{"id":1700,"date":"2011-10-24T21:42:58","date_gmt":"2011-10-25T02:42:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thoughtcast.org\/?p=1700"},"modified":"2012-04-26T21:27:48","modified_gmt":"2012-04-27T02:27:48","slug":"louis-menand-john-summers-and-dan-aaron-take-on-dwight-macdonald","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thoughtcast.org\/louis-menand-john-summers-and-dan-aaron-take-on-dwight-macdonald\/","title":{"rendered":"Louis Menand, John Summers and Dan Aaron take on Dwight MacDonald"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" title=\"Louis Menand\" src=\"https:\/\/thoughtcast.org\/podcasts\/louismenandpix.jpg\" alt=\"Louis Menand\" \/> Back in the day when <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2006\/04\/16\/books\/review\/16wolcott.html?pagewanted=all\" target=\"_blank\">Dwight MacDonald<\/a> was a household name (on the Upper West Side, at least) his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/arts\/critics\/atlarge\/2011\/09\/05\/110905crat_atlarge_menand\" target=\"_blank\">critique of &#8220;middlebrow&#8221; American culture<\/a>, and its inflated self-regard, singed eyebrows. Today, do his arguments still sting? After listening to three academics discuss MacDonald&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/books\/imprints\/classics\/masscult-and-midcult\/\" target=\"_blank\">Masscult and Midcult: Essays Against the American Grain<\/a>, recently released by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/books\/imprints\/classics\/\" target=\"_blank\">New York Review Books Classics<\/a>, the audience at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.harvard.com\/event\/john_summers_and_louis_menand\/\" target=\"_blank\">Harvard Book Store<\/a> might say &#8216;yes&#8217;. But then they might not agree on what exactly MacDonald&#8217;s message <em>is<\/em>.<br \/>\nThe conversation, with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/bios\/louis_menand\/search?contributorName=louis%20menand\" target=\"_blank\">New Yorker staff writer<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fas.harvard.edu\/~amciv\/faculty\/menand.shtml\" target=\"_blank\">Harvard literature professor<\/a> Louis Menand, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/1934542075\/?tag=newbooinhis-20\" target=\"_blank\">author<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/thebaffler.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Baffler magazine<\/a> editor John Summers, and the longtime <a href=\"https:\/\/www.press.umich.edu\/titleDetailDesc.do?id=210684\" target=\"_blank\">scholar<\/a> and critic <a href=\"https:\/\/www.neh.gov\/news\/archive\/2010_Medalists.html\" target=\"_blank\">Daniel Aaron<\/a>, lasts 30 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>Click here: <a href=\"https:\/\/thoughtcast.org\/podcasts\/menand-summersTalk30mins.mp3\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thoughtcast.org\/mike.jpeg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a> to listen, and judge for yourself!<\/p>\n<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_1203\"><!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-1700-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/thoughtcast.org\/podcasts\/menand-summersTalk30mins.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/thoughtcast.org\/podcasts\/menand-summersTalk30mins.mp3\">https:\/\/thoughtcast.org\/podcasts\/menand-summersTalk30mins.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1px !important;\">Podcast: <a href=\"https:\/\/thoughtcast.org\/podcasts\/menand-summersTalk30mins.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/thoughtcast.org\/?powerpress_pinw=1700-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/thoughtcast.org\/podcasts\/menand-summersTalk30mins.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"menand-summersTalk30mins.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_subscribe_links\">Subscribe: <a href=\"https:\/\/thoughtcast.org\/feed\/podcast\/\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_rss\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe via RSS\" rel=\"nofollow\">RSS<\/a><\/p><!--powerpress_player-->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Back in the day when Dwight MacDonald was a household name (on the Upper West Side, at least) his critique of &#8220;middlebrow&#8221; American culture, and its inflated self-regard, singed eyebrows. Today, do his arguments still sting? After listening to three academics discuss MacDonald&#8217;s Masscult and Midcult: Essays Against the American Grain, recently released by New [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[428,36],"tags":[575,570,573,248,73,569,568,571,572,402,576,577,72],"class_list":["post-1700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-harvard-luminaries","category-literature","tag-daniel-aaron","tag-dwight-macdonald","tag-essays-against-the-american-grain","tag-harvard-book-store","tag-jenny-attiyeh","tag-john-summers","tag-louis-menand","tag-masscult","tag-midcult","tag-new-york-review-books","tag-new-yorker","tag-the-baffler","tag-thoughtcast"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Louis Menand, John Summers and Dan Aaron take on Dwight MacDonald - https:\/\/thoughtcast.org<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thoughtcast.org\/louis-menand-john-summers-and-dan-aaron-take-on-dwight-macdonald\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Louis Menand, John Summers and Dan Aaron take on Dwight MacDonald - https:\/\/thoughtcast.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Back in the day when Dwight MacDonald was a household name (on the Upper West Side, at least) his critique of &#8220;middlebrow&#8221; American culture, and its inflated self-regard, singed eyebrows. 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