Dwight Macdonald,John Summers,Louis Menand
A New York Review Books Original,An uncompromising contrarian, a passionate polemicist, a man of quick wit and wide learning, an anarchist, a pacifist, and a virtuoso of the slashing phrase, Dwight Macdonald was an indefatigable and indomitable critic of Americaâ€™s susceptibility to well-meaning cultural fakery: all those estimable, eminent, prizewinning works of art that are said to be good and good for you and are not. He dubbed this phenomenon â€œMidcultâ€ and he attacked it not only on aesthetic but on political grounds. Midcult rendered people complacent and compliant, secure in their common stupidity but neither happy nor free.,This new selection of Macdonaldâ€™s finest essays, assembled by John Summers, the editor of ,The Baffler,, reintroduces a remarkable American critic and writer. In the era of smart, sexy, and everything indie, Macdonald remains as pertinent and challenging as ever.
Writing,Essays,Nonfiction,Philosophy,Criticism,Literary Criticism,Criticism,Politics,Culture,Cultural Studies,Cultural,Literature,20th Century,Sociology
Masscult and Midcult: Essays Against the American Grain