This is a discussion of the contribution and effects of East Asian art on American culture. Warren Cohen portrays the assembling of the great American collections of East Asian art and explains how this art became part of the cultural consciousness of the people of the USA, transforming their culture into something more complex than the Western civilization brought from Europe. Cohen tells of art collectors, dealers and historians, of museums and curators, of art and imperialism, art and politics, and art as an instrument of foreign policy.