<p>The Greatest Bad Movies of All Time. By Phil Hall. Albany, GA: BearManor Media, 2013. ISBN: 978-1-59393-731-7. &nbsp; Be honest. How much of life is as sinfully delicious as a bad movie review? What could be more fun that making your way through capsules of the alleged hundred worst films of all time? That’s the &hellip; <a href="https://nepca.blog/2013/07/16/greatest-bad-movies-a-great-beach-read/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">Greate

<p>Queen of Vaudeville: The Story of Eva Tanguay. By Andrew L. Erdman. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2012. ISBN: 978-0-8014-4970-9.   Perhaps the name Eva Tanguay (1878-1947) rings no bells now, but a century ago familiarity with the “Cyclonic Comedienne” would have conferred considerable cultural capital. She was the most famous vaudeville star of the early &hellip; <a href="https://nepca.blog/2013/07/07/new-biography-of-eva-tanguay-deserves-to-be-in-the-flood-lights/" c

<p>TV on Strike: Why Hollywood Went to War Over the Internet. By Cynthia Littleton. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2013. &nbsp; Lasting an unprecedented 100 days, and grinding TV and film production to a halt on both coasts, the Writers’ Guild strike of the 2007-8 TV season had both immediate and lasting effects on the industry; &hellip; <a href="https://nepca.blog/2013/06/18/tv-on-strike-a-sometimes-too-detailed-account/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class=

<p>Resurrection City: A Theology of Improvisation. By Peter Goodwin Heltzel. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2012. ISBN: 978-0-8028-6759-9.   Peter Goodwin Heltzel’s Resurrection City is both a fascinating and frustrating work. Heltzel, an associate professor of theology at the New York Theological Seminary, has an ambitious goal: articulating a progressive theology for &hellip; <a href="https://nepca.blog/2013/06/17/resurrection-city-intrigues-and-f

<p>Barns of New York: Rural Architecture of the Empire State. By Cynthia G. Falk. Ithaca: Cornell Paperbacks, 2012. ISBN 978-0-8014-7780-5.   Until the new social history of the 1960s, the field of study known as material culture was relatively underdeveloped and largely confined to archaeology. Then came the popular works of landscape painter/amateur folklorist Eric &hellip; <a href="https://nepca.blog/2013/06/12/barns-of-new-york-a-lesson-in-material-culture/" class="more-l

<p>Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul. By John M. Barry. New York: Viking, 2012, ISBN 978-0-312288-3 Since Perry Miller’s path-breaking books in the 1930s, and those of Edmund Morgan from 1958 onward, historians have sought to resurrect Puritanism from   the mud of intolerance, joylessness, and bigotry into which post-Salem witchcraft critics &hellip; <a href="https://nepca.blog/2013/04/11/new-book-on-roger-williams-probes-the-question-of-liberty/" class="mo

<p>The Retail Revolution: How Wal-Mart Created a Brave New World of Business. By Nelson Lichtenstein. New York: Picador, 2010. 978-0-312-42968-3  Walmart is a company Americans either love or hate. Nelson Lichtenstein’s updated exposé gives considerably more rationale for loathing. His is such a damning portrayal that it ventures onto terrain generally reserved for conspiracy theorists. There’s an &hellip; <a href="https://nepca.blog/2013/02/21/book-review-how-walmart-changed

<p>The following books are available for review in the Journal of American Culture.  If interested contact Camille McCutcheon: CMCCUTCHEON@uscupstate.edu Armstrong, Tim. The Logic of Slavery:  Debt, Technology, and Pain in American Literature. Cambridge, 2012. (262 pages). Curley, Stephen. The Ship That Would Not Die: USS Queens, SS Excambion, and USTS Texas Clipper. Texas A&amp;M Press, 2011. (235 pages). &hellip; <a href="https://nepca.blog/2013/02/10/301/" class="more-link

<p>Listening and Longing: Music Lovers in the Age of Barnum. By Daniel Cavicchi, Wesleyan University Press: Middletown, CT, 2011. The United States in the 19th century is the setting for Daniel Cavicchi’s exploration of musical culture. This period encompasses a shift from the active pursuit of making music to a passive experience of watching and listening. Cavicchi &hellip; <a href="https://nepca.blog/2013/01/19/2011-rollins-prize-winner/" class="more-link">Continue reading