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 xii
... social criticism . Condemning the division in American life between effete guardians of art and practical , vulgar materialists , Brooks looked in vain for a “ genial middle ground ” on which cultural life could thrive . In 1933 ...
... social criticism . Condemning the division in American life between effete guardians of art and practical , vulgar materialists , Brooks looked in vain for a “ genial middle ground ” on which cultural life could thrive . In 1933 ...
Seite xiv
... social structure " but also an accompanying visualization : drawings of Lynes's four brow sizes juxtaposed to sketches of each group's preferences in such areas as clothes , furniture , salads , and drinks as well as reading and ...
... social structure " but also an accompanying visualization : drawings of Lynes's four brow sizes juxtaposed to sketches of each group's preferences in such areas as clothes , furniture , salads , and drinks as well as reading and ...
Seite xv
... social refinement " that could be purchased in the same way as toasters and Model T's.8 The primary task of this book is to redress both the disregard and the oversimplification of middlebrow culture in the 1920s , 1930s , INTRODUCTION XV.
... social refinement " that could be purchased in the same way as toasters and Model T's.8 The primary task of this book is to redress both the disregard and the oversimplification of middlebrow culture in the 1920s , 1930s , INTRODUCTION XV.
Seite xvi
... social movements , and in the evolution of the literary critic as cultural mediator , I chose to limit my purview to efforts which encom- passed , in addition to entrepreneurs , an identifiable critical presence . Hence my decision to ...
... social movements , and in the evolution of the literary critic as cultural mediator , I chose to limit my purview to efforts which encom- passed , in addition to entrepreneurs , an identifiable critical presence . Hence my decision to ...
Seite xvii
... social historians . In The End of American Inno- cence ( 1959 ) , for example , Henry F. May depicted the period 1912–17 as a time when insurgent intellectuals struck fatal blows against the Vic- torian faith in optimism , morality ...
... social historians . In The End of American Inno- cence ( 1959 ) , for example , Henry F. May depicted the period 1912–17 as a time when insurgent intellectuals struck fatal blows against the Vic- torian faith in optimism , morality ...
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