Modular America: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on the Emergence of an American Way [Hardcover]

While the attempt to understand Americanness in terms of our beliefs and mentality is all too familiar, Blair's approach to the origins of American culture opens up previously unexplored perspectives. Focusing on the uniquely American tendency to organize cultural artifacts out of component parts rather than structured wholes, he looks at the emergence of this phenomenon as it has affected cultural domains as diverse as manufacturing, architecture, education, and jazz. The significance of modularity opens new perspectives on American culture as a whole.JOHN G. BLAIR is Professeur Ordinaire of American Literature and Civilization in the Department of English at the University of Geneva.

Introduction: Modularity in Cross-Cultural Perspective
Education: The College Curriculum
Industry: The American System of Manufactures
Architecture: The Skyscraper
Literature: Whitman's Poetry
Music: Blues and All That Jazz
Sports: Football in America
Law: Property, Alienation and Women
Religion: Disestablishment
Endings: Historical Explanations and American Ideology