 Dewey thinks there are historic reasons why the idea of art as something essentially autonomous from other areas of life became so dominant. He traces these back to the rise of nationalism and capitalism. Both of these developments, in his view, reinforced the inclination to set art “upon a remote pedestal” apart from other activities and modes of experience (AE: 11). The conception of art connected to nationalist and imperialist tendencies rendered museums into “the beauty parlor[s] of civilization”, (AE: 346) where each nation exhibited its greatest artistic achievements and, as in some cases, also its artistic loot. Artworks received “a holier-than-thou” aura, which reinforced their esoteric character as something opposed to everyday life (AE: 15). Dewey also refers, in an unusually spiteful tone, to “the nouveaux riches” of his time, whom he thinks collected expensive artworks merely for the sake of buttressing their social statuses with little care for their artistic value and for engaging with them aesthetically. All this meant for Dewey that works of art were in danger of becoming mere stale “art products” instead of artworks that actually do something “with and in experience” (AE: 9).