Robert W. Rydell

The study of the epic age of American industrial design never gets old for me, and this was a fine examination of how industrial design, American business scrambling to remain relevant, the US government trying to propagandize that better times were coming, produced the slew of exhibitions that punctuated the 1930s. The great New York and Chicago exhibitions remain cultural touchstones, but I was unaware that there were exhibitions in Cleveland, Texas and California.

Of course, considering show more that this book was published almost a generation ago, one might say that this work is dated itself. I think that the contributors were a bit too critical about the quality of the "modernism" that these exhibitions showcased, and could better respect that the complex of consumerism, technology, and marketing did solved certain problems; at least for awhile. At least it wasn't galloping fascism, then or now, and there was then a certain effort to get to grips with reality.

It's hard to imagine such a moment happening again in America anytime soon, since there's a large swath of society that wants nothing more than to save a past that's not coming back, which is a denial of reality. It's hard to come up with alternatives until one admits that there is a problem. show less

I am quite ambivalent about this book - thus the midpoint rating. It is interesting, informative, and well-researched. One would think, however, that someone who has deeply researched a topic would have a nice thing or two to say about that topic (slavery, the Holocaust, etc excepted). I'm pretty sure most of the millions of people who attended the fairs didn't internalize any eugenicist, racist, imperialist, corporatist, and consumerist messaging that they hadn't already internalized in show more their daily lives. Maybe they just, you know, enjoyed an outing and had fun. I know I did at Montreal's Expo '67. show less

An extended essay on the rise of American mass culture and how it erupted into the world, the authors present this as the result of nation-girdling technology (the railroad, telegraph, etc.) helping to foment the rise of the corporation, while at the same time the impact of the American Civil War bred the imperative to create a national culture that would hopefully unify the wider population (using racial scapegoating if all else failed), help create social peace, and be profitable. The show more point then becomes that the resulting product was relatively easy to export to the world, if only because the producers were used to marketing to a heterodox population.

Using such exemplars of the American entertainment industry as Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show and "The Birth of a Nation" (D.W. Griffith’s paen to the White Republic and the repudiation of Reconstruction), the authors then examine the political import of it all, and the initial impact on the European scene. The ultimate consummation of American Mass Culture as a force to be reckoned is thus seen to arrive with the propaganda apparatus created during the Great War by the Wilson Administration, whereupon the great American entertainment machine is used as one more instrument of state.

If I have a particular problem with this work, which effectively juggles a great many themes, it’s that it seems a little weak on the actual broad response to the arrival of American mass culture in Europe. I enjoy reading about European intellectuals wringing their hands over the pollution of their cultural heritage as much as the next person, but I really would like to know more about how typical people responded to arrival of the new cultural options. Seeing as one of the main points of this book is that Americanization was not simply a side affect of the American hegemony after World War II, there is almost a need for a “pre-history” of the American cultural image in the perception of the European general public.

I would also note that before reading this work you would do yourself a favor by reading Alexander Saxton's "The Rise and Fall of the White Republic," which the authors lean heavily on as a source. show less

Fascinating and well researched look at the spread of American culture starting after the Civil War and leading up to WW 1, so much new information (to me) and so many new insights - a bit academic (as in, not light reading) but if you like history, especially US history, this is a whole different angle to it