A History of Popular Culture: more of everything, faster and brighter

by Raymond F. Betts, Lyz Bly

This lively and informative survey provides a thematic global history of popular culture focusing on the period since the end of the Second World War.

Raymond Betts considers the rapid diffusion and 'hybridization' of popular culture as the result of three conditions of the world since the end of World War Two: instantaneous communications, widespread consumption in a market-based economy and the visualization of reality. Betts considers the dominance of American entertainment media and habits of consumption, assessing adaptation and negative reactions to this influence.

The author surveys a wide range of topics, including:

* the emergence and conditions of modern popular culture
* the effects of global conflict
* the phenomenon and effects of urbanization
* the changing demography of the political arena and the work place
* the development of contemporary music culture
* film, television and visual experience
* the growth of sport as a commercial enterprise.

Directed at students and general readers concerned with the dimensions and forms of popular culture, the book provides an engaging introduction to this pervasice and ever-changing subject.

Genres: Cultural, Academic

192 pages, Paperback

First published March 19, 2004

About the author

Dr. Raymond Frederick Betts was an American academic and historian. After completing undergraduate studies at Rutgers University in 1949 and receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree, he earned his MA from Columbia University only a year later, in 1950. He earned his PhD, also from Columbia University, in 1958 (according to one source he also received a doctoral degree from the Université Grenoble in 1955). Professor Betts began his academic career as an assistant professor at Bryn Mawr College in 1956. In 1961 he moved to Grinnell College in Iowa, where he spent ten years, initially as an associate professor. In 1971 he accepted a position as professor of history at the University of Kentucky, where he spent the remainder of his career, retiring in 1990. Professor Betts was considered to be one of the world's foremost authorities on the history of French colonialism.