Fredric Wertham And the Critique of Mass Culture
Editorial Reviews
Book Description
Too often remembered solely as the psychiatrist and cultural critic whose testimony in Senate subcommittees sparked the creation of the Comics Code, Fredric Wertham was a far more complex man. Author Bart Beaty traces the evolution of Wertham’s attitudes toward popular culture and re-assesses his place in the debate about pop culture’s effects on youth and society.
When The Seduction of the Innocent was published in 1954, Wertham (1895-1981) became instantly known as an authority on child psychology. Although he had published several books before Seduction, its sharp criticism of popular culture in general—and comic books in particular—made it a touchstone for debate about issues of censorship, child protection, and freedom of speech. Despite the nuances of his arguments in that book and his evolution as a critic throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Wertham is best remembered as one of the most inflexible critics of popular culture in postwar America.
Fredric Wertham and the Critique of Mass Culture is an examination of Wertham’s career, providing a fresh perspective that re-interprets Wertham’s intellectual legacy, and challenges received notions about his assumed cultural conservatism. Beaty analyzes all of Wertham’s published works, as well as his heretofore unreasearched and unpublished private papers, correspondence, and notes. In the process, Beaty reveals a man whose opinions on culture and media were not nearly as cut-and-dried as suggested by his books, and whose life and career offer more subtlety of thought than previously assumed. In particular, the project examines Wertham’s change of heart in the 1970s, when he began to claim that comics could be a positive influence in American society. Beaty explores Wertham’s career as a child psychologist, communications scholar, and public intellectual.
The Wertham that emerges is a critic who was significantly more progressive and multi-faceted than those who condemn him would ever assume.
From the Publisher
This re-examination of the critic whose Congressional testimony sparked the Comics Code
* Offers a comprehensive overview of Fredric Wertham’s career and writings
* Uses newly available private papers to give insight into Wertham’s intellectual development
* Provides in-depth case studies of The Seduction of the Innocent–Wertham’s most famous book–and an unpublished manuscript
* Re-examines Wertham’s thought by tracing his change of mind in later life
Fredric Wertham And the Critique of Mass Culture
Fredric Wertham And the Critique of Mass Culture,Bart Beaty,University Press of Mississippi,1578068193,Anthropology - Cultural,Archaeology / Anthropology,History & Criticism,Influence,Mass media,Mass media and culture,Media Studies,Popular Culture - General,Social Science,Sociology
Fredric Wertham And the Critique of Mass Culture
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