What counts as art? How do we make aesthetic judgments? ln Aesthetics and the Sociology of Art Janet Wolff argues that these questions must be answered within a sociological and historical context. Wolff positions herself at the nexus of the debate between art historians who pursue universal criteria for the evaluation of art and socioldgists who contend that art is a product of ideological and class bias. Charting a course through the relevant theoretical contri butions of Kant, Althusser, Luk6cs, Marcuse, Bourdieu, and others, Wolff ultimately rejects the art historian's essentialism and the sociologist's reductionism. She argues that the concept of the aesthetic must be rescued as much from those who would equate artistic value with political worth as from the aesthetic relativists who are rendered incapable of judging artisticrnvalue.