Marshall Fishwick, PhD Prob ing Pop u lar Cul ture On and Off the Internet Pre-pub li ca tion “Marshall Fishwick, through his wit, REVIEWS, insights, and questions, probes COMMENTARIES, into the cur rent state of pop ular cul ture. EVALUATIONS . But he also ponders its future in a world of ever-chang ing tech nol ogy, glob al i za - tion, and international ten sions and cri- ar shall Fishwick’s Prob ing Popu- “M lar Culture is a learned and, at ses. Af ter sur veying the or igins and rise the same time, readable vol ume. If you of pop u lar cul ture in ter ests and stud ies, had any il lusions about pop ular cul ture he looks around the contemporary scene, icons such as Paul Bunyan, Henry Ford, back to some of our heroes, myth- or Joe Magarac, they’ll be gone af ter makers, and pub lic figures, and ahead reading this book. to the future. Fishwick strength ens his book with Fishwick’s writing style holds our a sec tion on ‘other voices,’ including a attention and his constant questions chapter by Ray B. Browne, one of the force us to take a fresh look at pop ular founders and stal warts of popular cul - culture as it moves into the twenty-first ture stud ies. In that same section, a high century. His ‘pe tite probes’ at the end of school teacher adds com ments about the book ‘frost and dec orate’ his work, the approach of teen agers and teach ers and the es says by other writers comple- to new technology, and an anthropolo- ment Fishwick’s probing of pop ular gist con trib utes on in ter est ing piece on culture for our times. In terested per - ‘the realm of Splogia.’ sons, stu dents, and scholars will profit As in his other work, Fishwick from reading these essays and ar ticles roams widely over art, architecture, re- by one of the founding fa thers of pop u- li gion, pol i tics, mu sic, and tech nol ogy. lar cul ture stud ies. Fishwick blends his For those who have an interest in using ex pe ri ences, trav els, and knowl edge to this ma terial in class or in going further explain and to ruminate on where we in the sub jects covered, Fishwick in - are and where we are headed. We need cludes an ap pendix on elec tronic re- more like him to help us understand sources, a good sec tion on fur ther read- our so ci ety, our pop u lar cul ture, and ing, and notes for each of the chap ters our future.” cov ered.” Roy T. Matthews, PhD Marvin Wachman, PhD Pro fes sor Emer i tus, De part ment of His tory, Pres i dent Emer i tus, Tem ple University Mich i gan State University More pre-pub li ca tion REVIEWS, COMMENTARIES, EVALUATIONS . n the early years of a new cen tury, cades, Fishwick helped to make popu- “I it is ap propriate to try to make lar the study of pop ular cul ture. In his sense of our dynamic popular cul ture, new book he probes the im mediate past and no one is better equipped to do this —the twen ti eth cen tury—ask ing a thou- than Marshall Fishwick. One of the sand questions of it that the twenty-first founders of the pop ular cul ture move - century will need to an swer.” ment, Fishwick has been at the cen ter of cultural study for more than five de - Charles Boewe, PhD cades, pro vid ing in sight ful com men- For mer Di rec tor of Fulbright Foun da tions tary on the things that mat ter most in in Iran, Pa kistan, and India our lives: our history, heroes, life styles, re li gion, arts, and tech nol o gies. In Prob- ing Pop u lar Cul ture, Fishwick demon- strates his grasp of how the var ious ele- his book offers an extraordinary ments of our pop ular cul ture co-ex ist, “T range of in formation, ideas, and sometimes smoothly and some times at insights. Fishwick makes it clear that this odds, how they have de veloped over is a book about popular cul ture, and time, and what they mean. Im pressive early in the book he announces his in- in its sweep, the book leaves no aspect tent: ‘My goal is sim ple: to set minds of our cul ture un ex am ined. working and tongues wagging.’ Surely Fishwick looks both admiringly and in this he suc ceeds.” critically at the cul ture of the peo ple, reminding us that ‘popular culture is at Harry B. Adams, MDiv, HonDD the heart of revolutions.’ He urges all Hor ace Bushnell Pro fes sor Emer i tus of us not to dismiss its im portance, and of Christian Nur ture, after reading this book, we never will. Yale Uni ver sity Di vin ity School Written in a lively, readable style char- ac ter ized by rhe tor i cal ques tions, Prob- ing Pop u lar Cul ture en gages read ers from the start, compelling them to think.” arshall Fishwick has done it Kathy Merlock Jack son, PhD “Magain. Prob ing Pop u lar Cul ture Ed i tor, The Journal of American Culture; is an ex traor di nary feat. An ex hil a rat- Past-Pres i dent, Amer i can Cul ture ing collection of short, vi gnette-like As so ci a tion chapters with an incredible range, he has es tablished that there is a new form of cul ture, one that com bines great tech - nical so phis ti ca tion with a Rude Boy at - mosphere. Fishwick’s grasp of the sub- ject is at once awe-inspiring and mag - arshall Fishwick dis sects ver- netic. Get this book.” “Mnacular folkways throughout the Global Village—on and off the Daniel Walden, PhD Internet, in and out of bounds, up and Pro fes sor Emer i tus of Amer i can Stud ies, down the pike. In the shelfful of books Eng lish and Com par a tive Lit er a ture, he has pub lished over the past five de - Penn State University NOTES FOR PROFESSIONAL LIBRARIANS AND LIBRARY USERS This is an original book title published by The Haworth Press, Inc. Un less oth er wise noted in spe cific chap ters with at tri bu tion, ma te ri als in this book have not been previously published elsewhere in any for- mat or language. CONSERVATION AND PRESERVATION NOTES All books published by The Haworth Press, Inc. and its imprints are printed on certified pH neutral, acid free book grade paper. This paper meets the min i mum re quire ments of Amer i can Na tional Stan dard for In for ma tion Sci ences-Per ma nence of Pa per for Printed Ma te rial, ANSI Z39.48-1984. Probing Popular Culture On and Off the Internet THE HAWORTH PRESS Ti tles of Re lated In ter est Great Awak en ings: Pop u lar Re li gion and Pop u lar Cul ture by Marshall W. Fishwick Popular Culture: Cavespace to Cyberspace by Marshall W. Fishwick Rock Music in American Popular Culture: Rock ’n’ Roll Resources by B. Lee Coo per and Wayne S. Haney Rock Music in American Popular Culture II: More Rock ’n’ Roll Re sources by B. Lee Coo per and Wayne S. Haney Rock Music in American Popular Culture III: More Rock ’n’ Roll Re sources by B. Lee Coo per and Wayne S. Haney Bar ber shops, Bul lets, and Bal lads: An An no tated An thol ogy of Underappreciated American Music Jewels, 1865-1918 ed ited by William E. Studwell and Bruce R. Schueneman Cir cus Songs: An An no tated An thol ogy by William E. Studwell, Charles P. Conrad, and Bruce R. Schueneman The Classic Rock and Roll Reader: Rock Music From Its Beginnings to the Mid-1970s by William E. Studwell and David F. Lonergan The Big Band Reader: Songs Favored by Swing Era Orchestras and Other Pop u lar En sem bles by William E. Studwell and Mark Baldin Popular Culture in a New Age by Marshall W. Fishwick The Magic Win dow: Amer i can Tele vi sion, 1939-1953 by James A. Von Schilling Dictionary of Toys and Games in American Popular Culture by Fred er ick J. Augustyn Jr. Basketball in America: From the Playgrounds to Jordan’s Game and Beyond edited by Bob Batchelor The Spectacle of Isolation in Horror Films: Dark Parades by Carl Royer and Diana Royer Probing Popular Culture On and Off the Internet Marshall Fishwick, PhD The Haworth Press® New York • London • Oxford © 2004 by Marshall Fishwick. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, microfilm, and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Printed in the United States of America. The Haworth Press, Inc., 10 Alice Street, Binghamton, NY 13904-1580. Portions of the material in this book have appeared, in somewhat different form, in the journals Yale Review, Saturday Review, and Western Folklore, and from Public Affairs Press, David McKay Company, The Haworth Press, and Thompson Learning Custom Publishing, and are published with permission.