• 'good range of historical perspectives and theorectical approaches which are relevant and flexible enough to be used in conjunction with other course materials.' – Dr Jessica Maynard, Lecturer, King's College London
• `An outstanding collection; both original and definitive. It will clearly provoke strong interest and heated debate in this country, and will be a collection most of us will want to own. It makes a serious contribution to the existing literature.' Henry Jenkins, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• 'This collection looks like a winner. I know of no other competing work that combines a broad understanding of cultural studies with particular attention to the study of the United States. The editors have conceived the volume in the most compelling way.' Mark Poster, University of California, Irvine

This Reader is an exciting panorama of over forty examples of the best writing in American Cultural Studies. It introduces vital concepts, arguments, theories, and disciplinary debates. Ranging from Black Power to social science, cyberdemocracy to transvestism, the Reader captures the ideas, critique and intellectual currents that stream through American public life.

Introduction: Cultural Exceptionalism: Freedom, Imperialism, Power, America, John Hartley Part I Section 1: The New Journalism and its Legacy Introduction Tom Wolfe: What if he is right? Susan Sontag: What's happening to America? Stokeley Carmichael: Black is Good Vine Deloria: Indians Today, the Real and the Unreal Marge Piercy: Through the Cracks Hunter S. Thompson: Songs of the Doomed Section 2: European Cultural Theory and its Legacy Introduction Betty Friedan: The Sexual Solipsism of Sigmund Freud Marshall McLuhan: Extracts from The Gutenberg Galaxy Marshall Sahlins: Notes on the American Clothing System Umberto Eco: Preface to the American Edition & Travels in Hyperreality Lawrence Grossberg: Cultural Studies and/in New Worlds Section 3: American Social Science and its Legacy Introduction Elihu Katz: The Return of the Humanities and Sociology James W. Carey: Mass Communication and Cultural Studies George Gerbner: Mass Media Discourse Michael Schudson: The Politics of Narrative Form Horace Newcomb: Television as a Cultural Form Section 4: History and Literature and their Legacy Introduction Ward Churchill: Literature as a Weapon in the Colonisation of the American Indian Houston A. Baker: Handling Crisis Carroll Smith-Rosenberg: Writing History: Language, Class, and Gender Rita Felski: The Doxa of Difference Janice Radway: What's in a Name? Part II Section 5: Identities Introduction Cindy Patton: Tremble, Hetero Swine! Herman Gray: African-American Political Desire and the Seductions of Contemporary Cultural Politics James Houston & Arjun Appadurai: Cities and Citizenship Jean Franco: Plotting Women. Popular Narratives for Women in the United States and Latin America Marjorie Garber: The Transvestite Continuum Section 6: Practices Introduction Andrew Ross: The Great Un-American Numbers Game George Lipsitz: Land of a Thousand Dances: Youth, Minorities, and the Rise of Rock and Roll Susan Willis: Work(ing) Out Paula A. Treichler: Aids, Homophobia and Biomedical Discourse Toby Miller: Extract from Technologies of Truth Section 7: Media Introduction John Fiske: Popularity and the Politics of Information Lynn Spigel: From Theatre to Space Ship. Methaphors of Suburban Domesticity in Postwar America Robert Stam: Eurocentrism, Polycentrism, and Multicultural Pedagogy: Film and the Quincentennial Henry Jenkins: Out of the Closet and into the Universe. Queers and Star Trek Mark Poster: Cyberdemocracy. Internet and the Public Sphere Manuel Castells: Conclusion: The Network Society Epilogue: The Future is Present: American Cultural Studies on the Net (Eva Vieth)

A Reader John Hartley and Roberta E. Pearson

`good range of historical perspectives and theorectical approaches which are relevant and flexible enough to be used in conjunction with other course materials.' Dr Jessica Maynard, Lecturer, King's College London