In Praise of Commercial Culture [Anglais] [Relié]

When you admire a poem, painting or piece of music, do you wonder how these "works of art" came about? To answer this question, Cowen (economics, George Mason Univ.) examines the relationship of artists through history to the market forces that helped foster them. Not every artist was supported by a Medici or a Rockefeller, but Cowen argues that capitalism's support of culture can be traced far back. He uses as his example the invention of the printing press, which in a remarkably unsupportable conjecture he maintains "paved the way for classical music" by enabling composers to record their notes mechanically and sell their sheet music. Unfortunately, in this discussion he totally discounts the importance of engraving by hand, and his examination of music centers mostly on composers and practically ignores the musicians. Cowen's book at least gives weight to the ongoing arts debate by citing the worsening plight of artists. But he doesn't relate this point to his general thesis, and his book reads too much like a textbook, with patches of lifeless prose, mountains of statistics, and forests of footnotes. One can almost hear the undergraduates groan. For larger academic libraries.ARichard S. Drezen, Washington Post News Research Ctr., Washington, DC
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In Praise of Commercial Culture is a profoundly important book: In a historical moment when even socialists grant the efficiency and efficacy of markets in delivering a dizzying array of goods and services to people (and an increasing number of conservatives lament the same), there is still a great deal of resistance to applying a similar analysis to the production and consumption of culture.... Cowen's book is a seminal effort toward understanding that cultural matters, like other forms of human activity, benefit greatly from the decentralization, innovation, and feedback mechanisms endemic to market orders.

Does a market economy encourage the creation of music, literature, and the visual arts -- or discourage it? Do economic forces of supply and demand help or harm the pursuit of creativity? Economist Tyler Cowen argues that the capitalist market economy is a vital but underappreciated institutional framework for supporting a plurality of co-existing artistic visions, providing a steady stream of new and satisfying creations, supporting both high and low culture, helping consumers and artists refine their tastes, and paying homage to the past by capturing, reproducing and disseminating it. --Ce texte fait référence à l'édition Broché .

Does a market economy encourage or discourage music, literature, and the visual arts? Do economic forces of supply and demand help or harm the pursuit of creativity? This book seeks to redress the current intellectual and popular balance and to encourage a more favorable attitude towards the commercialization of culture that we associate with modern life.