Publication

1999 - Knopf, New York, New York (State)

Language

English

Word Count

80,000 words, Guess

Page Count

320 pages

Identifiers

  • Open LibraryOL380908M
  • ISBN-100679427406
  • OCLC Control Number39913129
  • Library of Congress Control Number98043155
  • LibraryThing448247
and 1 more
  • Goodreads4533766

Classifications

  • DDC306/.0973/0904
  • LCCE169.Z82 K35 1999

Description

"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."--BOOK JACKET. "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 As a result of this diminution of cultural authority, he says, definitive pronouncements have been replaced by divergent points of view, and there is, as well, a tendency to blur fact and fiction, reality and illusion."--BOOK JACKET.

Subjects

Other Editions

  • American culture, American tastes: social change and the 20th centuryKnopf1999-01-01

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