In May 1906, the "Atlantic Monthly" commented that Americans live not merely in an age of things, but under the tyranny of them, and that in our relentless effort to sell, purchase, and accumulate things, we do not possess them as much as they possess us. For Bill Brown, the tale of that possession is something stranger than the history of a culture of consumption. It is the story of Americans using things to think about themselves.
Brown's captivating new study explores the roots of modern America's fascination with things and the problem that objects posed for American literature at...

From the pencil to the puppet to the drone the humanities continue to ride a wave of interest in material culture and the world of things. How should we understand the force and figure of that wave as it shapes different disciplines? In "Other Things," Bill Brown explores this question by considering an assortment of objects from beach glass to cell phones, sneakers to skyscrapers that have fascinated a range of writers and artists, including Virginia Woolf, Man Ray, Spike Lee, and Don DeLillo.
Brown ranges across the literary, visual, and plastic arts to depict the curious lives of...