American Cultural Studies
An Introduction to American Culture, 3rd Edition
By Neil Campbell, Alasdair Kean
Routledge – 2012 – 358 pages
Description
Praise for previous editions:
'Something of a godsend … as a teaching resource this book is second to none … achieves levels of multiplicity rarely, if ever, reached by others.' - Borderlines: Studies in American Culture
This third edition of American Cultural Studies has been updated throughout to take into account the developments of the last six years, providing an introduction to the central themes in modern American culture and explores how these themes can be interpreted.
Chapters in the book discuss the various aspects of American cultural life such as religion, gender and sexuality, and regionalism. Updates and revisions include:
- discussion of Barack Obama’s rise to power and the end of the ‘Bush Years’
- consideration of ‘Hemispheric American Studies’ and the increasing debates about globalisation and the role of the USA
- up-to-date case-studies, such as The Wire and Nurse Jackie,
- more on suburbia, the Mexican-border crossing, the Twilight phenomena etc
- updated further-reading lists.Accompanying website.
American Cultural Studies is a core text and an accessible introduction to the interdisciplinary study of American culture.
Reviews
Praise for the first edition:
'Something of a godsend … As a teaching resource this book is second to none … Achieves levels of multiplicity rarely, if ever, reached by others.' – Borderlines: Studies in American Culture
Contents
List of Plates. Acknowledgements. Introduction. 1. New Beginnings: American Culture and Identity 2. Ethnicity and Immigration: Between Many Worlds 3. African Americans: 'I Don't Sing Other People's Voices' 4. In God we Trust?: Religion in American Life 5. Approaches to Regionalism: the West and the South 6. The American City: 'the Old Knot of Contrariety' 7. Gender and Sexuality: 'to break the old circuits' 8. Representing Youth: Outside the Sunken Nursery 9. The Spread of Freedom 10. The Transmission of American Culture. Index
Author Bio
Neil Campbell is Professor in American Studies at the University of Derby, UK. His recent publications include The Rhizomatic West: Representing the American West in a Transnational, Global, Media Age (2008), The Cultures of the American New West (2000) and The Radiant Hour: Versions of Youth in American Culture (2000).
Alasdair Kean is a lecturer in American Studies at the University of Derby, UK.
Related Subjects
This website has been created as an accompaniment to American Cultural Studies, 3rd edition.
It aims to provide a range of resources to support further study and guide students in exploring key topics relevant to the themes of the book.
For ease of access, these resources are linked to the separate chapters, though users need to be aware that many important topics cross chapters, and that it will be helpful to look at resources under a number of different headings. African American culture, for instance, is discussed in Chapter 3, but is also treated in Chapters 4 and 5.
Under each chapter you will find: a chronology with links to supporting material; an annotated list of helpful websites; the bibliography from the paper version of the book and suggestions for further study. The chronologies are not meant to be comprehensive; rather they reflect the materials covered in the chapters concerned.