The Cambridge history of American popular culture / edited by Lauren Rabinovitz.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Rabinovitz, Lauren, 1950-2025, editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Popular culture--United States--History.

Popular culture.

Mass media--United States--History.

Mass media.

United States--Civilization.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xxi, 734 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2026.

Summary:

The Cambridge History of American Popular Culture is a comprehensive treatment of American popular culture. It is organized around the major time frames for defining American history, as well as genres of popular culture and, pivotally, around historical instances where American popular culture has been a key transformative agent shaping American history, values, and society. This ambitious book by a team of scholarly experts from across the humanities offers unique historical breadth and depth of knowledge about the ongoing power of commercial entertainment. The Cambridge History of American Popular Culture is a fresh, original and authoritative treatment of the aesthetics, producers and artists involved in American popular culture, a phenomena that exerts tremendous cultural power both domestically and internationally.

Contents:

Introduction / Lauren Rabinovitz

Prologue. A brief history of popular culture studies / Lauren Rabinovitz

Popular literature in nineteenth-century America / Paul C. Gutjahr

Sentimentalism and women's popular culture / Lori A. Merish

The visual in nineteenth century American popular culture / Justin T. Clark

Nineteenth century popular theatre and performance / Kim Marra

Minstrel shows and blackface / Yuval Taylor and Jake Austen

Wild west shows / Joy S. Kasson

Burlesque and vaudeville / David Monod

The rise of American sports / Daniel A. Nathan

Amusement parks / Lauren Rabinovitz

American world's fairs in the Gilded Age / Robert W. Rydell

The global ascendancy of Hollywood cinema / Ross Melnick

The culture of radio : inventing soundwork, imagining the nation / Michele Hilmes

Jazz and American popular culture / Michael Borshuk

Pulp fiction and the paperback revolution / Paula Rabinowitz

American world's fairs in the Depression and Atomic Age / Robert W. Rydell

Television : from the broadcast era to the digital age / Amanda D. Lotz

Postwar rock music : race, liberalism, and mass bohemianism / Ari Katorza

Country music / Pamela A. Fox

The Broadway musical / Ryan Donovan

Popular dance / Sherril Dodds

Sport in the age of mass media / Travis Vogan

New Hollywood and post-classical cinema / Jon Lewis

American comedy in the media / Nicholas Holm

Pornography and the adult entertainment industry / Eric Schaefer

Theme parks / Lauren Rabinovitz

Comic book culture, fandom, and superheroes / Matthew J. Pustz

Cooking as popular culture / Emily J. H. Contois

Immigrant identities and popular culture at the turn of the century / M. Alison Kibler

Discordant music? Jews, African Americans, and the Great American Songbook / Ari Katorza

Cold war celebrity, the red scare, and civil rights / Lauren Rabinovitz

Hollywood and the Pentagon : projecting state power through popular culture / Roger Stahl

Americanization and global popular culture / Jaap Kooijman

African Americans and popular culture / Kinohi Nishikawa

Jewish identities and popular culture / Jonathan Branfman

Asian Americans and popular culture / Kent A. Ono

Native Americans, media sovereignty, and popular culture / Angelica M. Lawson

Latino-Latina popular culture / Anthony Macías

Queer culture in mass media / Jennifer Reed

Epilogue. The enshrinement of popular culture in twenty-first century museums / Lauren Rabinovitz, editor.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 01 Jun 2026).

ISBN:

1-009-52242-6

9781009522434

9781009522397