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About the Author

Jackson Lears is Board of Governors Professor of History at Rutgers University and the editor of Raritan: A Quarterly Review. The author of Fables of Abundance (winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for history), Something for Nothing, and No Place of Grace, Lears writes for The New York show more Times, The Washington Post, and The New Republic. He lives in western New Jersey. show less
Image credit: Center for American Progress

Works by Jackson Lears

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The Best American Science Writing 2012 (2012) — Contributor — 90 copies

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Acquired this book from a remainder house some decades ago; finally read as a follow-up to Peter Williams’ Religion, Art, and Money, which covers a similar period in American history and mentions Lears’ book. Basically a soft Freudian approach to understanding the apparent contradictions of the period: the nostalgia for Mediaeval art and culture combined with increasing individualism and the decline of religion as a source of meaning and purpose in society. The phrase “modern superego” appears on practically every page; the word “neurasthenia” is regularly used, apparently intended as a real diagnosis; and the quest for cultural authority is frequently described as “therapeutic.” The last two chapters put a number of representative figures on the couch, notably Henry Adams, and carry out a more systematic analysis of their Oedipal issues in a fashion that seems parodic at this date. I was interested to note that while Williams identifies some of the relevant figures as homosexual, with the implication that this is/was widely known, the subject does not arise even once in Lears’ book, although the conflict between the “masculine” and the “feminine” sides of many of those who contributed to the Antimodernist movement is discussed at length.
I assume the fact that the book remains in print despite its reliance on largely-abandoned Freudian explanations for social phenomena reflects the interest which the period continues to hold for readers and scholars, and the wide-ranging research Lears presents on the subject. Extensive notes and bibliography.
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booksaplenty1949 | May 25, 2022 |
5604 Rebirth of a Nation The Making of Modern America, 1877-1920 by Jackson Lears (read 23 Dec 2018) When my good niece donated almost 200 books to me recently, this book, first published in 2008, was among them and it caught my attention and I wanted to read it. It is a learned book, usually called 'cultural history', and I found it was a bit more intellectual than the usual history I much enjoy. So the book had good things in it and enjoyable pages, but also was 'heavy' at times and less fun to read. The author's views were sound and I especially was in accord with his view of Teddy Roosevelt as a war lover and actually a shallow thinker. His words on Woodrow Wilson ring true--Wilson was attracted to the right things but the author faults hm for thinking it necessary to enter the World War to get his views on world organization accepted. The book studies the effect of the Civil War, the growing power of money, the attitude to race in the years indicated in the title, the effect of the ending of the frontier, the role of Bryan, and the beginning of America's grasping for empire, as well as the beginning of America as a world power. A good book but not an easy read.… (more)
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Schmerguls | 2 other reviews | Dec 23, 2018 |
The cover is a photo of a span bridge under construction, and I suspect that the book designer had read the book and realized that it, like the bridge, had two or three really strong points but was otherwise more or less dangling, disconnected bits and pieces.

I was primed to love this: I needed to read something about the time period anyway; Lears throws in quotes by people I love but historians usually don't touch (e.g., the Henrys Adams and James); he's no averse to actually, like, trying to tell you what happened (rather than banging on about contingency and the deeply individualistic sufferings of short-sighted workers in the Pimlinail factory of Northern Workerville's easter district in the third week of March, 1875) and he's open to the fact that you need to theorize in order to explain what happened. And yet.

The obvious problem that faces a historiographer, particularly if you're seeking a wider audience, is that you probably don't think writing according to chronology is possible. Prohibition needs a narrative different from the narrative that Militarism needs, even if they're connected; so maybe you have thematic chapters? And then, of course, you end up repeating yourself over and over and over... as Lears does.

The obvious problem is that you're probably too intelligent to write a simple Great Man story about what the Presidents were doing during this time period, so you choose a theme: here, the trope of rebirth or regeneration of self/nation/humankind. Great theme. But how exactly do you expound your theme while still giving enough detail? Well, I sure as heck wouldn't want to try. Lears fails at it. He dutifully re-states his theme at the start and end of every chapter, but in between there's very little indication that the facts and stories he tells are connected by this theme, and if so, how, why we should care, and how it all hangs together. If you think the U.S. during this time period is best understood as Regeneration Nation, you need to explain why.

So without chronology or coherent theme to connect the chapters, or the sections, or the paragraphs, the book comes out, I fear, like a big miscellany. It has a *great* bibliographical essay at the end, but that's probably the best thing about the book. Better written than your standard history? On a sentence level, yes. But sentences make paragraphs, which make sections, which make chapters. And having all of them hang together is also a part of good writing.
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stillatim | 2 other reviews | Dec 29, 2013 |
Lears' book on 'the making of modern America' was very disappointing, whereas this was fabulous. As a caveat, I think it's fabulous because it was not only exactly what I wanted (a history of advertising tied to the culture of early to mid twentieth century America told from a vaguely Frankfurt Schoolish perspective), but also suggested something to me that I'd never considered, which was utterly engaging (the relationship between advertising and literary/artistic modernism--whether they were at war or at peace). Lears shows, pretty convincingly, how advertising played off and created distinctions between authenticity and deception, tradition and progress, objects and lifestyles and so on. And his forays into literary criticism are surprisingly good. It helps that he devotes a few pages to William Gaddis' 'The Recognitions,' which I think is probably my favorite novel of the twentieth century.

That said, there are a few problems. His very self-consciously 'bricolage' approach is often frustrating, because there's no way to get a sense of historical change. But this helps explain why this book was so engaging, whereas 'Rebirth of a Nation' was such a dud. You can be a bricoleur when writing about modernism & advertising, because the field is so restricted. A bricoleur's history of America, on the other hand, is a pretty sure-fire disaster.

As a side note, I just discovered that there's a 'Bricoleur Capital Management' company. Weird.
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stillatim | 2 other reviews | Dec 29, 2013 |

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