Culture in the Age of Three Worlds

by Michael Denning

Over the last half of the twentieth century, culture moved to the foreground of political and intellectual life. Suddenly everyone discovered that culture had been mass produced like Ford’s cars; the masses had culture and culture had a mass. Culture was everywhere, no longer the property of the cultured or the cultivated. Radical social movements around the globe invented a politics of culture.

Culture In the Age of Three Worlds is a reflection on this cultural turn which was a fundamental aspect of the age of three worlds, that short half century between 1945 and 1989 when it was imagined that the world was divided into three—the capitalist first world, the communist second world, and the decolonizing third world. Recasting the legacies of British cultural studies and the radical traditions of the American studies movement in a global context, Michael Denning explores the political and intellectual battles over the meanings of culture, addresses the rise of a distinctive ‘American ideology,’ and charts the lineaments of the global cultures that emerged as three worlds gave way to one.

Genres: Cultural, Nonfiction, Politics, Cultural Studies

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Michael Denning is an American cultural historian and William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of American Studies at Yale University. His work has been influential in shaping the field of American Studies by importing and interpreting the work of British Cultural Studies theorists. Although he received his Ph. D. from Yale University and studied with Fredric Jameson, perhaps the greatest influence on his work is the time he spent at the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies working with Stuart Hall.

He is married to the African American Historian Hazel Carby.

Reviews

[Mohamed · Rating 3 out of 5]

كتاب ثقيل من النوع الذي يثقل رأسك بالكثير من الامور
بدأته فى شهر يونيو 2013 وانتهيت منه يونيو 2015
سنتان من القراءة المتقطعة بشكل لم اعهده فى حياتي
لكن الكتاب ثمين بالمصطلحات السياسية شديدة التعقيد
يحتاج الي أن تكون اكاديمياٌ فى العلوم الاجتماعية لكي تستطيع استيعابه بسهولة

[Aidan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely a towering book, I am impressed by the sheer scale of how much it studies and how seamlessly the sources from different eras flow from one another.

I expected a fuller analysis of thatcher and Reagan’s programs, I felt that the analysis was considerably slim, to me.

This book provided me with a great deal of support for the argument that I always hold near and dear, namely, the way, personal histories constantly reflect national and world histories!

MORE SERIOUS CULTURAL CRITICISM THAT ACTUALLY TALKS ABOUT WHAT IS THE MOST POPULAR AMONG THE PEOPLE.

How useful is all this criticism? I keep going back to that question, how much real social change can come from the implications of the theory

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amazingly sprawling and confused, and so perhaps just not the best work from Denning, who is a renowned figure in American Studies. I tend to agree with his leaning towards a Marxist and British cultural studies-based analysis, however, and he offers some useful clarifications of what we're doing when we do cultural studies.

[Moomen Sallam · Rating 4 out of 5]

الكتاب يتناول تطور ونضالات الدراسات الثقافية اليسارية في عصر العوالم الثلاثة، الراسمالية والاشتراكية والعالم الثالث، مع التركيز في اخر فصول على الحالة الأمريكية.

[Mohamed Yehia · Rating 2 out of 5]

الترجمة جيدة جدا ..لكن التنظير كتير

[Musaadalhamidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

بمجرد ان اندلعت الحرب الباردة قفرن الثقافة من الظلال العميقة التي حاول الماركسيون دفنها فيها منذ القرن التاسع عشر ، باعتبارها من البنى التحتية الى نقطة المركز في دائرة الصراعات السياسة والقمرية ومع زيادة الاهتمام بثقافة عرف الناس عنها حقائق ربما لم يكن يعرفها الا القليلون.

[Salahuddin Hourani]

ملاحظة لي - لم اقرا الكتاب بعد

عن اختفائ الفكرة التقليدية للعوالم الثلاثة (الاول، الثاني، والثالث) وبزوغ عالم واحد فقط وهو العولمة

[Gamal soliman · Rating 2 out of 5]

يتحدث الكاتب عن مفهوم الثقافة فى العوالم الثلاث الراسمالى والشيوعى والنامى..كتاب اكاديمي بحت ينفر منه القارئ لتشعبه الغير مبرر

[Youness Elamoudi]

لست مهتما بالموضوع. إنما جاءت قرائته لكونه ضمن سلسلة عالم المعرفة.
لم أكمله.

[Mohamed basha · Rating 3 out of 5]

الكتاب يتحدث عن الثقافه الامريكيه بالتحديدو مشكله اليسار والماركسيه وعدم وجدود حركات عماليه معللا \لك باسباب ثقافيه كانت لا تنصف سابقا