Author: Harvey Swados
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Labor
Languages : en
Pages : 320

View

Book Description

Author: Ned Stuckey-French
Publisher: University of Missouri Press
ISBN: 082621925X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 274

View

Book Description
In modern culture, the essay is often considered an old-fashioned, unoriginal form of literary styling. The word essay brings to mind the uninspired five-paragraph theme taught in schools around the country or the antiquated, Edwardian meanderings of English gentlemen rattling on about art and old books. These connotations exist despite the fact that Americans have been reading and enjoying personal essays in popular magazines for decades, engaging with a multitude of ideas through this short-form means of expression. To defend the essay—that misunderstood staple of first-year composition courses—Ned Stuckey-French has written The American Essay in the American Century. This book uncovers the buried history of the American personal essay and reveals how it played a significant role in twentieth-century cultural history. In the early 1900s, writers and critics debated the “death of the essay,” claiming it was too traditional to survive the era’s growing commercialism, labeling it a bastion of British upper-class conventions. Yet in that period, the essay blossomed into a cultural force as a new group of writers composed essays that responded to the concerns of America’s expanding cosmopolitan readership. These essays would spark the “magazine revolution,” giving a fresh voice to the ascendant middle class of the young century. With extensive research and a cultural context, Stuckey-French describes the many reasons essays grew in appeal and importance for Americans. He also explores the rise of E. B. White, considered by many the greatest American essayist of the first half of the twentieth century whose prowess was overshadowed by his success in other fields of writing. White’s work introduced a new voice, creating an American essay that melded seriousness and political resolve with humor and self-deprecation. This book is one of the first to consider and reflect on the contributions of E. B. White to the personal essay tradition and American culture more generally. The American Essay in the American Century is a compelling, highly readable book that illuminates the history of a secretly beloved literary genre. A work that will appeal to fiction readers, scholars, and students alike, this book offers fundamental insight into modern American literary history and the intersections of literature, culture, and class through the personal essay. This thoroughly researched volume dismisses, once and for all, the “death of the essay,” proving that the essay will remain relevant for a very long time to come.

Author: Will Kaufman
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 0252036026
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 306

View

Book Description
Although Joe Klein's Woody Guthrie and Ed Cray's Ramblin' Man capture Woody Guthrie's freewheeling personality and his empathy for the poor and downtrodden, Kaufman is the first to portray in detail Guthrie's commitment to political radicalism, especially communism. Drawing on previously unseen letters, song lyrics, essays, and interviews with family and friends, Kaufman traces Guthrie's involvement in the workers' movement and his development of protest songs. He portrays Guthrie as a committed and flawed human immersed in political complexity and harrowing personal struggle. Since most of the stories in Kaufman's appreciative portrait will be familiar to readers interested in Guthrie, it is best for those who know little about the singer to read first his autobiography, Bound for Glory, or as a next read after American Radical.

Author: Daegan Miller
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022633631X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 329

View

Book Description
“The American people sees itself advance across the wilderness, draining swamps, straightening rivers, peopling the solitude, and subduing nature,” wrote Alexis de Tocqueville in 1835. That’s largely how we still think of nineteenth-century America today: a country expanding unstoppably, bending the continent’s natural bounty to the national will, heedless of consequence. A country of slavery and of Indian wars. There’s much truth in that vision. But if you know where to look, you can uncover a different history, one of vibrant resistance, one that’s been mostly forgotten. This Radical Land recovers that story. Daegan Miller is our guide on a beautifully written, revelatory trip across the continent during which we encounter radical thinkers, settlers, and artists who grounded their ideas of freedom, justice, and progress in the very landscapes around them, even as the runaway engine of capitalism sought to steamroll everything in its path. Here we meet Thoreau, the expert surveyor, drawing anticapitalist property maps. We visit a black antislavery community in the Adirondack wilderness of upstate New York. We discover how seemingly commercial photographs of the transcontinental railroad secretly sent subversive messages, and how a band of utopian anarchists among California’s sequoias imagined a greener, freer future. At every turn, everyday radicals looked to landscape for the language of their dissent—drawing crucial early links between the environment and social justice, links we’re still struggling to strengthen today. Working in a tradition that stretches from Thoreau to Rebecca Solnit, Miller offers nothing less than a new way of seeing the American past—and of understanding what it can offer us for the present . . . and the future.

Author: Brander Matthews
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : American essays
Languages : en
Pages : 532

View

Book Description

Author: David Antin
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226923320
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 381

View

Book Description
“We got to talking”—so David Antin begins the introduction to Radical Coherency, embarking on the pursuit that has marked much of his breathless, brilliantly conversational work. For the past forty years, whether spoken under the guise of performance artist or poet, cultural explorer or literary critic, Antin’s innovative observations have helped us to better understand everything from Pop to Postmodernism. Intimately wedded to the worlds of conceptual art and poetics, Radical Coherency collects Antin’s influential critical essays and spontaneous, performed lectures (or “talk pieces”) for the very first time, capturing one of the most distinctive perspectives in contemporary literature. The essays presented here range from the first serious assessment of Andy Warhol published in a major art journal, as well as Antin’s provocative take on Clement Greenberg’s theory of Modernism, to frontline interventions in present debates on poetics and fugitive pieces from the ’60s and ’70s that still sparkle today—and represent a gold mine for art historians of the period. From John Cage to Allan Kaprow, Mark Rothko to Ludwig Wittgenstein, Antin takes the reader on an idiosyncratic, personal journey through twentieth-century culture with his trademark antiformalist panache—one thatwill be welcomed by any fan of this consummate trailblazer.

Author: BK Loren
Publisher: Catapult
ISBN: 161902201X
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 120

View

Book Description
"Radical, before it meant a person who advocates strong political reform, meant getting to the root of things, the origin. It comes from the Latin radix, radicis,, meaning radish, a root vegetable."—BK Loren These meditative essays range in subjects from a transcendental encounter with a pack of coyotes ironically juxtaposed with her neighbor's claim that nature "has gone out of vogue," to Loren's mother's slow yet all–encompassing deterioration from Parkinson's, and the unexpected way the Loma Prieta earthquake eroded her depression by offering the author a sense of her small place in a wild and worthwhile world. Loren has an empathetic and gentle approach to the world. In detailing the intricacies of human relationships and consciousness—fear of death and time, cooperation born of clashing viewpoints, tradition's beauty even when destructive, a love of language, a sense of loss amid the fast–paced materialistic world—she peels back the film of popular thinking in order to expose herself to the secrets so few of us ever see.

Author: William James
Publisher: Prabhat Prakashan
ISBN:
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 281

View

Book Description
Embark on a journey of intellectual exploration with "Essays in Radical Empiricism" by William James, a groundbreaking collection of essays that challenges traditional notions of reality, perception, and knowledge. Prepare to engage with profound philosophical ideas as James invites readers to question the nature of consciousness and the foundations of human understanding. In "Essays in Radical Empiricism," William James offers readers a thought-provoking exploration of the fundamental principles that shape our understanding of the world. Drawing from his pioneering work in psychology and philosophy, James presents a radical vision of empiricism that seeks to expand the boundaries of human knowledge and perception. Explore the themes and motifs that permeate "Essays in Radical Empiricism," from the nature of experience to the role of consciousness in shaping our understanding of reality. James's exploration of these themes offers readers a transformative perspective on the nature of existence and the limits of human cognition. Through rigorous analysis and insightful commentary, James challenges readers to reconsider their assumptions about the nature of reality and the foundations of knowledge. From his critique of traditional philosophical frameworks to his exploration of the mysteries of consciousness, each essay offers readers a fascinating glimpse into the mind of one of history's most influential thinkers. The overall tone and mood of "Essays in Radical Empiricism" are as thought-provoking and intellectually stimulating as the ideas it explores. James's prose is both erudite and accessible, inviting readers to grapple with complex philosophical concepts in a manner that is engaging and enlightening. Since its publication, "Essays in Radical Empiricism" has been celebrated as a seminal work in the field of philosophy and psychology. James's radical vision of empiricism continues to inspire generations of scholars and thinkers, offering a framework for understanding the nature of reality and the mysteries of human consciousness. Whether you're a student of philosophy or simply curious about the nature of existence, "Essays in Radical Empiricism" promises to challenge your assumptions and expand your horizons. Join William James on a journey of intellectual discovery, and explore the profound implications of radical empiricism for our understanding of the world. Don't miss your chance to engage with the groundbreaking ideas of "Essays in Radical Empiricism" by William James. Let its thought-provoking insights and transformative vision of reality inspire you to question the nature of existence and explore the depths of human consciousness.

Author: Richard Hofstadter
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307388441
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 370

View

Book Description
This timely reissue of Richard Hofstadter's classic work on the fringe groups that influence American electoral politics offers an invaluable perspective on contemporary domestic affairs.In The Paranoid Style in American Politics, acclaimed historian Richard Hofstadter examines the competing forces in American political discourse and how fringe groups can influence — and derail — the larger agendas of a political party. He investigates the politics of the irrational, shedding light on how the behavior of individuals can seem out of proportion with actual political issues, and how such behavior impacts larger groups. With such other classic essays as “Free Silver and the Mind of 'Coin' Harvey” and “What Happened to the Antitrust Movement?, ” The Paranoid Style in American Politics remains both a seminal text of political history and a vital analysis of the ways in which political groups function in the United States.

Author: Saul Alinsky
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307756890
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 226

View

Book Description
“This country's leading hell-raiser" (The Nation) shares his impassioned counsel to young radicals on how to effect constructive social change and know “the difference between being a realistic radical and being a rhetorical one.” First published in 1971 and written in the midst of radical political developments whose direction Alinsky was one of the first to question, this volume exhibits his style at its best. Like Thomas Paine before him, Alinsky was able to combine, both in his person and his writing, the intensity of political engagement with an absolute insistence on rational political discourse and adherence to the American democratic tradition.