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Title: The World through a Monocle: The New Yorker at Midcentury
ISBN: 0674961935
Author:
Mary F. Corey
Publicate Date: 1999-04-25
Publish: 1999-04-25
List Price: $28.50
Average Customer Rating: 4.0
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $5.99
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $1.00
Amazon Merchant Price: $28.50
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Historian looks at special corner of American social history
This is a serious look by an academic historian at UCLA. Although it is written in a readable and engaging style, she actually takes a serious look at issues such as racism and class divisions in the US during the mid-20th century as reflected on The New Yorker's pages. If anything, she could have dug deeper, but it is a fine book for both the historian and the interested general public. Fascinating look especially in the post-war period when so many social issues generally liberalized and the vocabulary of discourse subtly changed. There is some less serious discussion also, but for most of the lighter chatter about this fabled magazine look to other authors. James Thurber's book on Harold Ross is very interesting and lively, but serious too. (Written in the 50s.)
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2: Slices of postwar life
Though begun in 1925, the New Yorker really came into its own following WW2, and in the 40s and 50s set its course through the major domestic and international issues of the day--the threat of Communism, war in Korea and racial discontent were as important to its readers as was life in the suburbs with its bored housewives and flippant domestics. It forced us to look at serious problems at home and abroad while it poked fun at our attempts to meet the challenges, and by doing so made us that much more aware.Readership ran the gamut of liberals, patricians, idealists, intellectuals, activists and dreamers. And while it obviously held great appeal for the affluent and the avant-garde, it equally exhorted their social responsibilities. There was something for everyone and a forum for just about anything. The New Yorker has consistently, and at times irreverently, recorded the evolution of the American spirit, more often than not in its fabulous cartoons!!!
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3: An Engaging Look at an Important Magazine
Mary F. Corey has written an entertaining, well researched and, in its own delightful way, charming look at a magazine in the middle of the twentienth century. This is important because the magazine is the New Yorker and it reflects the attitudes and thoughts of a certain group of Americans of this period, a sort of floating liberalism. The author looks at the New Yorker's views of women, other races, communism and servants (among other subjects) in its fiction, articles and cartoons. New Yorker magazine does not necessarily come out all good in this but that is part of the pleasure of this book. It is not written as a form of nostalgia (although there is always a whiff present) but as a serious look at an important time in American history and what some leading writers and journalists were thinking and creating at this time. There is much positive among the negative and it does give the reader a real feeling for how important a magazine can be and, particulary, have been in the past. A very good book and an excellant look at an important magazine.
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4: A pleasant, interesting read, but sometimes too analytical.
This is a pleasant read, particularly for tbe regular New Yorker reader. It provides a good insight into the opinions and pretenses of educated, liberal-minded, and financially comfortable Americans of the '40s and '50s with regard to issues we learned about mostly through dull high school history lectures. Each chapter focuses on a particular theme of the era, such as McCarthyism, civil rights, household help, etc. All are well-written, but I think in some sections, the author draws a few too many psycho-babblish inferences.
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5: An insightful, original study of The New Yorker's mindset
Corey's book examines the cultural assumptions of the New Yorker as a reflection of the divided heart of the liberal intelligencia--torn between altruism and social aspiration, the magnanimous and the material. The book is refreshingly free of both academic jargon and the elevated gossip that constitutes much of what has been written about the magazine. Her focus is on what's inside its pages--from the Talk of the Town to the fiction, cartoons, advertisements and features. It's all fertile ground for Corey's critical but always humane intelligence, which discovers in the contradictions of the magazine (and its readers) the seeds of discord that led to the rebellions of the 60s. Corey makes it clear that she is writing about a world she grew up in herself--the world of her parents--but she never lets her personal investment get in the way of her clear-eyed but sympathetic analysis. The writing is supple and elegant; the analysis origial, and she never forgets to let the alluring spirit of the magazine she both loves and deplores shine through. A terrific read.
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