In this lively book, a well-known social critic draws on evidence from movies, TV, literature, and advertising to argue that many Americans have been lulled by the media into believing that racial problems can be substantially mitigated, even vanquished, by blacks and whites working together, one on one, to reconcile their differences. Benjamin DeMott believes that this position of "friendship orthodoxy" oversimplifies the causes of racism and allows us to ignore the harsh socioeconomic realities faced by many blacks in this country.
"A fresh, witty and pertinent essay on...
In this lively book, a well-known social critic draws on evidence from movies, TV, literature, and advertising to argue that many Americans have be...
Supergrow is a collection of fifteen essays that appeared between 1966 and 1969 in publications such as the American Scholar, the New York Times, Antioch Review, Esquire, and the Saturday Review. Author Benjamin DeMott discusses everything under the sun--music, improving one's sex life, violence in Mississippi, theater, student revolts--but a single theme unifies the material: people ought to use their imaginations more. The book starts from the assumption that our troubles stem from failures of the imagination. Overcome by mass media, we are often too oblivious to...
Supergrow is a collection of fifteen essays that appeared between 1966 and 1969 in publications such as the American Scholar, the New...
In this era of political correctness, it is often impossible to say things as one would like. Indeed, certain ways of feeling and talking that were once acceptable are now, in effect, forbidden. Of course, taboos extend further than speech. Social and sexual inhibitions are also evident. Benjamin DeMott argues that the very least a society should do is to try to understand the meaning of its own inhibitions. As he writes in this new edition of You Don't Say, "a supple awareness of the effective censorship of the day can toughen resistance to clich and stereotype, and is absolutely...
In this era of political correctness, it is often impossible to say things as one would like. Indeed, certain ways of feeling and talking that were on...
