All Consuming Images The Politics Of Style In Contemporary Culture

by Ewen, Stuart

• ISBN13: 9780465001019
• ISBN10: 0465001017
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1990-03-20
• Publisher: Basic Books

Summary

A provocative, compelling, and entertaining look at how the power of images dominates every aspect of our lives.

Author Biography

Stewart Ewen is professor of media studies and chair of the Department of Communications at Hunter College. He is also a professor in the Ph.D. programs in history and sociology at the City University of New York Graduate Center. He is the author of the acclaimed Captains of Consciousness, Channels of Desire, and All Consuming Images, the last of which provided the basis for Bill Moyers’s award-winning PBS series The Public Mind. He lives in New York City.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction to the New Edition	xv
Introduction: Shoes for Thought	1	(12)
1 In the Eye's Mind
``... Images Without Bottom...''	13	(11)
Goods and Surfaces	24	(17)
Skinners of the Visible World	24	(2)
Style and Social Mobility	26	(6)
The Triumph of the Superficial	32	(5)
Pictures of Refinement	37	(4)
The Marriage Between Art and Commerce	41	(16)
Integrated Visions	41	(2)
Consumer Engineering	43	(4)
Image and Desire	47	(10)
2 Image and Identity
Chosen People	57	(21)
Marks of Distinction	57	(14)
First Impressions	71	(7)
``The Dream of Wholeness''	78	(33)
Defining Personhood	78	(7)
Pathways of Fulfillment: Photography and Celebrity	85	(16)
The Decoration of Independence	101	(10)
3 Image and Power in a Changing World
Varnished Barbarism	111	(24)
The Look of History	111	(9)
The Look of the Future	120	(15)
Mechanical Sentiments	135	(18)
4 The Politics of Style in Contemporary Culture
Form Follows Value	153	(32)
Roma, 1948	153	(4)
The Vaporization of Values	157	(4)
Less is More	161	(15)
The Body Politic	176	(9)
Form Follows Power	185	(48)
Hard Bodies	185	(14)
Regulating Lines	199	(10)
The Aura of Technical Perfection	209	(8)
The Greening of Panopticism	217	(16)
Form Follows Waste	233	(26)
Conspicuous Consumption	233	(6)
Dynamic Obsolescence	239	(7)
Merchandise and Memory	246	(13)
Conclusion The Political Elements of Style	259	(13)
Notes	272	(15)
Bibliography	287	(10)
Index	297