CULTURE AS HISTORY

“Warren Susman has long been one of our most interesting and provocative cultural historians: shrewd in his choice of subjects, wise in his interpretations, pioneering in his approaches. This wonderful collection of pieces he has written over the past quarter century is cause for rejoicing. Ranging from the Puritans to the modern city, from the frontier to the New York World’s Fair of 1939, from Ralph Waldo Emerson to Babe Ruth, Susman presents us with a historical feast that both nourishes us with its images and ideas and leaves up hungry to test its suggestions and take up its intellectual challenges.”
—Lawrence W. Levine
 
“Warren Susman’s essays have long been influential in American studies, and this book will have a transforming effect upon the field. It is a brilliant achievement—challenging, energizing, a model of interdisciplinary study, a work of impassioned scholarship that I believe will become a classic in American cultural history.”
—Sacvan Bercovitch
 
“A truly path-breaking study of the shifts and changes in social and cultural forms—richly documented with unexpected examples both from ‘high culture’ and from the sights and sounds of everyday life.”
—Merle Curti