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RR 2013/315 The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Cultural and Intellectual History Edited by Joan Shelley Rubin and Scott E. Caspar Oxford University Press Oxford and New York, NY 2013 ISBN 978 0 19 976435 8 URL: http://oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/ 9780199764358.001.001/acref-9780199764358 Last visited June 2013 Contact publisher for pricing information Also available as a 2 vol. printed set (£250 $395) Oxford Encyclopedias of American History
Keywords Encyclopaedias, History, United States of America
Review DOI 10.1108/RR-06-2013-0146
Every book on this subject is bound to disappoint. It is a problem of boundaries: what are the boundaries of "cultural and intellectual history"? Does it have any? Culture as a subject is illimitable since any settled pattern of human activity is a form of culture. In just the same way, an effort of "intellect" is involved in every purposeful work of man. But, having proved that the subject cannot be defined, let us be practical about this. Oxford University Press has had to set arbitrary limits to this area of study in order to create a workable text. These can be described as follows. The focus of the book is US history and society, both colonial and national. It offers a useful assortment of entries - over seven hundred out of the many thousands of possible candidates. Around half the entries are on people, the others cover cultural movements, social institutions, theories and ideas.
The topics covered fall into two categories - firstly, topics which are central to the theme of culture and the intellect: literature, the plastic arts, music, entertainments (drama, variety - and circuses!), the humanities and religion. Much of this comes pretty close to the older concept of High Culture. But that is now seen as so stuffy, so value-laden and out of kilter with our more demotic age,...