"Each disaster gets its own chapter, which is not simply a
straightforward account of 'what happened next'; contributors put
each episode into context and question the popular 'lessons' that
were often propagated immediately after. . . .Recommended"
--"Library Journal"
"We may be too close to September 11 to appreciate a study of
the meanings of disaster; still, the attacks could spur interest in
how Americans responded to past disasters. Biel, the director of
studies in history and literature at Harvard, has assembled a
provocative and illuminating collection."
--"Publishers Weekly"
"Biel (history and literature, Harvard; "Down with the Old
Canoe: A Cultural History of the Titanic Disaster") here considers
13 human-made and natural disasters, both famous and forgotten,
that have occurred in American history, including the 1789 famine
on the northern border, the San Francisco Earthquake, the Great
Chicago Fire, and the Challenger disaster. Each disaster gets its
own chapter, which is not simply a straightforward account of "what
happened next"; contributors put each episode into context and
question the popular "lessons" that were often propagated
immediately after. Similar recent volumes include Ted Steinberg's
"Acts of God" (LJ 9/1/00) and "Dreadful Visitations," edited by
Alessa Johns (Routledge, 2001). The important difference is that
those books cover strictly natural disasters and as such only
complement rather than substitute for this work. It is uncertain
whether the publisher will use the terrorist attacks of September
11 as a touchstone for advertising this book, but the uncanny
timing of its publication is hard to miss. Recommended for
alllibraries."
--"Library Journal"
"Brings to life, in a brisk and accessible format, a brilliant
group of men and women who preferred to do good rather than well
and left a rich legacy of creative thought."
--"American Historical Review"
"A textured history, one in which Biel's intellectuals emerge as
serious, passionate, and very human workers grappling with the twin
dragons of American materialism and self-identity."
--"American Literature"
"Biel's reappraisal contributes something new to our
understanding of the significance of the intellectuals of the
1910s: their important role as antecedents for a succeeding
generation of socially committed public intellectuals."
--"The Journal of American History"
"The kind of breakthrough that moves a field of scholarship to a
new plateau."
--"Choice"
A new intellectual community came together in the United States
in the 1910s and 1920s, a community outside the universities, the
professions and, in general, the established centers of
intellectual life. A generation of young intellectuals was
increasingly challenging both the genteel tradition and the growing
division of intellectual labor. Adversarial and anti-professional,
they exhibited a hostility to boundaries and specialization that
compelled them toward an ambitious and self-conscious generalism
and made them a force in the American political, literary, and
artistic landscape.
This book is a cultural history of this community of free-lance
critics and an exploration of their collective effort to construct
a viable public intellectual life in America. Steven Biel
illustrates the diversity of the body of writings produced by these
critics, whose subjects rangedfrom literature and fine arts to
politics, economics, history, urban planning, and national
character. Conceding that significant differences and conflicts did
exist in the works of individual thinkers, Biel nonetheless
maintains that a broader picture of this vibrant culture has been
obscured by attempts to classify intellectuals according to
political or ideological persuasions.
His book brings to life the ways in which this community sought
out alternative ways of making a living, devised strategies for
reaching and engaging the public, debated the involvement of women
in the intellectual community and incorporated Marxism into its
evolving search for a decisive intellectual presence in American
life. Examined in this lively study are the role and contributions
of such figures as Randolph Bourne, Max Eastman, Crystal Eastman,
Walter Lippmann, Margaret Sanger, Van Wyck Brooks, Floyd Dell,
Edmund Wilson, Mable Dodge, Paul Rosenfeld, H. L. Mencken, Lewis
Mumford, Malcolm Cowley, Matthew Josephson, John Reed, Waldo Frank,
Gilbert Seldes, and Harold Stearns.
General
| Imprint: |
New York University Press
|
| Country of origin: |
United States |
| Series: |
The American Social Experience |
| Release date: |
February 1995 |
| First published: |
February 1995 |
| Authors: |
Steven Biel
|
| Dimensions: |
229 x 152 x 18mm (L x W x T) |
| Format: |
Paperback - Trade / Trade
|
| Pages: |
310 |
| ISBN-13: |
978-0-8147-1232-0 |
| Categories: |
Books >
Humanities >
History >
American history >
General
Books >
History >
American history >
General
|
| LSN: |
0-8147-1232-0 |
| Barcode: |
9780814712320 |
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