Table of Contents

Notes on Contributors. Preface: About This Book. Introduction: The Worldwide Web of Popular Culture. 1. In the Beginning. Timeline. Introduction. Chapbooks: Reconstructing the Reading of Early America: Victor Neuberg. Consider the Source: Chapbooks. Extract from Narrative of the Captivity of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, 1682.Suggested Further Reading. 2. The World of the Stage. Timeline. Introduction. William Shakespeare in America: Lawrence Levine (George Mason University). Consider the Source: Shakespeare and Early American Theater. Excerpt from Representative Men by Ralph Waldo Emerson (1850). Suggested Further Reading. 3. The Racy Appeal of the Minstrel. Timeline. Introduction. The Blackface Lore Cycle: W. T. Lhamon, Jr. (Florida State University). Consider the Source: Minstrel Shows. Excerpts from Nineteenth-Century Minstrel Shows. Suggested Further Reading. 4. Literature for the Million. Timeline. Introduction. The Figure of the Dime Novel in American Culture: Michael Denning (Yale University).Consider the Source: Dime Novel Fiction. Excerpt from Last of the Great Scouts by Helen Cody Wetmore (1899). Advertisement for A Knight of Labor by Frederick Whittaker. Suggested Further Reading. 5. The Romance of the Dance Hall. Timeline. Introduction. Dance Madness: Kathy Peiss (University of Massachusetts at Amherst).Consider the Source: Dance Hall Culture. Excerpt from Elisabeth Marbury's Introduction to Modern Dancing by Vernon and Irene Castle (1914). Suggested Further Reading. 6. Moving Images. Timeline. Introduction. American Motion Pictures and the New Popular Culture, 1893-1918: Daniel J. Czitrom (Mount Holyoke College). Consider the Source: Early Motion Pictures. Excerpt from The Spirit of Youth by Jane Addams (1909). Suggested Further Reading. 7. Waves of Selling. Timeline. Introduction. Arguments over Broadcast Advertising: Susan Smulyan (Brown University). Consider the Source: Radio Advertising. Excerpt from "Sponsoritis". Suggested Further Reading. 8. The Firmament of Stardom. Timeline. Introduction. Fool's Paradise: Frank Sinatra and the American Dream: Jim Cullen (Harvard University). Consider the Source: Frank Sinatra and the American Dream. "Why the Americans are so Restless in the Midst of their Prosperity," excerpt from Vol. II of Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville (1840). Suggested Further Reading. 9. The Age of Television. Timeline. Introduction. The Making of the Sitcom, 1961: David Marc (Syracuse University). Consider the Source: Sitcoms. Excerpt from After All by Mary Tyler Moore (1995). Suggested Further Reading. 10. Hip Hop Nation. Timeline. Introduction. Voices from the Margins: Rap Music and Contemporary Black Cultural Production: Tricia Rose (New York University). Consider the Source: Hip Hop. Excerpt from Ladies First by Queen Latifah (1999). Suggested Further Reading. Index.

About the Author

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).

Reviews

"Popular Culture in American History is an immensely appealing - and successful - effort to do the impossible: to provide a series of thematic snapshots that effectively covers US cultural history. The selected primary sources are rich and provocative; the scholarly pieces represent a wide range of perspectives and approaches; the major themes treated will outfit students to undertake work far beyond the bounds of the topics explicitly included here; and the prose is sharp and always accessible. I've been waiting for a volume like this for some time, and I can't imagine that I'm alone." Matthew Frye Jacobson, Yale University "More than a collection of essays, this book is a leap forward in the comprehension of the always-emerging cultural world around us, shrewdly historical but also utterly up-to-date, respectful but not uncritical of its subject, illuminating of the entire national experience." Mari Jo Buhle, Brown University "Popular Culture in American History is designed to introduce undergraduate students to material that is informative yet easily readable ... [it] might serve as a good addition to any American history survey course: The introductions to each essay are concise and informative; the selections of primary sources are appropriate; and the discussion questions should help students in their understanding of the material. The briefly annotated suggestions for further reading at the conclusion of each essay serve as a good introduction to the topic discussed." History: Reviews of New Books