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""The discussion of each period is wide-ranging, analyzing movements and spotlighting major figures in politics and philosophy, law and literature, economics and education, jazz and journalism, science and civil rights. A readable, insightful overview of the underlying patterns that give shape to U.S. cultural history. Nonacademic readers will find Crunden's selective bibliographical essay helpful"". -- Booklist

"There is a common belief that we live in unprecedented times, that people are too sensitive today, that nobody objected to the actions of actors, comedians, and filmmakers in the past. Modern pundits would have us believe that Americans of a previous generation had tougher skin and seldom complained. But does this argument hold up to scrutiny? In Outrageous, celebrated cultural historian Kliph Nesteroff demonstrates that Americans have been objecting to entertainment for nearly two hundred years, sometimes rationally, often irrationally. Likewise, powerful political interests have sought to circumvent the arts using censorship, legal harassment, and outright propaganda. From Mae West through Johnny Carson, Amos 'n' Andy through Beavis and Butt-Head, Outrageous chronicles the controversies of American show business and the ongoing attempts to change what we watch, read, and hear"--

"In South Africa, with the end of formal apartheid in 1994, the national government, provincial and local authorities have made all possible the memorialization of the anti-apartheid and liberation struggles that deserve critical attention and reflection. This is necessary because who were directly involved are growing older and their stories/narratives have begun to recede into the past in the name of continued social, economic, and political progress. Architects, urban planners and heritage professionals continue to play an important role in the memory-making and recording/telling process across South Africa's cultural landscape. Moreover, museum are spaces and institutions that collect, houses, research, reflect on, circulate and exhibit objects of historical, scientific, artistic and cultural significance. The nation's representation of culture in its museums is also revealing of dominant ideologies and to a degree may be interpreted as a kaleidoscope of research and collecting foci of the time."

Preserved Smith (1880–1941), a professor in the history department of Cornell University, owed his unusual first name to Puritan ancestors who could be traced back to the seventeenth century. His great interest was in the Protestant reformation, and its wide-ranging political and cultural effects in Europe and America. An obituary remarks that his writings 'reveal a remarkable breadth of knowledge and interest and a consistent devotion to high standards of scholarly integrity'. This two-volume work of 1930–4, discussing 'modern culture' from 1543 to 1776, displays these qualities in abundance. Volume 1, after an introductory chapter, considers the state of the sciences in the sixteenth century, then the humanities and the social and political context of law, morality and art. The emphasis on the importance of science as a driver of change makes this a remarkable and readable overview of the emergence of modern society