American intellectuals may often curse capitalism, but it has thrown up a number of enlightened patrons, buyers and active promoters of Modernism in the arts, particularly in New York. The Big Five of this study are Lincoln Kirstein, Edward Warburg, Agnes Mangan, James Thrall Soby and A. Everett Austin, who individually and collectively did much to foster the climate which today has given America the lead in the visual arts and the dance, if not in literature. They brought Balanchine to the US, they created a taste for Picasso, fostered Calder's career as a sculptor, gave the European avant garde the snob image it needed with their fellow Americans, were capable promoters and organisers as well as art snobs. Wealth, family connections, and the right educational background (Harvard mostly) were on their side and were all used to fight the Good Fight against insularity and philistinism. A fascinating chronicle of an unfamiliar chapter in cultural history.