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 xviii
... position in the historical record , middlebrow figures appear , from one angle , victims of that process . Yet , because of their efforts as book reviewers and list makers , many of them can also be seen as canonizers themselves ...
... position in the historical record , middlebrow figures appear , from one angle , victims of that process . Yet , because of their efforts as book reviewers and list makers , many of them can also be seen as canonizers themselves ...
Seite xix
... position slighted the legitimate needs and aspirations of millions of “ average intelligent readers " ( as the Book - of - the - Month Club termed them ) . To anyone dedicated , as I am , to democratic values , the promise that ...
... position slighted the legitimate needs and aspirations of millions of “ average intelligent readers " ( as the Book - of - the - Month Club termed them ) . To anyone dedicated , as I am , to democratic values , the promise that ...
Seite 19
... position- enunciated by Charles W. Eliot of Harvard , Andrew Dickson White of Cornell , and Charles R. Van Hise of Wisconsin , among others — that universities should serve utilitarian purposes subordinated the shaping of taste and ...
... position- enunciated by Charles W. Eliot of Harvard , Andrew Dickson White of Cornell , and Charles R. Van Hise of Wisconsin , among others — that universities should serve utilitarian purposes subordinated the shaping of taste and ...
Seite 26
... position . Their insistence on " standards , " on the importance of train- ing , and on distinguishing true from false culture appears designed to stave off threats to their own power . Figures like Olmsted and Norton , Levine has ...
... position . Their insistence on " standards , " on the importance of train- ing , and on distinguishing true from false culture appears designed to stave off threats to their own power . Figures like Olmsted and Norton , Levine has ...
Seite 28
... position as a proponent of the elective system who nonetheless championed educa- tion " which broadened the sympathies and opened the mind . " It also marked him as a figure who combined respect for experts with the moralistic ...
... position as a proponent of the elective system who nonetheless championed educa- tion " which broadened the sympathies and opened the mind . " It also marked him as a figure who combined respect for experts with the moralistic ...
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 |
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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