fine art as a modern invention due to social transformations during the 18th century.

[2] David Clowney, writing for Contemporary Aesthetics summarizes the central thesis of this book.

The claim is not original with him; he credits Paul Oskar Kristeller’s essay “The Modern System of the Arts” as the inspiration for his work.

What Shiner has added is a detailed proof of the Kristeller claim using the methods of intellectual, social, cultural, and art history.

Reviewer Marc Spiegler called the book "a must-read for anyone active in the arts".