American Cultural History
A Very Short Introduction
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Narrated by:
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Tanya Eby
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By:
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Eric Avila
About this listen
The iconic images of Uncle Sam and Marilyn Monroe, or the "fireside chats" of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the oratory of Martin Luther King, Jr.: These are the words, images, and sounds that populate American cultural history.
From the Boston Tea Party to the Dodgers; from the Blues to Andy Warhol; from dime novels to Disneyland, the history of American culture tells us how previous generations of Americans have imagined themselves, their nation, and their relationship to the world and its peoples.
This Very Short Introduction recounts the history of American culture and its creation by diverse social and ethnic groups. In doing so, it emphasizes the historic role of culture in relation to broader social, political, and economic developments. Across the lines of race, class, gender, and sexuality, as well as language, region, and religion, diverse Americans have forged a national culture with a global reach, inventing stories that have shaped a national identity and an American way of life.
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American history was driven by clashes between those interested in preserving social order and those more interested in pursuing their own desires---the "respectable" versus the "degenerate", the moral versus the immoral. The more that "bad" people existed, resisted, and won, the greater was our common good. In A Renegade History of the United States, Russell introduces us to the origins of our nation's identity as we have never known them before.
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One of those books...that cause brain freeze!
- By Rory on 07-19-13
By: Thaddeus Russell
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The Rise of the New Puritans
- Fighting Back Against Progressives’ War on Fun
- By: Noah Rothman
- Narrated by: Noah Rothman
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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The Left used to be the party of the hippies and the free spirits. Now it’s home to woke scolds and humorless idealogues. The New Puritans can judge a person’s moral character by their clothes, Netflix queue, fast food favorites, the sports they watch, and the company they keep. No choice is neutral, no sphere is private. Not since the Puritans has a political movement wanted so much power over your thoughts, hobbies, and preferences every minute of your day. In the process, they are sucking the joy out of life.
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Great, fast summer read
- By Joseph Spiegel on 07-18-22
By: Noah Rothman
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African Europeans
- An Untold History
- By: Olivette Otele
- Narrated by: Olivette Otele
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Conventional wisdom holds that Africans are only a recent presence in Europe. But in African Europeans, renowned historian Olivette Otele debunks this and uncovers a long history of Europeans of African descent. From the third century, when the Egyptian Saint Maurice became the leader of a Roman legion, all the way up to the present, Otele explores encounters between those defined as "Africans" and those called "Europeans."
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A fascinating overview of overlooked history
- By Scott GG Haller on 09-25-21
By: Olivette Otele
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The Image, 50th Anniversary Edition
- A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America
- By: Daniel J. Boorstin, Douglas Rushkoff - afterword
- Narrated by: Timothy Danko
- Length: 10 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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First published in 1962, this wonderfully provocative book introduced the notion of "pseudo-events" - events such as press conferences and presidential debates, which are manufactured solely in order to be reported - and the contemporary definition of celebrity as "a person who is known for his well-knownness". Since then Daniel J. Boorstin's prophetic vision of an America inundated by its own illusions has become an essential resource for any listeners who wants to distinguish the manifold deceptions of our culture from its few enduring truths.
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Boorstin’s deep Conservative mindset reaches through every example in this book.
- By Christine on 10-12-20
By: Daniel J. Boorstin, and others
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The History of White People
- By: Nell Irvin Painter
- Narrated by: Allyson Johnson
- Length: 14 hrs and 9 mins
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A mind-expanding and myth-destroying exploration of notions of white race—not merely a skin color but also a signal of power, prestige, and beauty to be withheld and granted selectively. Ever since the Enlightenment, race theory and its inevitable partner, racism, have followed a crooked road, constructed by dominant peoples to justify their domination of others. Filling a huge gap in historical literature that long focused on the non-white, eminent historian Nell Irvin Painter guides us through more than two thousand years of Western civilization, tracing not only the invention of the idea of race but also the frequent worship of “whiteness” for economic, social, scientific, and political ends.
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Destroys the myth that race is about skin color
- By Emily L. on 08-25-14
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The 10 Big Lies About America
- Combating Destructive Distortions About Our Nation
- By: Michael Medved
- Narrated by: Michael Medved
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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In this bold and brilliantly argued book, acclaimed author and talk-radio host Michael Medved zeroes in on 10 of the biggest fallacies that millions of Americans believe about our country - in spite of incontrovertible facts to the contrary. In The 10 Big Lies About America, Medved pinpoints the most pernicious pieces of America-bashing disinformation that pollute current debates about the economy, race, religion in politics, the Iraq war, and other contentious issues.
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Truth
- By Dominique Bessette on 01-23-17
By: Michael Medved
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Korea
- The Impossible Country
- By: Daniel Tudor
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
- Length: 13 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Long overshadowed by Japan and China, South Korea is a small country that happens to be one of the great national success stories of the postwar period. From a failed state with no democratic tradition, ruined and partitioned by war, and sapped by a half-century of colonial rule, South Korea transformed itself in just 50 years into an economic powerhouse and a democracy that serves as a model for other countries. With no natural resources and a tradition of authoritarian rule, Korea managed to accomplish a second Asian miracle.
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Amazing book
- By Antoine on 12-14-18
By: Daniel Tudor
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China in the 21st Century, 3rd Edition
- What Everyone Needs to Know
- By: Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom, Maura Elizabeth Cunningham
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 5 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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In this fully revised and updated third edition, Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom and Maura Elizabeth Cunningham provide cogent answers to urgent questions regarding the world's newest superpower and offer a framework for understanding China's meteoric rise from developing country to superpower. Framing their answers through the historical legacies that largely define China's present-day trajectory, Wasserstrom and Cunningham introduce listeners to the Chinese Communist Party, the building boom in Shanghai, and the environmental fallout of rapid Chinese industrialization.
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Amazing!
- By Anonymous User on 07-11-20
By: Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom, and others
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A perfect way to quickly familiarise oneself with an influential anthology of ancient Jewish literature.
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many ignorant mistakes and biases
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narrator and book 5 star
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Critique of 'Western' Aesthetics - A Virtue Signal
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This book should be titled “African Historiography”
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The American South is a distinctive place with a dramatic history and has significance beyond its regional context in the 21st century. The American South: A Very Short Introduction explores the history of the South as a cultural crossroads, a meeting place between Western Europe and West Africa. The South's beginnings illuminate the expansion of Europe into the New World, creating a colonial slave society that distinguished it from other parts of the United States but fostered commonalities with other colonial societies.
What listeners say about American Cultural History
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Kristen
- 04-12-23
Good overview of culture in the US
This text examines emerging culture in th US and its conflicts from colonization through technological advancements to the politicized schism of today. Solidly informed and accessible with a generally neutral perspective.
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- Carmen Hoover
- 12-11-23
Great Book Content but reader was unprepared
This is a great book, but just as I expect all the words to be spelled correctly in print, I’d wish for all the words to be pronounced correctly in an audible production—the mispronunciations are an unnecessary distraction in this audible version.
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- Sparky McGhee
- 08-22-18
A very broad survey of American cultural history through the Very narrow lands of contemporary identity politics
My title says it all. It is a short book that covers a huge amount of terrain, all from the vantage point of political correctness and identity politics. Like so many other books published these days, if you’re on the left you’ll love it, And if you’re on the right you’ll hate it.
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3 people found this helpful