Grasping Things: Folk Material Culture and Mass Society in America - Hardcover

Bronner, Simon J.

3.54

13 ratings by Goodreads

9780813115726: Grasping Things: Folk Material Culture and Mass Society in America

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0813115728 ISBN 13: 9780813115726

Publisher: Univ Pr of Kentucky, 1986

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

" America stocks its shelves with mass-produced goods but fills its imagination with handmade folk objects. In Pennsylvania, the ""back to the city"" housing movement causes a conflict of cultures. In Indiana, an old tradition of butchering turtles for church picnics evokes both pride and loathing among residents. In New York, folk-art exhibits raise choruses of adoration and protest. These are a few of the examples Simon Bronner uses to illustrate the ways Americans physically and mentally grasp things. Bronner moves beyond the usual discussions of form and variety in America's folk material culture to explain historical influences on, and the social consequences of, channeling folk culture into a mass society.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:

"An academic with an eye for human drama, Bronner's firsthand observations include memorable snapshots of rural and small-town men and women struggling to preserve an old-fashioned way of life . . . this thoughtful book makes it clear that folk culture still flourishes in the byways of America."―Kirkus Reviews

"This is the stuff of honest folklore, honestly presented. It embraces the best meaning and philosophy of folklore 'collecting' and scholarship, an enjoyable endeavor for readers and writer."―Journal of American History

"This cleverly titled and richly illustrated study of the interplay between folk material culture and the forces of modern mass society reads like a sampler of small moments of resistance to the massive apparatus of contemporary consumer culture."―Winterthur Portfolio

From Library Journal:

From the acts of entering a suburban house to making headstones to consuming turtle soup, Bronner wants the attentive reader to grasp the dynamics of the usually unexamined aspects of our material world. "The title of this book speaks to the theme of objects having physical and intellectual consequences." Folklore and American studies provide the intellectual base for the author's incisive analysis. The illustrations are exceptionally appropriate and provocative. The clarity of the style and arguments likewise should increase the book's appeal. A social science book that makes good reading. David S. Azzolina, Univ. of Pennsylvania Lib., Philadelphia
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.