Author: Joel Dinerstein Publisher: University of Chicago Press ISBN: 022659906X Category : History Languages : en Pages : 550
Book Description
Cool. It was a new word and a new way to be, and in a single generation, it became the supreme compliment of American culture. The Origins of Cool in Postwar America uncovers the hidden history of this concept and its new set of codes that came to define a global attitude and style. As Joel Dinerstein reveals in this dynamic book, cool began as a stylish defiance of racism, a challenge to suppressed sexuality, a philosophy of individual rebellion, and a youthful search for social change. Through eye-opening portraits of iconic figures, Dinerstein illuminates the cultural connections and artistic innovations among Lester Young, Humphrey Bogart, Robert Mitchum, Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, Jack Kerouac, Albert Camus, Marlon Brando, and James Dean, among others. We eavesdrop on conversations among Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and Miles Davis, and on a forgotten debate between Lorraine Hansberry and Norman Mailer over the "white Negro" and black cool. We come to understand how the cool worlds of Beat writers and Method actors emerged from the intersections of film noir, jazz, and existentialism. Out of this mix, Dinerstein sketches nuanced definitions of cool that unite concepts from African-American and Euro-American culture: the stylish stoicism of the ethical rebel loner; the relaxed intensity of the improvising jazz musician; the effortless, physical grace of the Method actor. To be cool is not to be hip and to be hot is definitely not to be cool. This is the first work to trace the history of cool during the Cold War by exploring the intersections of film noir, jazz, existential literature, Method acting, blues, and rock and roll. Dinerstein reveals that they came together to create something completely new—and that something is cool.
Author: Christal Whelan Publisher: Tuttle Publishing ISBN: 1462914128 Category : Travel Languages : en Pages : 280
Book Description
In Kansai Cool anthropologist, writer and filmmaker Christal Whelan offers profound insights in the only collection of essays to focus on Kansai, Japan's ancient heartland. Kansai--the region in Western Japan that boasts the ancient capitals of Kyoto and Nara, the bustling commercial city of Osaka and the cosmopolitan port city of Kobe--has a character all its own, right down to its dialect, mannerisms, and cuisine. It is home to some of Japan's oldest history and an area where the country's most time-honored arts and crafts still thrive. Worldly and otherworldly, spirited and spiritual, trendy and traditional, it's a place where past and future live side-by-side, sometimes at odds. Part Japanese travel book, part cultural commentary, these 25 spirited essays and 32 pages of color photos paint a broad yet penetrating portrait of the unique Western Japan region, covering such diverse topics as: The needs of the spirit--shrines, temples and the call to pilgrimage The arts in Kansai--dance, painting, anime, and combat The relationship between hi-tech and old-tech Material culture--bikes, robots, and dolls The culture of fashion in Kansai--from kimonos and obis to modern fashion designers, and the Lolita complex The meaning of landscape-- human-made islands and the mystical power of water The hidden meaning of food--an anthropology of coffee and traditional cuisine From the deep-seated ancient beliefs of Kyoto to modern teen otaku culture, costume play and haute couture of Kobe and Osaka--Whelan delves below the surface to let readers eager to travel to Japan experience how art, science, faith and history swirl together in the Kansai region to produce this unique wellspring of Japanese culture.
Author: Helmut Lethen Publisher: Univ of California Press ISBN: 0520201094 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 264
Book Description
"Lethen brilliantly interprets New Objectivity as a tactical response to the need for a 'code of conduct' in an age of anxiety about values and normative judgments. Moving effortlessly between analysis of philosophical texts and literary works, he charts an increasingly popular field of cultural studies: how cultural discourses shape behavior. One of the most original and daring contributions to Weimar scholarship and to the study of modernity in general in a decade."—Anton Kaes, University of California, Berkeley "Lethen is probably the most original and outstanding scholar writing in German today about Weimar literature and culture. He traces the figure of the 'cold persona' as part of a broader discourse of anthropological, ethical, and aesthetic dimensions. The book is written in a personal voice, witty, lucid, and unpretentious."—Miriam Hansen, University of Chicago
Author: Stan Cox Publisher: ISBN: 9781595587756 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
Losing Our Cool exposes the surprising ways in which air conditioning changes human experience: giving a boost to global warming that it is designed to help humans endure; enabling an otherwise impossible commuter economy; and altering human migration patterns. Stan Cox argues that by reintroducing traditional cooling methods and putting newer technologies into practice - and by moving beyond industrial definitions of comfort - people can keep themselves comfortable and keep the planet comfortable too.
Author: Keith Wailoo Publisher: University of Chicago Press ISBN: 022679427X Category : History Languages : en Pages : 411
Book Description
Spanning a century, Pushing Cool reveals how the twin deceptions of health and Black affinity for menthol were crafted—and how the industry’s disturbingly powerful narrative has endured to this day. Police put Eric Garner in a fatal chokehold for selling cigarettes on a New York City street corner. George Floyd was killed by police outside a store in Minneapolis known as “the best place to buy menthols.” Black smokers overwhelmingly prefer menthol brands such as Kool, Salem, and Newport. All of this is no coincidence. The disproportionate Black deaths and cries of “I can’t breathe” that ring out in our era—because of police violence, COVID-19, or menthol smoking—are intimately connected to a post-1960s history of race and exploitation. In Pushing Cool, Keith Wailoo tells the intricate and poignant story of menthol cigarettes for the first time. He pulls back the curtain to reveal the hidden persuaders who shaped menthol buying habits and racial markets across America: the world of tobacco marketers, consultants, psychologists, and social scientists, as well as Black lawmakers and civic groups including the NAACP. Today most Black smokers buy menthols, and calls to prohibit their circulation hinge on a history of the industry’s targeted racial marketing. In 2009, when Congress banned flavored cigarettes as criminal enticements to encourage youth smoking, menthol cigarettes were also slated to be banned. Through a detailed study of internal tobacco industry documents, Wailoo exposes why they weren’t and how they remain so popular with Black smokers.
Author: Steven Quartz Publisher: Macmillan ISBN: 0374129185 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 305
Book Description
"Neuroscientist and philosopher Steven Quartz and political scientist Anette Asp bring together the latest findings in brain science, economics, and evolutionary biology to form a ... theory of consumerism, revealing how the brain's 'social calculator' and an instinct to rebel are the crucial missing links in understanding the motivations behind our spending habits. Applying their theory to everything from grocery shopping to the near-religious devotion of Harley-Davidson fans, Quartz and Asp explore how the brain's ancient decision-making machinery guides consumer choice. Using these ... insights, they show how we use products to advertise ourselves to others in an often unconscious pursuit of social esteem"--
Author: Marianne Taylor Publisher: Running Press ISBN: 9780762435494 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
From jazz music to wearing sunglasses indoors, “cool” has always been the ultimate social label. The craving for this acceptance has powered popular culture for the last hundred years. Fashion, music, cars, pop idols, attitudes, and even some schools and parents, have been labeled Cool. But by whom? The truth is: no one in particular. And then there is the whimsical nature of being Cool: The arbiters of taste and style are so eager to pronounce something Cool, that something immediately becomes uncool as the masses rush to adopt it, in order to be Cool first. Something or someone can be so “In” they quickly become “So Five Minutes Ago” before spiraling downward to “Out.” And then, like nerds and bell-bottoms, something can be so “Out”, it's “In.” (That's cool.) Taylor details the history of Cool, spotlighting its current manifestations. She charts the evolution of Cool from the sidewalks to the boardrooms, separating who creates cool from who merely markets it.
Author: Bjorn Lomborg Publisher: Vintage ISBN: 0307267792 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 272
Book Description
Bjorn Lomborg argues that many of the elaborate and staggeringly expensive actions now being considered to meet the challenges of global warming ultimately will have little impact on the world’s temperature. He suggests that rather than focusing on ineffective solutions that will cost us trillions of dollars over the coming decades, we should be looking for smarter, more cost-effective approaches (such as massively increasing our commitment to green energy R&D) that will allow us to deal not only with climate change but also with other pressing global concerns, such as malaria and HIV/AIDS. And he considers why and how this debate has fostered an atmosphere in which dissenters are immediately demonized.
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Author: Eric D. Schneider
Author: Joel Dinerstein
Author: Christal Whelan
Author: Helmut Lethen
Author: Stan Cox
Author: Keith Wailoo
Author: Thomas Frank
Author: Steven Quartz
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Author: Bjorn Lomborg