Routledge Depth of Shallow Culture: The High Art of Shoes, Movies, Novels, Monsters, and Toys (Studies in Comparative Social Science)

Come take a closer look at ordinary footwear, like sneakers, or children's toys and Saturday cartoon TV shows, or make a comparison between Don Quixote and John Rambo of the Sylvester Stallone movie. Although some regard popular culture as "shallow," this book reveals that it is more often complex, deep, meaningful and subject to the style changes we associate with high art. Bergesen shows how complex philosophical ideas of reincarnation are embedded in Transformer toys; how sneakers have gone through a life cycle of style types; why the decline of empires like Spain and the United States led to fictional characters like Don Quixote and Rambo; and why monsters from Japan look different than those from the United States. Review “Professor Bergesen is as capable as any of us in the profession in running a regression equation. However, his genius, as manifested in this illuminating book, lies in seeing patterns, connections, linkages, and stories that often tell us much more about human society than our most elaborate models. He opens up for us a world filled with fascinating possibilities.”Andrew M. Greeley, University of Chicago About the Author Albert J. Bergesen is Professor of Sociology at the University of Arizona. He is the author of numerous books and articles. He coauthored God in the Movies (2003) with Andrew M. Greeley and Cultural Analysis: The Work of Peter Berger, Mary Douglas, Michel Foucault, and Jürgen Habermas (1984) with Wuthnow, Hunter, and Kurtzweil.