Culture as History: The Transformation of American Society in the Twentieth Century

Abstract

Culture as History: The Transformation of American Society in Twentieth Century Warren I. Susman. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2003. Warren Susman is pioneer and bridgebuilder. Trained as historian, he took up cause of American and served both areas well. He even began to explore popular culture, although he never joined the movement. This book shows how an original thinker can come up with startling new ideas and connections. It is partly autobiographical, because the writing of history is as personal an act as writing fiction. When he began his own in 1930s, his mentor Merle Curti praised him for undertaking what Susman called a serious intellectual struggle with my father. Susman replied to his mentor, was stunned at your suggestion, supposing my undertaking was an act of disinterested scholarship. works of history are autobiographical, that does not mean that is all they are. Certainly not in his case. Susman praises Dr. Curti for discussing dime novels and for his use of many off-beat sources. That is exactly what Susman does, coming to see America through notion of of abundance and of paradox. We live, he says, in hieroglyphic civilization in which images always supplement ideas. His photographs are one of highlights of book. He centers them on critical themes: Our Father, Our Skyscraper, Our Daily Bread, Our Flag, Our Town, and Our Church. In our world of images-turned-icons, we can literally see fundamental tensions that define hieroglyphic civilization that we have created. Another distinctive feature of America: no previous culture has been so shaped by communication technology or has spent so much of its energy and resources analyzing communication and its problems. He hits home; I spent years in communications studies niches. Like Susman, I ended up wondering whether anyone could really communicate at all. (What we have here is problem of communication.) Of course, we have had few great communicators: Jefferson, Calhoun, Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt. Susman always pops up with surprise. He respects President Roosevelt's cultural role without limit, but adds, If we want to know how people experienced world in 1930s, I argue that Mickey Mouse may be more important than President Roosevelt in that understanding (103). All ages demand symbols that sometimes conflict. In 1940s, for example, we suffered pain and anguish of Okies of Dust Bowl-and were singing Oh! What Beautiful Morning! in Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! (1943). Conflicting symbols. Or again: we painstakingly reconstructed colonial Williamsburg as hedge against rising techno-industrial order. …