Description
Book SynopsisFocuses on the term 'culture' and it's history in the United States in the first half of the twentieth century. This book shows how, during this period, the term 'culture' changed from being a technical term associated primarily with anthropology into a term of popular usage.
Trade ReviewOne of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 1999 "Clearly stated and persuasive... [A] stimulating discussion of the uses and impact of the concept of 'culture' in early-20th-century US thought..."--Choice "One of the most important works in and about American studies in our time."--Peter W. Williams, Religious Studies Review
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: The Domestication of Culture 3 1 Modernism, Anthropology, Culture 15 2 Dry Salvages: Spatiality, Nationalism, and the Invention of an "Anthropological" Culture 32 3 The National Genius: Van Wyck Brooks, Edward Sapir, and the Problem of the Individual 66 4 Terrains of Culture: Ruth Benedict, Waldo Frank, and the Spatialization of the Culture Concept 93 5 The Culture of the Middle: Class, Taste, and Region in the 1930s Politics of Art 126 6 "Beyond Relativity": James Agee and Others, Toward the Cold War 158 7 On Getting Rid of Culture: An Inconclusive Conclusion 193 Notes 215 Index 259
