Skip to main content

Inside Culture

Art and Class in the American Home

Dubbed as "You Are What You Hang (or Don't)" by the New York Times,Inside Culture takes us on a tour of 160 homes in and around New York City, from affluent townhouses on Manhattan's Upper East Side and rowhouses in blue-collar Brooklyn to middle and upper-class suburbs of Long Island. The result is an unprecedented portrait of the use of cultural artifacts—fine art, photographs, religious art—in private lives.

"This is a first-class addition to what we know about culture in the specific rather than the abstract."—Howard S. Becker, Contemporary  Sociology

"This book is well worth reading, especially in your own home."—Eugene Halton, American Journal of Sociology

"David Halle's researches earned him a license amateur voyeurs would kill for. . . . Refreshing for readers outside his discipline."—Peter Campbell, London Review of Books

"[This book] tells us interesting things about ourselves. . . . It affords us a birds-eye view of American culture from which we can see . . . unsuspected patterns of tastes and acquisitions."—James Gardner, Washington Times

"[A] voyeuristic thrill. . . . Lucid and entertaining. . . . A fascinating book that will open the eyes of anyone who's ever glibly said about art, 'I know what I like.' After reading Inside  Culture, they'll also know a little bit more about why."—Maureen Corrigan, New York Observer
 

278 pages | 66 halftones, 5 maps, 28 line drawings, 25 tables | 6-5/8 x 9-3/8 | © 1993

Culture Studies

Sociology: Sociology of Arts--Leisure, Sports

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
List of Tables
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1: The House and Its Context
2: Empty Terrain: The Vision of the Landscape in the Residences of Contemporary Americans
3: Portraits and Family Photographs: From the Promotion to the Submersion of Self
4: Abstract Art
5: "Primitive" Art
6: The Truncated Madonna and Other Modern Catholic Iconography
Conclusion
Appendix
Notes
Index

Be the first to know

Get the latest updates on new releases, special offers, and media highlights when you subscribe to our email lists!

Sign up here for updates about the Press