GRASPING THINGS: FOLK MATERIAL CULTURE AND MASS SOCIETY IN AMERICA

BRONNER, Simon J.

ISBN 10: 0813115728 / ISBN 13: 9780813115726

Published by The University Press Of Kentucky, Lexington, 1986

About this Item

8vo. pp xv 247. Red dust jacket with black and white illustration and lettering. Publisher's red buckram lettered in black at spine. Illustrated in black and white and colour.ISBN: 0813115728 Near fine. A little rubbed at head and foot of spine.

Seller Inventory # C65319

Bibliographic Details

• Title: GRASPING THINGS: FOLK MATERIAL CULTURE AND MASS SOCIETY IN AMERICA
• Publisher: The University Press Of Kentucky, Lexington
• Publication Date: 1986
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0813115728
• ISBN 13: 9780813115726
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included

About this title

Synopsis

" America stocks its shelves with mass-produced goods but fills its imagination with handmade folk objects. In Pennsylvania, the ""back to the city"" housing movement causes a conflict of cultures. In Indiana, an old tradition of butchering turtles for church picnics evokes both pride and loathing among residents. In New York, folk-art exhibits raise choruses of adoration and protest. These are a few of the examples Simon Bronner uses to illustrate the ways Americans physically and mentally grasp things. Bronner moves beyond the usual discussions of form and variety in America's folk material culture to explain historical influences on, and the social consequences of, channeling folk culture into a mass society.

Reviews

From the acts of entering a suburban house to making headstones to consuming turtle soup, Bronner wants the attentive reader to grasp the dynamics of the usually unexamined aspects of our material world. "The title of this book speaks to the theme of objects having physical and intellectual consequences." Folklore and American studies provide the intellectual base for the author's incisive analysis. The illustrations are exceptionally appropriate and provocative. The clarity of the style and arguments likewise should increase the book's appeal. A social science book that makes good reading. David S. Azzolina, Univ. of Pennsylvania Lib., Philadelphia
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.