American Folklore Studies An Intellectual History Simon J. Bronner xviii, 214 pages, illustrated, 6 x 9 Paper ISBN 978-0-7006-0313-8, $14.95 Folklore. Washington Irving and Mark Twain used it in their fiction. Sigmund Freud and William James incorporated it into their work; Henry Ford and Franklin Roosevelt promoted it. Their efforts were set against the background of folklorists who brought collections of traditional tales, songs, and crafts to the attention of a modernizing society. The ideas of these folklorists influenced how Americans thought about the character of their society and the directions it was taking. Here for the first time is a history of American folkloristic ideas and the figures who shaped them. Simon Bronner puts these ideas in cultural context, showing the interconnection of folklore studies with historical events, social changes, and intellectual movements. He follows the beginnings of American folklore studies in the antiquarian literature of the 1830s through the rise of folklore societies in the 1880s to the emergence of an independent discipline in the 1950s. In this progression, Bronner identifies several major themes tying folklore studies to intellectual history: first, the unearthing of a hidden, usable past; second, the charting of time and space; and third, the structuring of communication. More than a chronological or biographical history, American Folklore Studies: An Intellectual History is an interpretation of folkloristic ideas and their relationship to American society. This volume contains an extensive bibliography and many rare photographs. It will serve students of folklore, literature, history, anthropology, sociology, and American studies. "A superb sophisticated discussion of reigning folklore theories . . . stimulating and provocative. There is nothing like this book in print. It will inspire a good deal of discussion . . ."--Alan Dundes, author of Interpreting Folklore and editor of The Study of Folklore "Simon Bronner is the leading historian of the folklore studies discipline in America, and this book offers the richness of his knowledge. . . . Indeed, it is a landmark."--Howard W. Marshall, author of Folk Architecture in Little Dixie: A Regional Culture in Missouri SIMON BRONNER, associate professor of folklore and American studies at The Pennsylvania State University at Harrisburg, is the author of Grasping Things: Folk Material Culture and Mass Society in America and Chain Carvers: Old Men Crafting Meaning and editor of The Folklore Historian.   Home | About the Press | Recent Awards | Contact Us | Order New Books: | By Author | By Subject | By Title | By Series Books in Print: | By Author | By Subject | By Title | By Series ©2007 University Press of Kansas 2502 Westbrooke Circle, Lawrence, KS 66045-4444 Phone (785) 864-4155; Fax (785) 864-4586