Masscult and Midcult

Masscult and Midcult
Author: Dwight Macdonald
Publisher: New York Review of Books
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2011-10-11
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1590174682

A New York Review Books Original An uncompromising contrarian, a passionate polemicist, a man of quick wit and wide learning, an anarchist, a pacifist, and a virtuoso of the slashing phrase, Dwight Macdonald was an indefatigable and indomitable critic of America’s susceptibility to well-meaning cultural fakery: all those estimable, eminent, prizewinning works of art that are said to be good and good for you and are not. He dubbed this phenomenon “Midcult” and he attacked it not only on aesthetic but on political grounds. Midcult rendered people complacent and compliant, secure in their common stupidity but neither happy nor free. This new selection of Macdonald’s finest essays, assembled by John Summers, the editor of The Baffler, reintroduces a remarkable American critic and writer. In the era of smart, sexy, and everything indie, Macdonald remains as pertinent and challenging as ever.

Against The American Grain

Against The American Grain
Author: Dwight Macdonald
Publisher: Da Capo Press, Incorporated
Total Pages: 464
Release: 1983
Genre: Social Science
ISBN:

The End of the Soul

The End of the Soul
Author: Jennifer Hecht
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 433
Release: 2005-12-20
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0231502389

On October 19, 1876 a group of leading French citizens, both men and women included, joined together to form an unusual group, The Society of Mutual Autopsy, with the aim of proving that souls do not exist. The idea was that, after death, they would dissect one another and (hopefully) show a direct relationship between brain shapes and sizes and the character, abilities and intelligence of individuals. This strange scientific pact, and indeed what we have come to think of as anthropology, which the group's members helped to develop, had its genesis in aggressive, evangelical atheism. With this group as its focus, The End of the Soul is a study of science and atheism in France in late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It shows that anthropology grew in the context of an impassioned struggle between the forces of tradition, especially the Catholic faith, and those of a more freethinking modernism, and moreover that it became for many a secular religion. Among the adherents of this new faith discussed here are the novelist Emile Zola, the great statesman Leon Gambetta, the American birth control advocate Margaret Sanger, and Arthur Conan Doyle, whose Sherlock Holmes embodied the triumph of ratiocination over credulity. Boldly argued, full of colorful characters and often bizarre battles over science and faith, this book represents a major contribution to the history of science and European intellectual history.

Masscult and Midcult

Masscult and Midcult
Author: Dwight MacDonald
Publisher:
Total Pages: 80
Release: 2011-10-01
Genre:
ISBN: 9781258106133

An Inquiry Into American Popular Culture And The Role Of The Middlebrows In The Distortion Of Cultural Values.

Masscult and Midcult

Masscult and Midcult
Author: Dwight Macdonald
Publisher: New York Review of Books
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2011-10-11
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 159017447X

A New York Review Books Original An uncompromising contrarian, a passionate polemicist, a man of quick wit and wide learning, an anarchist, a pacifist, and a virtuoso of the slashing phrase, Dwight Macdonald was an indefatigable and indomitable critic of America’s susceptibility to well-meaning cultural fakery: all those estimable, eminent, prizewinning works of art that are said to be good and good for you and are not. He dubbed this phenomenon “Midcult” and he attacked it not only on aesthetic but on political grounds. Midcult rendered people complacent and compliant, secure in their common stupidity but neither happy nor free. This new selection of Macdonald’s finest essays, assembled by John Summers, the editor of The Baffler, reintroduces a remarkable American critic and writer. In the era of smart, sexy, and everything indie, Macdonald remains as pertinent and challenging as ever.

Discriminations

Discriminations
Author: Dwight Macdonald
Publisher: Da Capo Press, Incorporated
Total Pages: 494
Release: 1985-08-21
Genre: American essays
ISBN:

Culture Crash

Culture Crash
Author: Scott Timberg
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2015-01-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0300195885

Argues that United States' creative class is fighting for survival and explains why this should matter to all Americans.

The Balloonist

The Balloonist
Author: MacDonald Harris
Publisher: ABRAMS
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2012-11-06
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1468303732

The acclaimed novel of love, ambition, and Arctic adventure “told with fin de siecle elegance”—with an introduction by Philip Pullman (Kirkus Reviews). It is July 1897, at the northernmost reach of the inhabited world. Swedish inventor Gustav Crispin is determined to become the first person to set foot on the North Pole, and return, borne by hot air balloon. Making the expedition with two companions—an American journalist and a young, French-speaking adventurer—all three climb into the small wicker gondola and cuts the ropes. But as Gustav pursues his history-making ambition, and their flimsy balloon is battered by Arctic winds, his mind returns again and again to his fraught romance with the beautiful Luisa. Nominated for the National Book Award in 1977, The Balloonist was hailed by Mary Renault as a “tour de force.” The story of Gustav Crispin is “chilling and comic by turn . . . An unusual mixture of Arctic adventure and Parisian love story with philosophic overtones” (Kirkus Reviews).

A Moral Temper

A Moral Temper
Author: Dwight Macdonald
Publisher: Ivan R. Dee Publisher
Total Pages: 520
Release: 2001
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:

Here in one volume is a comprehensive selection of letters from the correspondence of one of the most astute observers of American politics, society, and culture in the 20th century.