The veritable tsunami of historical revisionist cultural biographies which were summoned by the tectonic shift of the 2016 US presidential election, resulting in countless [insert important artistic figure/artistic movement here] as “political” artist/movement or whatever, seems to show no signs of abating even five years later. For all its evident erudition and cleverness, the problem with Kinderman’s Beethoven book is that its subject really isn’t Beethoven; instead the composer is merely a frame around which its reader can see themselves and their pet conceits reflected flatteringly. Thus Kinderman permits his intended audience to believe that not only was Beethoven their precursor, but encourages the delusion that they are the Beethovens of their own time.