On Dwight MacDonald [ 30:01 ] Play Now |
Louis Menand
Back in the day when
Dwight MacDonald was a household name (on the Upper West Side, at least) his
critique of “middlebrow” American culture, and its inflated self-regard, singed eyebrows. Today, do his arguments still sting? After listening to three academics discuss MacDonald’s
Masscult and Midcult: Essays Against the American Grain, recently released by
New York Review Books Classics, the audience at the
Harvard Book Store might say ‘yes’. But then they might not agree on what exactly MacDonald’s message
is.
The conversation, with
New Yorker staff writer and
Harvard literature professor Louis Menand, the
author and
Baffler magazine editor John Summers, and the longtime
scholar and critic
Daniel Aaron, lasts 30 minutes.
Click here: 
to listen, and judge for yourself!
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