Profiles of Popular Culture: A Reader

From Hank Williams to hip hop, Aunt Jemima to the Energizer Bunny, scrap-booking to NASCAR racing, this volume—edited by a pioneer in the field-invites readers to reflect on a sampling of modern myths, icons, archetypes, and rituals. Ray B. Browne has mined both scholarly and mainstream media to bring together penetrating essays on fads and fashions, sports fandom, the shaping of body image, the marketing of food, vacationing and sightseeing, toys and games, genre fiction, post-9/11 entertainment, and much more.

Ray B. Browne is professor emeritus of Popular Culture Studies at Bowling Green State University. Through some sixty books and a variety of initiatives-including the founding of the Journal of Popular Culture, the Popular Culture Association, and the Popular Press itself-he has played an instrumental role in making popular culture a topic of serious inquiry.