Waubonsee Community College

American culture, American tastes, social change and the 20th century, Michael Kammen

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 263-303) and index

illustrations

index present

non fiction

American culture, American tastes

bibliography

39913129

Michael Kammen

"Americans have a long history of public arguments about taste, the uses of leisure, and what is culturally appropriate in a democracy that has a strong work ethic. Michael Kammen surveys these debates as well as our changing taste preferences, especially in the past century, and the shifting perceptions that have accompanied them." "Focusing on our own time, Kammen discusses the use of the fluid nature of cultural taste to enlarge audiences and increase revenues, and reveals how the public role of intellectuals and cultural critics has declined as the power of corporate sponsors and promoters has risen. As a result of this diminution of cultural authority, he says, definitive pronouncements have been replaced by divergent points of view, and there is, as well, a tendency to blur fact and fiction, reality and illusion."--Jacket

social change and the 20th century

Comming to terms with defining terms -- Culture democratized: distinction or degradation? -- Consumerism, Americanism, and the phasing of popular culture -- Popular culture in transition--and in its prime -- Blurring the boundaries between taste levels -- Cultural criticism and the transformation of cultural authority -- The gradual emergence of mass culture and its critics -- Mass culture in more recent times: passive and/or participatory? -- Historians and the problem of popular culture in recent times -- Meetings of the minds? Moving beyond cusutomary categories