Popular Culture in American History

by Cullen, Jim

• ISBN13: 9780631219576
• ISBN10: 0631219579
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-10-19
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

Popular Culture in American History collects the most widely cited and important writings on three hundred years of American popular culture. Each of the ten essays serves as a case study of a particular moment, issue, or form of popular culture, from seventeenth-century chapbooks to hip hop. Pedagogical features include further reading lists, contextualizing editorial introductions, discussion questions and chronologies of key events.

Author Biography

Jim Cullen teaches in the Expository Writing Program at Harvard University. He is the author of The Civil War in Popular Culture: A Reusable Past (1995), The Art of Democracy: A Concise History of Popular Culture in the United States (1996), and Born in the USA: Bruce Springsteen and the American Tradition (1997).

Table of Contents

Notes on Contributors	x
Series Editor's Preface	xii
Preface: About This Book	xiv
Acknowledgements	xvii
Introduction: The Worldwide Web of Popular Culture	1	(9)
In the Beginning	10	(20)
Timeline	10	(1)
Introduction	10	(2)
Chapbooks: Reconstructing the Popular Reading of Early America	12	(12)
Victor Neuberg
Consider the Source	24	(5)
Excerpts from Narrative of the Captivity of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson (1682)	24	(5)
Suggested Further Reading	29	(1)
The World of the Stage	30	(27)
Timeline	30	(1)
Introduction	30	(2)
William Shakespeare in America	32	(18)
Lawrence Levine
Consider the Source	50	(6)
Excerpt from Representative Men	50	(6)
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Suggested Further Reading	56	(1)
The Racy Appeal of the Minstrel	57	(21)
Timeline	57	(1)
Introduction	57	(4)
The Blackface Lore Cycle	61	(14)
W. T. Lhamon, Jr.
Consider the Source	75	(2)
Excerpts from Nineteenth-Century Minstrel Shows	75	(2)
Suggested Further Reading	77	(1)
Literature for the Million	78	(17)
Timeline	78	(1)
Introduction	78	(2)
The Figure of the Dime Novel in American Culture	80	(9)
Michael Denning
Consider the Source	89	(5)
Excerpt from Last of the Great Scouts	90	(4)
Helen Cody Wetmore
Suggested Further Reading	94	(1)
The Romance of the Dance Hall	95	(34)
Timeline	95	(1)
Introduction	95	(2)
Dance Madness	97	(26)
Kathy Peiss
Consider the Source	123	(5)
Excerpt from Elisabeth Marbury's Introduction to Modern Dancing	124	(4)
Vernon
Irene Castle
Suggested Further Reading	128	(1)
Moving Images	129	(34)
Timeline	129	(1)
Introduction	129	(2)
American Motion Pictures and the New Popular Culture, 1893--1918	131	(26)
Daniel J. Czitrom
Consider the Source	157	(5)
Excerpts from The Spirit of Youth	158	(4)
Jane Addams
Suggested Further Reading	162	(1)
Waves of Selling	163	(40)
Timeline	163	(1)
Introduction	163	(3)
Arguments over Broadcast Advertising	166	(35)
Susan Smulyan
Consider the Source	201	(1)
Excerpt from ``Sponsoritis'' (1930)	201	(1)
Suggested Further Reading	202	(1)
The Firmament of Stardom	203	(31)
Timeline	203	(1)
Introduction	203	(2)
Fool's Paradise: Frank Sinatra and the American Dream	205	(24)
Jim Cullen
Consider the Source	229	(3)
``Why the Americans are so Restless in the Midst of their Prosperity,'' excerpt from Vol. II of Democracy in America	229	(3)
Alexis de Tocqueville
Suggested Further Reading	232	(2)
The Age of Television	234	(36)
Timeline	234	(1)
Introduction	234	(2)
The Making of the Sitcom, 1961	236	(31)
David Marc
Consider the Source	267	(2)
Excerpts from After All	267	(2)
Mary Tyler Moore
Suggested Further Reading	269	(1)
Hip-Hop Nation	270	(24)
Timeline	270	(1)
Introduction	270	(2)
Voices from the Margins: Rap Music and Contemporary Black Cultural Production	272	(19)
Tricia Rose
Consider the Source	291	(2)
Excerpts from Ladies First	291	(2)
Queen Latifah
Suggested Further Reading	293	(1)
Index	294