| Description |
1 online resource (xx, 416 pages) : illustrations |
| Physical Medium |
polychrome |
| Description |
text file |
| Note |
Spine title: The making of middlebrow culture. |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 373-403) and index. |
| Summary |
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. By examining both the form and content of this popularization of literature, Joan Rubin recaptures here an activity that brought the humanities to the general public on an unprecedented scale. In doing so, she provides the first comprehensive analysis of the rise of American middlebrow culture and the values encompassed by it. Exploring the democratization of culture in a consumer society, Rubin concentrates on five important expressions of the middlebrow: the establishment of book clubs, including the founding of the Book-of-the-Month Club; the beginnings of "great books" programs; the creation ofthe 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. Rubin also investigates the lives and expectations of the individuals who shaped these middlebrow enterprises--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. By demonstrating that an emphasis on character, liberal learning, and aesthetic training at least partly animated many of these writers, she revises the conventional view that the genteel tradition in American letters had vanished by World War I. 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. |
| Contents |
Self, culture, and self-culture in America -- The "higher journalism" realigned : Stuart Pratt Sherman, Irita Van Doren, and Books -- Why do you disappoint yourself? : the early history of the Book-of-the-Month Club -- Classics and commercials : John Erskine and "great books" -- Merchant of light : Will Durant and the vogue of the "outline" -- Information, please! : book programs on commercial radio. |
| Access |
Use copy Restrictions unspecified MiAaHDL |
| Reproduction |
Electronic reproduction. [S.l.] : HathiTrust Digital Library, 2010. MiAaHDL |
| System Details |
Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212 MiAaHDL |
| Processing Action |
digitized 2010 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve MiAaHDL |
| Local Note |
eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America |
| Subject |
Books and reading -- United States -- History -- 20th century.
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Books and reading. |
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United States. |
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History. |
| Chronological Term |
20th century |
| Subject |
Literature -- Appreciation -- United States -- History -- 20th century.
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Literature -- Appreciation. |
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Art appreciation -- United States -- History -- 20th century.
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Art appreciation. |
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Popular culture -- United States -- History -- 20th century.
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Popular culture. |
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Middle class -- United States -- History -- 20th century.
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Middle class. |
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Self-culture -- History -- 20th century.
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Self-culture. |
| Chronological Term |
1900 - 1999 |
| Genre/Form |
Electronic books.
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History.
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| Added Title |
Making of middlebrow culture |
| Other Form: |
Print version: Rubin, Joan Shelley, 1947- Making of middle/brow culture. Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, ©1992 0807820105 (DLC) 91022241 (OCoLC)24010915 |
| ISBN |
0585027986 (electronic book) |
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9780585027982 (electronic book) |
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9780807864265 (e-book) |
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0807864269 (e-book) |
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0807820105 (alkaline paper) |
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0807843547 (paperback alkaline paper) |
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9780807843543 |
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9780807820100 (alkaline paper) |
|
