East Coast/West Coast - Hardcover

Douglas, Patrick

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1556110987 ISBN 13: 9781556110986

Publisher: Dutton Adult, 1989

Synopsis

Examines the effects of East Coast and West Coast culture on American civilization as a whole

About this title

From Publishers Weekly

In a book that initially succors elitists and causes populists to arm, freelance writer Douglas changes tack after some 325 pages and outrages all camps. New Agers especially will be miffed at his dismissal of channeling and the like as "mush." The author uses the appellations "elitist" and "aristocrat" as commendable qualities in his tracing of egalitarianism, a negative development, in politics and culture alike: the authority of Boston, for example, with a "sense of duty to the mind and to the body politic . . . declined with John Quincy Adams's defeat to Andrew Jackson in 1828." Democratization heralded cultural deterioration, the shift of influence from East Coast to West Coast brought an end to rationalism as the well-born, well-bred--"good stock"--were overshadowed first by the uneducated rich, then by the "average man." Focusing too broadly to develop his provocative thesis, Douglas concludes with an excursion into the paranormal, which, despite his enthusiasm, smacks here of a parlor game.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Is the United States becoming more like Japan? According to Douglas, as East Coast snobbery gives way to Hollywood glitz, the country is moving in the direction of Oriental mysticism and a new consciousness of being. "Historically," writes Douglas, "it has been the superior region--in terms of sheer power--that has exported its culture to the rest of the world." In line with financial and demographic trends, the center of power in the United States is California, he says, which is inspired by Eastern metaphysics and Japanese aesthetics. This book does a good job of presenting the shifting balance of power in the arts. But the author's unblinkered faith in ESP, Esalen, and "vital energy" threatens to delegitimize his work. A superior analysis of modern American culture is Jean Baudrillard's America ( LJ 1/89).
- Kent Worcester, Columbia
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Dutton Adult
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 1556110987
• ISBN 13: 9781556110986
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320