America is a nation making itself up as it goes along—a story of discovery and invention unfolding in speeches and images, letters and poetry, unprecedented feats of scholarship and imagination. In these myriad, multiform, endlessly changing expressions of the American experience, the authors and editors of this volume find a new American history. In more than two hundred original essays, A New Literary History of America brings together the nation’s many v… More >>
A New Literary History of America
This was a gift to my son who reads every night before he goes to sleep. He really likes this one.
Rating: 5 / 5
This book sounded interesting, and indeed there are a half dozen essays I enjoyed. However most were quagmires of impenetrability, superficiality and hyperbole. I got a smug, self-satisfied feeling from reading this, and a claustrophobic sense as well. I regret having gotten it.
Rating: 1 / 5
Deep, broad, and wide.
A fascinating sampling of the intersection of America’s literature and history.
It may be open to academic criticism — what isn’t? — but for those of us pursuing livelihoods off-campus, it is an intelligent, stimulating overview of many, many aspects of our culture and our past.
Rating: 5 / 5
If Greil Marcus was a newspaper writer, he would have won a Pulitzer for criticism by now. If you want to learn about the real America (which bubbles just a little tiny bit below the surface) you could start with the footnotes for any book he has written. This book assembles equally influential writers, each with their own particular take on slightly arcane Americans and Americana. I bought it on the strength of the table of contents alone, and you should too. Would you attend dinner with Hank Williams, Linda Lovelace, Jackson Pollock, Phillis Weatley, the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous and Jelly Roll Morton? I would. Marcus continues to make the slightly arcane approachable and this collection is a wonderful addition to his accomplishments as well as to your library.
Jim Linderman
Dull Tool Dim Bulb
“Take Me to the Water: Immersion Baptism in Vintage Music and Photography 1890-1950″
Rating: 5 / 5
There is little match between the hype this book has generated and its contents. Let’s start with the title. New? What in here is new?–not the content, insights, or approaches. What in here is literary history?–whatever is literary history is familiar, whatever is not is cultural history too scared to call itself that. So if it’s not a new literary history, what is it? It’s a project of epic hubris and minor accomplishment. It does, however, have the imprimatur of Harvard, multiple newspaper reviews, and a high-gloss release that will convince many readers that they have the hottest takes on Americana from the 1500s to the present. If you buy that, then $50 is quite a bang for the book!
A current of feel-good interracialism runs through this volume rising to a crescendo at the end with the election of Obama. But the volume could just as well be The Marcus-Sollors Cultural History in Black and White. The contributions on Latinos, Native Americans, and Asian Americans are thin and noticeably weak. No major scholars in these areas are contributors–not surprising given the composition of the editorial broad and the editors of this project. The collection is heavily dominated by contributors from the Ivies with a smattering of West Coast scholars and artists. This, indeed, may be what the book really has to offer–cocktail party multiculturalism served up by the Harvard boys.
Rating: 1 / 5