Michael Kammen is the Newton C. Farr Professor of American History and Culture at Cornell University. President of the Organization of American Historians, he is the author or editor of many other books, including People of Paradox, which won the Pulitzer Prize, and A Machine That Would Go of Itself, which won the Francis Parkman Prize and the Henry Adams Prize.
"Michael Kammen is a copious and readable writer, almost
conversational in tone and in digression. He has a fine sense of
the historical background, he carries learning lightly, and he
offers a shrewd assessment of Seldes's qualities.... The Lively
Arts is a rich and stimulating work and a long overdue account of
the intelligent and energetic man who almost single-handedely
changed American attitudes toward the popular arts."--Arthur
Schlesinger Jr.,
The New York Times Book Review
"Kammen is an astute student of U.S. cultural
history."--Booklist
"[Kammen's] balanced and insightful account of Seldes's
professional life--from the early '20s at The Dial magazine...to
the 1950s debates on the role of 'mass culture'--is a story of a
life as well as a history of pop culture on the rise."--Publishers
Weekly
"Once again the author of People of Paradox writes a lively
narrative of efforts to reconcile opposing tendencies in American
cultural life. Mr. Kammen shows us how the editor who first
published Eliot's 'The Wasteland' came to write serious criticism
about Al Jolson, Fanny Brice, and Krazy Kat."--David Levin,
Department of English, University of Virginia
"The Lively Arts reveals the full story of the life, work, and
intellectual journey that still illuminate the 'culture wars' and
debates of today."--George Gerbner, Professor and Dean Emeritus,
The Annenberg School for Communication, University of
Pennsylvania
"Gilbert Seldes was one of the nation's foremost cultural
commentators during the second third of the twentieth century. With
typical verve and insight, Michael Kammen uses his career to
examine the major developments in twentieth-century popular
culture. The result is a fascinating biography of Seldes and an
illuminating exercise in cultural criticism."--David E. Shi,
President of Furman University and author of The Simple Life
"Gilbert Seldes is fortunate to have his remarkable career
recounted by one of the few historians whose interests are as
diverse as those of Seldes himself. We are no less fortunate;
Michael Kammen's richly detailed, perceptive, and sensitive study
has much to teach us about our century, our culture, and
ourselves."--Lawrence W. Levine, Professor of History and Cultural
Studies, George Mason University
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