> Some time ago, I read Salaman's History and Social Influence of the
> Potato, a remarkable book describing how the introduction of the
> potato changed world history.
>
> On Sun, Aug 28, 2011 at 11:53 AM, shag carpet bomb
> <shag at cleandraws.com> wrote:
>> Awhile back, James Heartfield made an interesting observation about
>> the
>> publishing industry, noting that there was a rash of books that
>> focused on
>> just one thing, tracing history and culture through, say, the use of
>> salt or
>> cultivation of broccoli (or somesuch).
>>
>> I have noticed other trends like that, particularly the recent trend
>> toward
>> popularizing philosophy. "Driving with Plato" is an example. There's
>> the
>> whole series of philosophy and pop culture (e.g., "Madmen and
>> Philosophy",
>> "Spongebob Squarepants and phil," ...) and "Plato and a Platypus
>> Walk into a
>> Bar . . .,"
>>
>> Any academics on the list use them in courses or have you taken a
>> course
>> that uses them? I'm curious if they are any good. They look so
>> gimmicky, and
>> I can't fathom that anyone can squeeze every thinker into the same
>> framework
>> for analysis - like it's going to be stretching it to subject every
>> bit of
>> popular culture to the same analysis, forcing it to have something
>> interesting to say to the question of, say, essentialism (or
>> whathaveyou).
>>
>> Anyway, curious about these books and if they are good, bad, meh?
>>
>> shag
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> http://cleandraws.com
>> Wear Clean Draws
>> ('coz there's 5 million ways to kill a CEO)
>>
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>>
>
>
>
> --
> Michael Perelman
> Economics Department
> California State University
> Chico, CA
> 95929
>
> 530 898 5321
> fax 530 898 5901
> http://michaelperelman.wordpress.com
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>
-- http://cleandraws.com Wear Clean Draws ('coz there's 5 million ways to kill a CEO)