Introduction -- Possessing freedom: The Parthenon and the birth of democracy in Athens -- For liberty and blood: Brutus and the Roman Republic -- Safeguard of the West: St. Mark's Basilica and the most serene republic of Venice -- In the company of giants: Michelangelo's David and Renaissance Florence -- "A Prodigious Growth in Riches": Rembrandt's Night Watch and the Dutch golden age -- The best and the worst: David's Marat and revolutionary France -- A new Athens on the Thames: The Elgin Marbles and Great Britain -- Manifest destiny: Bierstadt's Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak and the United States of America -- Art and victory: Monet's Water Lilies and the French Third Republic -- Trial by fire: Picasso's Guernica and the threat of fascism -- Conclusion

"Throughout western history, the societies that have made the greatest contributions to the spread of freedom have created iconic works of art to celebrate their achievements. Yet despite the enduring appeal of works from the Parthenon to Michelangelo's David to Picasso's Guernica, histories of both art and democracy have ignored this phenomenon. Millions have admired the works of art covered in this book but relatively few know why they were commissioned, what was happening in the culture that produced them, and what they were meant to achieve. Even scholars who have worked on these objects for decades often miss the big picture as these objects have been traditionally studied in isolation. The goal of this book is to integrate the pursuits of creative excellence and human freedom on the grounds that this synthetic approach will bring a fresh, new perspective into both lines of inquiry. David's Sling places into context ten canonical works of art executed to commemorate the successes of free societies that exerted political and economic influence far beyond what might have been expected of them. The book thus fuses political and art history with a judiciously-applied dose of creative reconstruction to craft a lively narrative around each key work of art and the free system that inspired it. David's Sling tells their story"--