Reviews for The making of middle/brow culture

The average rating for The making of middle/brow culture based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2009-04-13 00:00:00 Lyle K Hardesty You might subtitle this book "how the American book industry tried to get the middle and lower classes to buy and read books in the first four decades of the 20th century." Though, honestly, that makes it sound a lot more interesting than it is. Rubin takes a largely biographical approach to her topic, and most of her subjects are rather obscure (especially as they recede in the mists of time): Stuart Pratt Sherman, Irita Van Doren, John Erskine, Will Durant, Dorothy Canfield Fisher, William Lyon Phelps, Alexander Woollcott. Do you care that John Erkskine's mother discouraged his musical ambitions, leaving him subtly embittered toward all women? That's the level of "deep in the weeds" that Rubin goes to. In the chapter on the Book of the Month Club one might hope that some of the actual books the club chose would be discussed, to give us a better idea of what precisely was middlebrow about them, but Rubin disdains that tactic, choosing instead to examine each member of the book selection committee in great detail. I did enjoy learning about an exchange on the radio quiz program Information, Please!, hosted by Clifton Fadiman. When the guest panelist journalist John Gunther correctly answered a question about the shah of Persia, Fadiman asked, "Are you shah, Mr. Gunther?" Gunther replied, "Sultanly." I wouldn't recommend this unless you are desperately, fanatically, or academically interested in the intellectual and cultural history of early to mid-century America.

Review # 2 was written on 2018-09-02 00:00:00 Erik Richards This is a thorough scholarly review of the major cultural changes in the areas of books and reading from the 1920s to the 1980s. Probably a little bit too complete for most readers.