SellinAlbertha Lefflerg CultureRaymundo Funk: MagaBernhard Johnsonzines,Kurt Boehm MarketsGerhard Goodwin Sr.Anita Wolff and Class Lucius ToyKen Yundtat the Mrs. Lavina Stiedemann PhDTurn of the CFranco Ernser DVMentury (Ms. Calista Boyer IIIBernadette Harris DVMHaymarket Series) Miss Amely HackettHardcover Mrs. Haven Pagac DDS– June 1Prof. Virginia Reichel DVM7, 1996Jaydon Terry
When did mass culture first appear in the United States? How was it conceived, produced and disseminated? Who were the main players in its manufacture? Richard Ohmann argues persuasively that the pivotal juncture came at the turn of the twentieth century when magazines began to reach large audiences and to depend heavily on advertising revenues. Mass circulation of magazines, combined with the rise of brand name products, facilitated the emergence of a homogenized mass culture (one produced by the few for the many in the name of profit) for the first time. This epochal change in the making of culture took place through the energy and innovations of diverse agents – publishers, readers, ad men, merchandisers—acting to achieve disparate but compatible goals. Ohmann shows how their efforts succeeded because they answered to the needs of big business at a time when industrial capitalism’s greatest achievements had led to its deepest crisis. Knitting together social and economic history with literary criticism and cultural theory, Ohmann develops a powerful new account of consumer society and of the social class in which it first took root.