In Praise of Commercial Culture / Tyler Cowen.
2022
NX634 ǂb C68 1998eb
Linked e-resources
Linked Resource
Online Access
Details
Title
In Praise of Commercial Culture / Tyler Cowen.
Author
Cowen, Tyler, author.
ISBN
9780674029934
Published
Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, [2022]
Copyright
©2000
Language
English
Language Note
In English.
Description
1 online resource (288 p.)
Other Standard Identifiers
10.4159/9780674029934 doi
Call Number
NX634 ǂb C68 1998eb
Dewey Decimal Classification
306.3
Summary
Does a market economy encourage or discourage music, literature, and the visual arts? Do economic forces of supply and demand help or harm the pursuit of creativity? This book seeks to redress the current intellectual and popular balance and to encourage a more favorable attitude toward the commercialization of culture that we associate with modernity. Economist Tyler Cowen argues that the capitalist market economy is a vital but underappreciated institutional framework for supporting a plurality of co-existing artistic visions, providing a steady stream of new and satisfying creations, supporting both high and low culture, helping consumers and artists refine their tastes, and paying homage to the past by capturing, reproducing, and disseminating it. Contemporary culture, Cowen argues, is flourishing in its various manifestations, including the visual arts, literature, music, architecture, and the cinema. Successful high culture usually comes out of a healthy and prosperous popular culture. Shakespeare and Mozart were highly popular in their own time. Beethoven's later, less accessible music was made possible in part by his early popularity. Today, consumer demand ensures that archival blues recordings, a wide array of past and current symphonies, and this week's Top 40 hit sit side by side in the music megastore. High and low culture indeed complement each other. Cowen's philosophy of cultural optimism stands in opposition to the many varieties of cultural pessimism found among conservatives, neo-conservatives, the Frankfurt School, and some versions of the political correctness and multiculturalist movements, as well as historical figures, including Rousseau and Plato. He shows that even when contemporary culture is thriving, it appears degenerate, as evidenced by the widespread acceptance of pessimism. He ends by considering the reasons why cultural pessimism has such a powerful hold on intellectuals and opinion-makers.
Access Note
Access limited to authorized users.
System Details Note
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
Digital File Characteristics
text file PDF
Source of Description
Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 31. Jan 2022)
Linked Resources
Online Access
Record Appears in
Online Resources > Ebooks
All Resources
All Resources
Table of Contents
Frontmatter
Acknowledgments
Contents
Introduction
1 The Arts in a Market Economy
2 The Market for the Written Word
3 The Wealthy City as a Center for Western Art
4 From Bach to the Beatles: The Developing Market for Music
5 Why Cultural Pessimism?
Notes
Index
Acknowledgments
Contents
Introduction
1 The Arts in a Market Economy
2 The Market for the Written Word
3 The Wealthy City as a Center for Western Art
4 From Bach to the Beatles: The Developing Market for Music
5 Why Cultural Pessimism?
Notes
Index