Is Art Good for Us?: Beliefs about High Culture in American Life
by Joli Jensen
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Are the arts good for us? This book questions our taken-for-granted assumptions about the transformational powers of high culture by critiquing an instrumental American heritage of beliefs about the arts. Jensen argues that faith in high culture's unproven ability to transform people and society allows social critics to keep faith with the idea of a democratic society while deploring popular culture. Employing perspectives from Tocqueville and Dewey, she argues that the arts are good, but show more they don't do good. Instead of expecting the arts to improve things (and blaming the media for ruining them) we need to recognize that it is up to us, not 'the arts' to make the world a better place. show lessTags
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Joli Jensen is the Hazel Rogers Professor of Communication at the University of Tulsa, where she directs the Henneke Faculty Writing Program. She is the author of three books and numerous articles on media, culture, and social thought. Find out more at www.jolijensen.com.
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