{"product_id":"the-genteel-tradition-and-the-robert-dawidoff-9780807857298","title":"The Genteel Tradition and the Sacred Rage: High Culture vs. Democracy in Adams, James, and Santayana","description":"\u003cp\u003eAsking why many American intellectuals have had such difficulty accepting wholeheartedly the cultural dimensions of democracy, Robert Dawidoff examines their alienation and ambivalence, a tradition of detachment he identifies as \"Tocquevillian.\" In the work of three towering American literary figures - Henry Adams, Henry James, and George Santayana -- Dawidoff explores fully this distancing and uneasy response to democratic culture.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLinked together by common Harvard, Cambridge, and New England connections, and by an upper-class, Brahmin background, each of these three writers, Dawidoff argues, was at once self-critical and contemptuous of cultural democracy -- especially its indifference to them and what they represented. But their claims to detached observation of democratic culture must be viewed skeptically, Dawidoff warns, and borrowed with caution.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAn important contribution of the book is its integration of gay issues into American intellectual history. Viewing James's and Santayana's attitudes toward their homosexuality as affecting their views of American society, Dawidoff examines this significant and overlooked element in the American intellectual and cultural mix. Dawidoff also includes powerful new readings of Adams's \u003ci\u003eDemocracy\u003c\/i\u003e and James's \u003ci\u003eThe Ambassadors\u003c\/i\u003e and discusses Santayana's Americanist essays.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn his foreward, Alan Trachtenberg notes the \"taboo\" that seems to have fallen over the word \u003ci\u003edemocracy\u003c\/i\u003e. \"It is rarely encountered anymore in humanistic studies,\" he says, \" snubbed in favor of gender, class, race, region.\" This trend, he says, may be in part due to an unease about \u003ci\u003estudying\u003c\/i\u003e the culture in which we participate because the posture of the cutural critic implies a certain detachment. \"\u003ci\u003eThe Genteel Tradition and the Sacred Rage\u003c\/i\u003e returns the question of democracy to centerstage,\" he concludes, \"not as political theory alone but as cultural and personal experience.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOriginally published in 1992.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Robert Dawidoff\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0807857297\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780807857298\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of North Carolina Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/01\/2010\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 248\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.84lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.21h x 6.14w x 0.56d","brand":"Robert Dawidoff","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":48453399478527,"sku":"9780807857298","price":50.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_2c0c8423-597a-4afd-9704-63e9f80bbd26.jpg?v=1777300025","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-genteel-tradition-and-the-robert-dawidoff-9780807857298","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}