Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents: Introduction: rethinking popular culture -- Popular culture in historical studies: Printing and the people -- Workers revolt: the great cat massacre of the Rue Saint-Severin -- The rise of the saloon -- William Shakespeare and the American people: a study in cultural transformation -- The dream world of mass consumption -- Popular culture in anthropological studies: Deep play: notes on the Balinese Cockfight -- La Pensee Bourgeoise: Western society as culture -- Jokes -- Popular culture in sociological studies: Processing fads and fashions: an organization-set analysis of cultural industry systems -- Movies of the week -- Sport and social class -- Cultural entrepreneurship in Nineteenth-century Boston: the creation of an organizational base for high culture in America -- The public sphere -- Popular culture in cultural criticism: Base and superstructure in Marxist cultural theory -- The Suit and the photograph -- Written clothing -- What is an author? -- Interpretive communities and variable literacies -- the functions of romance reading --