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Reviews
| The People's Voice: A Populist Cultural History of Modern America, by David Horowitz. Cornwall-on-Hudson, NY: Sloan, 2008. 448 pages. $52.95, paper.
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| This book is a tour de force of a text, one that can stand comparison with Howard Zinn's classic, A People's History of the United States as an attempt to write a history of the United States from the perspective of the "common man" (and woman), who have otherwise been victims of, in E. P. Thompson's famous phrase, "the condescension of posterity." Yet Horowitz's focus is entirely different to Zinn's. Indeed, his work is fresh and original. As the title claims, his aim was to write nothing less than a "Populist Cultural History of Modern America." This begs the question of what he means by "Populist," which is, to say the least, a broad term. Horowitz employs the term in reference to expressive forms designed for the consumption of ordinary Americans, favorably commenting upon their lives, or rendered in their name" (p. xiii). And he makes it clear, too, what he means by "ordinary people," that is "those members of the working, or middle class who see themselves outside the nation's more privileged or powerful economic, political or cultural circles" (p. xiii). Horowitz is also careful to differentiate between "populist cultural expression" and "popular culture," because the former is, he claims, not necessarily concerned with commercialism, and is culturally and politically engaged. |
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The author thus sets out his stall briefly, succinctly, concisely, and firmly in the tradition of Zinn. What follows is four hundred pages of intensive cultural dialogue that starts with a discussion of Walt Whitman, Mark Twain, and Stephen Foster, in poetry, the novel, and song, and then leads the way through the legacy they created of engagement with the vernacular and the unpretentious. Hence, they created in the twentieth century a huge culture of the "common man." In this way, we are treated to a vast and all-encompassing discussion of American culture in the twentieth century in its myriad forms. Every imaginable area is covered: the novel, film, song, plays, sports. Every group making a contribution is included: African Americans (who, unsurprisingly, make the largest contribution), Chicanos, Chinese Americans, Japanese Americans, Native Americans, as well as women and the white, "blue-collar" working class and their proponents. Horowitz supplies stimulating and insightful discussions of the contributions of numerous key figures' contributions. For example, one chapter on "Blue Collar America and the Turbulent Seventies" (pp. 324–360) contains discussions of such diverse figures as Toni Morrison, Stevie Wonder, John Denver, Mary Tyler Moore, Martin Scorsese, "Archie Bunker," John Travolta, "Norma Rae," and the "Beverly Hillbillies," to name but a few. |
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Horowitz's massive smorgasbord is likely to be an invaluable text for high school and especially undergraduate students of American cultural history. The discussions are crisp, clear, witty, and scholarly as well as being comprehensive and meticulously thorough. For teachers and professors, the book is no less valuable as a resource with which to plan and prepare courses across the entire spectrum of cultural history or in specific areas such as theatre, film, or rock music. The list of readings at the end of each chapter is authoritative, providing the highly stimulated reader with the opportunity for further study. I would suggest further that classes could usefully be focused on two other areas. On a lighter note, there could be discussions on the varying significance given by Horowitz to individual figures in American cultural history. For example, the contribution of Frank Sinatra might be considered: Sinatra virtually invented popular music phrasing, and without him, those singers that followed, including rock 'n' rollers, could have sounded very different. Equally, Horowitz is gracious enough to mention that the Beatles in part and the Rolling Stones wholly drew from an American vernacular (despite being almost entirely British, though Jagger, significantly is half-Australian, a land with a similarly populist popular culture to the United States. These Britons' impact on American culture has surely rivalled that of Dylan or Springsteen who merit much longer discussions here, presumably because they are American. |
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Despite Horowitz's effort to explain the links between the vast range of material he discusses, students and their teachers may find the book diffuse and fragmented. Yet here lies a further issue for discourse in the classroom: what threads are consistent throughout the book? For, even more than Horowitz himself claims, the work is a wonderful up-to-date restatement of American history told as the story of the "common man." The origins of this ideal can be traced to De Crevecoeur, Jackson, and Turner to name but a few, hardly minor personalities! If I may be so bold, the book, therefore, serves a didactic as well as interrogative purpose for American students. It expounds their country's noblest tradition—just as it helps my British students purge their half-baked anti-Americanism and replace it with admiration for the American spirit and pageant. |
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| University of Portsmouth, United Kingdom |
Kevin White |
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