This striking study of America's battles over what we can decently say and do in public traces how and why principled debate about the character of our common world has been displaced by a new kind of public noise. Rochelle Gurstein offers a brilliant history of the arguments made for and against the forces - invasive journalism, realist fiction, and sex reform - that altered public discourse between the late nineteenth century, when they first appeared, and the 1960s, when new controversies erupted about mass culture, ...
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This striking study of America's battles over what we can decently say and do in public traces how and why principled debate about the character of our common world has been displaced by a new kind of public noise. Rochelle Gurstein offers a brilliant history of the arguments made for and against the forces - invasive journalism, realist fiction, and sex reform - that altered public discourse between the late nineteenth century, when they first appeared, and the 1960s, when new controversies erupted about mass culture, avant-garde art, and sexual liberation. Now the public sphere is dominated by rights talk, by puritan-baiting, and by knee-jerk liberalism or illiberalism. Is this the best we can do? Gurstein gives a detailed account of how the party of exposure successfully opened American public life to matters that had once been hidden away in private, and studies the unexpected consequences of that victory. And she retrieves a way of thinking, wrongly discredited as Victorian, that could in fact move us beyond our stalemates over what should and what should not be said or done in public. Once, Americans influenced by the party of reticence held that if personal matters were exposed to public scrutiny they risked becoming trivial or obscene; they thought that any indiscriminate display of private matters deformed standards of taste and judgment, lowered the tone of public conversation, and polluted public space. Ms. Gurstein's penetrating analysis suggests that we must reconsider these positions, and she establishes the vital connection between our legal-cultural history and current debates about obscenity, privacy, and issues of public decency.
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Add this copy of The Repeal of Reticence: a History of America's to cart. $12.54, very good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Reno rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Reno, NV, UNITED STATES, published 1996 by Hill & Wang Pub.
Add this copy of The Repeal of Reticence: a History of America's to cart. $12.54, very good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Baltimore rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Halethorpe, MD, UNITED STATES, published 1996 by Hill & Wang Pub.
Add this copy of The Repeal of Reticence: a History of America's to cart. $12.54, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Reno rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Reno, NV, UNITED STATES, published 1996 by Hill & Wang Pub.
Add this copy of The Repeal of Reticence: a History of America's to cart. $13.65, good condition, Sold by Books From California rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Simi Valley, CA, UNITED STATES, published 1996 by Hill & Wang Pub.
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Seller's Description:
Good in good dust jacket. Dust jacket shows minor shelf wear. Pages are underlined and annotated by previous owner. Very Clean Copy-Over 500, 000 Internet Orders Filled.
Add this copy of The Repeal of Reticence: a History of America's to cart. $19.50, like new condition, Sold by Abacus Bookshop rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Pittsford, NY, UNITED STATES, published 1996 by Hill & Wang.
Add this copy of The Repeal of Reticence: a History of America's to cart. $21.50, very good condition, Sold by Books From California rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Simi Valley, CA, UNITED STATES, published 1996 by Hill & Wang Pub.
Add this copy of The Repeal of Reticence to cart. $23.10, fair condition, Sold by Book Culture Inc. rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from New York, NY, UNITED STATES, published 1996 by Hill & Wang.
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Seller's Description:
Fair. Obviously well-worn, but no text pages missing. May have highlighting and marginalia, but markings do not interfere with readability. Textbooks do not have accompanying CDs or access codes. Ships from an indie bookstore in NYC. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 357 p.
Add this copy of The Repeal of Reticence: a History of America's to cart. $24.28, like new condition, Sold by Gear rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from The Bronx, NY, UNITED STATES, published 1996 by Hill and Wang/ A Division of Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
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Seller's Description:
Leslie Goldman (Jacket Design); Odlinon Redon (Jacket Art); Jack Barth (Author Photo) Like New in Like New jacket. Book. 8vo or 8° (Medium Octavo): between 6"-9" tall. 357 pp. Clean, fresh copy and dj with very light shelf wear, crisp pages and clean text.
Add this copy of The Repeal of Reticence: a History of America'a to cart. $26.20, like new condition, Sold by MW Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Galway, G, IRELAND, published 1996 by New York: Hill and Wang.
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Seller's Description:
An exceptional copy; fine in an equally fine dw. Particularly and surprisingly well-preserved; tight, bright, clean and especially sharp-cornered. Literally as new; 8vo 8"-9" tall; 357 pages; Description: ix, 357 p.; 24 cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. [309]-345) and index. Subjects: Freedom of speech--United States. Sexual freedom--United States. Obscenity (Law)--United States. Privacy, Right of--United States.
