Men and Monuments

From 1925 to 1978, Janet Flanner was the Paris correspondent for "The New Yorkers", signing her letters "Genet". In "Men and Monuments", Flanner traces the course of four brilliant lives - those of the painters Picasso, Braque and Matisse, and the writer, politician and art critic Andre Malraux. Through anecdote, analysis, reportage, and opinion, Flanner presents a portrait of a time in Paris history - the late 1940s and 1950s - during which a nation recovered from a catastrophe, a new art was being forged and new ideas and values flourished. In addition, Flanner tells the inside story of one of the greatest art-pillaging campaign in history: Hitler's and Goering's ransack of the collections of the occupied countries during World War II.