Later essays in the collection, such as "The De-Definition of Art," foreshadow the postmodern turn. Rosenberg anticipates the collapse of boundaries between high art and life, a trajectory that would eventually lead to Happenings, Performance Art, and Conceptual Art. He understood earlier than most that the avant-garde was cannibalizing itself. He saw that "The New" had become a tyranny—a requirement that artists constantly reinvent themselves, leading to a state of permanent revolution that could eventually exhaust the creative spirit.

: The Internet Archive provides options for free borrowing and streaming of related Harold Rosenberg papers and texts.

In the essay "The American Action Painters," Rosenberg describes the artist not as a skilled craftsman but as a metaphysical adventurer. He writes with a novelist’s flair, describing the artist’s coat, the cigarette smoke, and the "apocalyptic" mood of the studio. This is the strength of the book: it makes art history feel like literature.

Because a PDF version would infringe copyright (the book remains in print from Da Capo Press, and many libraries hold the paperback), you can legally access the text in several ways: