Popular Culture
Crisis TV
Wide-ranging, in-depth analysis of Spanish-language television fiction after the 2008 global financial crisis.
Empire of Culture
Shows how Britain's trans-imperial engagements in the long nineteenth century have come to shape global cultural commodity flows today.
Is Harpo Free?
Examines how philosophical concepts like free will, personal identity, and goodness are given an artistic life in films and television programs.
Early Jazz
A concise history of early jazz, from its major innovators to its unrecognized heroes.
The Biggest Thing in Show Business
A freewheeling, nonlinear exploration of the performing duo and their decade-long collaboration from 1946 to 1956.
From Blues to Beyoncé
Explores how Black women have continually used sound to convey stories and forge community across generations.
The Republican Hero
Explores the question of whether heroes matter in the modern republic.
Win or Die
This entertaining and accessible guide shows readers how to turn danger into opportunity, even when dragons threaten.
Torturous Etiquettes
Explores the “torture” of mannered behavior and the prevalence of etiquette as a theme in classical and contemporary Hollywood and European cinema.
Tourists and Trade
How two roadside craft shops in upstate New York transformed American crafts into a fine art.
Ducktails, Drive-ins, and Broken Hearts
An unflinching look at the triumphs and tragedies of '50s rock and roll, from the biggest stars, like Chuck Berry and Carl Perkins, to those who barely grabbed the spotlight.
Tommy, Trauma, and Postwar Youth Culture
The cultural history of one of rock's greatest masterpieces told through the eyes of its creator.
Blues on Stage
Tells the story of classic blues singers from Ma Rainey to Bessie Smith.
New York's Great Lost Ballparks
Tells the story of New York's playing grounds, teams, and ballparks of yesteryear.
Ways of the Hand
A visual and narrative memoir of a lifetime's encounters with 112 trendsetters, musicians, politicians, writers, and ordinary people by a noted folklorist-photographer.
The Hard Sell of Paradise
Traces the complex and contradictory representations of Hawai’i in popular film and television programs from the 1930s to the 1970s.
Nietzsche in Hollywood
Argues that Nietzsche’s idea of the Übermensch was a central concern of filmmakers in the 1920s and 1930s.
No Jurisdiction
A deeply personal study of post-9/11 film that exposes how genre can frame the shifting meanings of the War on Terror and its impact on American law and culture.
Screening #MeToo
Considers how Hollywood films since the 1960s have both reflected and shaped attitudes toward rape and sexual violence.
Race and the Suburbs in American Film
Explores how suburban space and the body are racialized in American film.
Perpetual Movement
Offers both a production history and a close analysis, with a chapter for each of the film's eleven shots.
Michael Jackson and the Quandary of a Black Identity
A close examination of the complexity inherent in Michael Jackson's ambiguous racial identity.
Was It Yesterday?
Explores how nostalgia operates in contemporary US film and television.
Tastemakers and Tastemaking
Considers how and why taste persists in the analysis of Mexican film and television by looking at key figures and their impact on the curation of violence.
Giallo!
Traces the giallo mystery/horror genre from its genesis in Italian cinema of the 1960s and 1970s to its contemporary place in the global cult-film canon.