The Making of Middlebrow CultureUniv of North Carolina Press, 09.11.2000 - 438 Seiten The proliferation of book clubs, reading groups, "outline" volumes, and new forms of book reviewing in the first half of the twentieth century influenced the tastes and pastimes of millions of Americans. Joan Rubin here provides the first comprehensive analysis of this phenomenon, the rise of American middlebrow culture, and the values encompassed by it. Rubin centers her discussion on five important expressions of the middlebrow: the founding of the Book-of-the-Month Club; the beginnings of "great books" programs; the creation of the New York Herald Tribune's book-review section; the popularity of such works as Will Durant's The Story of Philosophy; and the emergence of literary radio programs. She also investigates the lives and expectations of the individuals who shaped these middlebrow institutions--such figures as Stuart Pratt Sherman, Irita Van Doren, Henry Seidel Canby, Dorothy Canfield Fisher, John Erskine, William Lyon Phelps, Alexander Woollcott, and Clifton Fadiman. Moreover, as she pursues the significance of these cultural intermediaries who connected elites and the masses by interpreting ideas to the public, Rubin forces a reconsideration of the boundary between high culture and popular sensibility. |
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Seite xix
... humanity - than they might otherwise experience . Like the more truculent castigators of " midcult , " I see the rise of American consumer society not simply as a spur to the commendable democratization of “ high ” culture : to my mind ...
... humanity - than they might otherwise experience . Like the more truculent castigators of " midcult , " I see the rise of American consumer society not simply as a spur to the commendable democratization of “ high ” culture : to my mind ...
Seite xx
... human fulfillment than a situation in which market considerations rush in to fill the vacuum created by an unchecked relativism . 14 A similar ambivalence marks my approach to the genteel tradition . At their best , genteel critics ...
... human fulfillment than a situation in which market considerations rush in to fill the vacuum created by an unchecked relativism . 14 A similar ambivalence marks my approach to the genteel tradition . At their best , genteel critics ...
Seite 6
... human responsibilities to ameliorate society and to serve God , 12 In the Unitarian scheme , the possessor of self - culture exhibited two forms of taste : moral and aesthetic . Moral taste was the quality of taking delight in the ...
... human responsibilities to ameliorate society and to serve God , 12 In the Unitarian scheme , the possessor of self - culture exhibited two forms of taste : moral and aesthetic . Moral taste was the quality of taking delight in the ...
Seite 7
... human . " That commitment pro- pelled the Harvard moral philosophers to seek audiences for their message outside their immediate circles : Channing's " Self - Culture , " for example , was a lecture before an association of workingmen ...
... human . " That commitment pro- pelled the Harvard moral philosophers to seek audiences for their message outside their immediate circles : Channing's " Self - Culture , " for example , was a lecture before an association of workingmen ...
Seite 8
... human ability to exercise " moral sense . " As Emerson made the connection , " The foundation of culture , as of character , is at last the moral sen- timent . " That is , Emerson joined the Unitarians in coupling self- development with ...
... human ability to exercise " moral sense . " As Emerson made the connection , " The foundation of culture , as of character , is at last the moral sen- timent . " That is , Emerson joined the Unitarians in coupling self- development with ...
Inhalt
1 | |
Stuart Pratt Sherman Irita Van Doren and Books | 34 |
The Early History of the BookoftheMonth Club | 93 |
John Erskine and Great Books | 148 |
illustrations | 199 |
Will Durant and the Vogue of the Outline | 209 |
Book Programs on Commercial Radio | 266 |
Notes | 331 |
Bibliography | 373 |
Index | 405 |
Permissions | 415 |
Andere Ausgaben - Alle anzeigen
Häufige Begriffe und Wortgruppen
Adler advertising aesthetic Alexander Woollcott American appeared Arnold Arnoldian audience authority Autobiography Babbitt Book Review Book-of-the-Month Club broadcast Broun Canby Canby's Canfield character civilization classics Clifton Fadiman club's COHC College critics democratic Dewey Dorothy Canfield Fisher Durant's early editor effort Eliot Emerson Erskine Papers Erskine's essay example experience Fadiman Fisher Folder genteel tradition Haldeman-Julius Helen Helen Rogers Reid Henry Seidel Canby Herald Tribune human Ibid idea ideal intellectual Irita Van Doren James John Erskine Lazarsfeld lecture Letters Library Lincoln Schuster listeners literary Loon Loon's Mark Van Doren Max Lincoln ment middlebrow modern moral Morley NBC Records Norton novel outline personality Phelps Phelps's political popular publishers quiz Radio readers reading Review of Literature role Saturday Review selection sense Sept Sherman Similarly Simon and Schuster social Story of Philosophy tion Weekly Wells's William William Lyon Phelps Woodberry Woodberry's Woollcott writers wrote Yale