Time Passages: Collective Memory and American Popular Culture / Edition 1

by George Lipsitz

Overview

The classic work on collective memory and popular culture in the United States.

Probes the complicated relationship between postwar America between historical memory and commercial culture—popular television, music, and film.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780816638819
Publisher:	University of Minnesota Press
Publication date:	09/27/2001
Edition description:	First edition
Pages:	328
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

George Lipsitz is professor of ethnic studies at the University of California, San Diego, where he serves as director of the Thurgood Marshall Institute. He is the author of many books, including American Studies in a Moment of Danger, The Possessive Investment in Whiteness: How White People Profit from Identity Politics (1998), and Dangerous Crossroads: Popular Music, Postmodernism, and the Poetics of Place (1997). He also edited Stan Weir's Singlejack Solidarity (2004).

Editorial Reviews

This high take on ``low'' culture examines the complex web of popular narratives that arise from and create the American collective memory. Studying the period from the end of WW II to the present, Lipsitz ( Class and Culture in Cold War America ) inventively explores the popular canon, turning variously to television, rock music, film, novels and the Mardi Gras Indians of New Orleans who spend all year preparing to celebrate Carnival. Lipsitz argues that TV shows such as I Remember Mama gave voice to immigrant working-class families, in part to inculcate that subculture with a consumer ethic. Rock music is seen as an important dialogic process with African origins, incorporating influences from a variety of ethnic groups . Lipsitz's vocabulary subscribes to academic trends (``metaphoricity''), and careless editing permits a repetition of phrases and ideas. But the author frequently arranges amusing juxtapositions--such as epigraphs by Russian literary critic Mikhail Bakhtin and Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Lipsitz (history and American studies, U. of Minnesota) offers an analysis (scholarly) and recollection (gritty) of postwar popular culture including television, film, and music. Powerful stuff. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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