TY - JOUR
T1 - Popular culture in (and out of) American political science
T2 - A concise critical history, 1858–1950
AU - Dorzweiler, Nick
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016, © The Author(s) 2016.
PY - 2017/2/1
Y1 - 2017/2/1
N2 - Historically, American political science has rarely engaged popular culture as a central topic of study, despite the domain’s outsized influence in American community life. This article argues that this marginalization is, in part, the by-product of long-standing disciplinary debates over the inadequate political development of the American public. To develop this argument, the article first surveys the work of early political scientists, such as John Burgess and Woodrow Wilson, to show that their reformist ambitions largely precluded discussion of mundane activities of social life such as popular culture. It then turns to Harold Lasswell, who produced some of the first investigations of popular culture in American political science. Ironically, however, his work – and the work of those who adapted similar ways of speaking about popular culture after him – only reinforced skepticisms concerning the American public. It has thus helped keep the topic on the margins of disciplinary discourse.
AB - Historically, American political science has rarely engaged popular culture as a central topic of study, despite the domain’s outsized influence in American community life. This article argues that this marginalization is, in part, the by-product of long-standing disciplinary debates over the inadequate political development of the American public. To develop this argument, the article first surveys the work of early political scientists, such as John Burgess and Woodrow Wilson, to show that their reformist ambitions largely precluded discussion of mundane activities of social life such as popular culture. It then turns to Harold Lasswell, who produced some of the first investigations of popular culture in American political science. Ironically, however, his work – and the work of those who adapted similar ways of speaking about popular culture after him – only reinforced skepticisms concerning the American public. It has thus helped keep the topic on the margins of disciplinary discourse.
KW - Harold Lasswell
KW - historico-politics
KW - history of political science
KW - popular culture
KW - reformism
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85012186775&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85012186775&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0952695116684314
DO - 10.1177/0952695116684314
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85012186775
SN - 0952-6951
VL - 30
SP - 138
EP - 159
JO - History of the Human Sciences
JF - History of the Human Sciences
IS - 1
ER -