Louis Menand American Studies

From the Author of The Metaphysical Club- "a richly nuanced reading of American intellectual history" praised for its "rare common sense and graceful, witty prose" (Jean Strouse, The New York Times Book Review)-comes a major collection of essays on American art, American thought, and American life. At each step of this journey through American history, Louis Menand has an original point to make: he reveals the reasons for the remarkable commercial success of William Shawn's New Yorker and William Paley's CBD. He uncovers the connection between Larry flynt's Hustler and Jerry Falwell's evangelism. He locates the importance of richard Wright, Pauline Kael, Laurie Anderson, and Rolling Stone and he explains why Norman Mailer doesn't get Madonna. Like his Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller, The Metaphysical Club, a book that "enlivens virtually everything it touches" (The Economist), American Studies is intellectual and cultural history at its best: game and detached, it helps us understand why we think the way we do.