Who were the flappers? What were talkies? What was the Harlem Renaissance? Covers the effect of prohibition and the newfound freedom of women on the popular culture of the era. The effects of the Great Depression, as well as the rise of communism and fascism is also discussed in terms of their impact on popular culture.

Explores pop culture at the turn of the century, including vaudeville, early jazz, and pulp magazines.

The British Invasion, Andy Warhol, Swinging London, the Summer of Love, disco dancing, and polyester, this is the era that most people think of when they think of pop culture. So much changed during these decades from technological advances such as the moon landing, to conflicts like the Vietnam War. These changes all had a great impact on pop culture.

What was skiffle? How did technology impact the look and design of everyday things during these years? Disney and drive-in theaters, Elvis Presley, and Marilyn Monroe, this is the era where popular culture really comes into its own! It's also the era where a TV set might find its home in the living room of an average family. Find out how fashion, music, and movies changed and developed after WWII, and how the Cold War also had an influence.

What was the impact of hip-hop on pop culture? Who were the New Romantics? And what was Grunge all about? Reagan and Thatcher, Clinton and Blair, politics played a role in the popular culture of the era. So did technology, with video game arcades popping up anywhere teenagers might be lurking. Early home game consoles like the Atari 2600 also found their way into many homes, as did the records, cassette tapes, and compact disks of Madonna, Michael Jackson, Prince, and U2.

"From flappers and jazz to King Kong and big bands"--Cover.

From 1830, if not before, the Empire began to permeate the domestic culture of Empire nations in many ways. From consumables, to the excitement of colonial wars, celebrations relating to events in the history of Empire, and the construction of Empire Day in the early Edwardian period, most citizens were encouraged to think of themselves not only as citizens of a nation but of an Empire. Much of the popular culture of the period presented Empire as a force for ‘civilisation’ but it was often far from the truth and rather, Empire was a repressive mechanism designed ultimately to benefit white settlers and the metropolitan economy. This four volume collection on Empire and Popular Culture contains a wide array of primary sources, complimented by editorial narratives which help the reader to understand the significance of the documents contained therein. It is informed by the recent advocacy of a ‘four-nation’ approach to Empire containing documents which view Empire from the perspective of England, Scotland Ireland and Wales and will also contain material produced for Empire audiences, as well as indigenous perspectives. The sources reveal both the celebratory and the notorious sides of Empire.

Kosher pork -- an oxymoron? Anna Shternshis's fascinating study traces the creation of a Soviet Jewish identity that disassociated Jewishness from Judaism. The cultural transformation of Soviet Jews between 1917 and 1941 was one of the most ambitious experiments in social engineering of the past century. During this period, Russian Jews went from relative isolation to being highly integrated into the new Soviet culture and society, while retaining a strong ethnic and cultural identity. This identity took shape during the 1920s and 1930s, when the government attempted to create a new Jewish culture, "national in form" and "socialist in content." Soviet and Kosher is the first study of key Yiddish documents that brought these Soviet messages to Jews, notably the "Red Haggadah," a Soviet parody of the traditional Passover manual; songs about Lenin and Stalin; scripts from regional theaters; Socialist Realist fiction; and magazines for children and adults. More than 200 interviews conducted by the author in Russia, Germany, and the United States testify to the reception of these cultural products and provide a unique portrait of the cultural life of the average Soviet Jew.

"From flappers and jazz to King Kong and big bands"--Cover.

How is it that American intellectuals, who had for 150 years worried about the deleterious effects of affluence, more recently began to emphasize pleasure, playfulness, and symbolic exchange as the essence of a vibrant consumer culture? The New York intellectuals of the 1930s rejected any serious or analytical discussion, let alone appreciation, of popular culture, which they viewed as morally questionable. Beginning in the 1950s, however, new perspectives emerged outside and within the United States that challenged this dominant thinking. Consuming Pleasures reveals how a group of writers shifted attention from condemnation to critical appreciation, critiqued cultural hierarchies and moralistic approaches, and explored the symbolic processes by which individuals and groups communicate. Historian Daniel Horowitz traces the emergence of these new perspectives through a series of intellectual biographies. With writers and readers from the United States at the center, the story begins in Western Europe in the early 1950s and ends in the early 1970s, when American intellectuals increasingly appreciated the rich inventiveness of popular culture. Drawing on sources both familiar and newly discovered, this transnational intellectual history plays familiar works off each other in fresh ways. Among those whose work is featured are Jürgen Habermas, Roland Barthes, Umberto Eco, Walter Benjamin, C. L. R. James, David Riesman and Marshall McLuhan, Richard Hoggart, members of London's Independent Group, Stuart Hall, Paddy Whannel, Tom Wolfe, Herbert Gans, Susan Sontag, Reyner Banham, and Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown.