Encyclopedia of contemporary French culture

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Laura Mason

Laura Mason examines the shifting fortunes of singing as a political gesture to highlight the importance of popular culture to revolutionary politics. Arguing that scholars have overstated the uniformity of revolutionary political culture, Mason uses songwriting and singing practices to reveal its diverse nature. Song performances in the streets, theaters, and clubs of Paris showed how popular culture was invested with new political meaning after 1789, becoming one of the most important means for engaging in revolutionary debate.

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Anthony Heilbut

An exploration of American culture celebrates subjects ranging from the birth of the soap opera and the obsessiveness of modern fandom to the outing of gay church members and the influence of German exiles.

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Graham Shipley ... [et al

"The Cambridge Dictionary of Classical Civilization provides an authoritative survey of the classical world, combining the traditional strengths of classical subjects with new approaches examining the social and cultural features of the ancient Greek and Roman world. Ranging in time from post-Bronze Age Greece to the later Roman Empire, it looks not only at ancient Greece and Rome, but discusses those cultures with which Greeks and Romans exchanged information and culture (e.g. Phoenicians, Celts and Jews) and those remote peoples with whom they were in contact (e.g. Persia, China and India). It paints a new picture of ancient life, exploring material realities such as dress and technology. It emphasizes the transmission of classical learning and explores our debts to Greece and Rome. Highly illustrated, with hundreds of entries by leading scholars, this Dictionary is a superb reference work and definitive companion for anyone with an interest in the ancient world."--Jacket.

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Bertram Wyatt-Brown

Extending his investigation into the ethical life of the white American South beyond what he wrote in Southern Honor (1982), Bertram Wyatt-Brown explores three major themes in southern history: the political aspects of the South's code of honor, the increasing prominence of Protestant faith in white southerners' lives, and the devastating impact of war, defeat, and an angry loss of confidence during the post-Civil War era. This eloquent and richly textured study first demonstrates the psychological complexity of race relations, drawing new and provocative comparisons between American slave oppression and the Nazi concentration camp experience. The author then reveals how the rhetoric and rituals of honor affected the Revolutionary generation and--through a study of Andrew Jackson, dueling, and other demonstrations of manhood--how early American politicians won or lost popularity. In perhaps the most subtle and intriguing section of the book, he discloses the interconnections of honor and religious belief and practice. Finally, exploring the effects of war and defeat on former Confederates, Wyatt-Brown suggests that the rise of violent racism following the Civil War had significant links to the shame of military defeat and the spurious invocation of religious convictions. --Publisher description.