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Article: The American Spiritual Culture and the Invention of Jazz, Football and the Movies.(Book Reviews)(Book Review)
- Article from:
- Sociology of Religion
- Article date:
- June 22, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 Association for the Sociology of Religion. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The American Spiritual Culture and the Invention of Jazz, Football and the Movies, by WILLIAM DEAN. New York: Continuum, 2002, 240 pp.; $24.95 (cloth) $16.95 (paper)
A quick scan of 20th century American intellectual history reveals an unsurprising trend: some of the best work was also some of the most audacious. Consider the writings of Perry Miller, Sidney Mead, and Robert Bellah. These men drafted narratives of astounding range and hypothesis, transforming minor comments by tertiary historical figures into metaphorical explications of the American Experience. Although diverse in their subject matter and methodology, their books pursued an analogous specter. ...