What Andy Warhol didn't know--or pretended not to know--changed history. He habitually adopted the guise of a fool in public, which made it all the harder to grasp what he was getting at with his pop paintings and deadpan films. By making his own apparent lack of competence and intelligence into an elaborate ruse, he became a figure without precedent: a man whose self-conscious naivete has had truly revolutionary impact. With poise, wit, and exacting intelligence, Kelly M. Cresap performs a nearly impossible task: accounting for the far-ranging implications of Warhol's sustained performance...