Political Sign - Object Lessons (Paperback)

A page-turner of cultural analysis and shrewd observation. * Los Angeles Review of Books *
During a moment in which Americans are besieged by an onslaught of political messaging from the sublime to the ridiculous, this slim, thoughtful volume helps make sense of what we're seeing. Tobias Carroll has written a timely meditation on the political sign, an object that telegraphs our deeply held beliefs and exists in 'the space between poetry and prose'... You won't look at a MAGA hat the same way again. * NPR's Book Concierge *
The artifacts he examines look more curious than their familiarity would suggest. * Inside Higher Ed *
We have long been taught to think about the politics of signs, but less often is this applied to political signs themselves-our yard signs and bumper stickers and billboards-these strange creatures of the American electoral landscape, some proliferating and gone like dandelions, others stuck in place like barnacles, even as years of political changes leave them as decontextualized fossils. In this brisk and encompassing work, Tobias Carroll examines and makes strange these instruments of power and change and reaction, offering us a sharp and unyielding look at everything that is on the surface that we still do not see. * Mark Doten, author of Trump Sky Alpha *
Tobias Carroll has opened my eyes to the signs around me, and now I can't stop seeing. * Alexis Coe, author of You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George of Washington and Alice+Freda Forever: A Murder in Memphis *