The Hidden Mod in Modern Art: London, 1957–1969

Abstract

to detail shows in the final product. If the book’s implicit argument has a major shortcoming, it is that the Athenaeum’s membership has never quite had the ‘Establishment’ monopoly that is reputed – although it has come close. The neighbouring Travellers’ and Reform Clubs, for instance, have long been an enticing alternative for civil servants, academics, and judges, the latter club particularly after the mid-twentieth century collapse of the Liberal Party left it without a natural hinterland, ripe for an ‘Establishment’ takeover. Nevertheless, the Athenaeum has consistently captured a slice of ‘the great and the good’, and Wheeler uses that unique vantage point to great effect. The resultant book is scholarly, impish, outward-looking, and eminently readable. This is how club histories should be written.