Jane Alexander had never been involved in mainstream politics and was happily engaged in her acting career when she was asked to consider becoming head of the embattled National Endowment for the Arts in the early 1990s. When, during her first visit to the Hill, Senator Strom Thurmond barked at her, "You gonna fund pornography?" she knew it would be a rough ride. Nothing had quite prepared her for the role of madame chairman. Her tenure coincided with the ascent of the infamous 104th Congress, presided over by Speaker Newt Gingrich, and its campaign to eliminate the Endowment completely. In Command Performance, Alexander brings a Washington outsider's perspective and an actor's eye for the telling human detail to an anecdote-filled story of the art of politics and the politics of art. And at the start of a new administration in Washington, she reminds us why we need art and why government should be in the business of supporting it.

本書は名女優ジェーン・アレクサンダーが、政治という異質な舞台で演じた真実の葛藤の記録です。俳優特有の鋭い観察眼で綴られる政治家たちの赤裸々な肖像は、単なる回想録を超え、権力の虚飾を剥ぎ取る重厚な人間ドラマとして響きます。芸術家の感性が政治の冷徹さと衝突する瞬間の描写は、驚くほどスリリングで知的興奮に満ちています。 彼女が守り抜こうとしたのは、社会における想像力の居場所そのものでした。表現の自由を巡る激動のドラマを通じ、文化が国家に不可欠な理由を熱く問いかける本作は、信念を貫くことの気高さを教えてくれます。芸術を愛する全ての読者の魂を揺さぶり、明日への希望を灯す、真に情熱的な一冊です。