Author: Burns, Joan Simpson

Publication Year: 1974

Media Type: Book

Summary:

The institutionalization of American culture - the vast influence of the foundations, networks, newspapers, and magazines on the arts and the artists in America- is an acknowledged fact. This book considers, in depth and detail, nine men who are or have been at the top of such institutions.

Abstract:

The institutionalization of American culture - the vast influence of the foundations, networks, newspapers, and magazines on the arts and the artists in America- is an acknowledged fact. This book considers, in depth and detail, nine men who are or have been at the top of such institutions. The individuals and the name of their institution at the time they were interviewed are Turner Catledge, The New York Times; Hedley Donovan, Time, Inc.; Lloyd Goodrich, Whitney Museum of American Art; William Jovanovich, Harcourt, Brace and World; Goddard Lieberson, Columbia Records; W. McNeil Lowry, Ford Foundation; Harry H. Ransom, University of Texas System; Frank Stanton, Columbia Broadcasting System, (CBS); and Frank Thompson, Jr., U.S. Congress, House of Representatives.

Individually and collectively they and their counterparts have controlled huge sums of money and power for decades. Through extensive interviews with each of these men, the author attempts to search out just who they are, what they believe in, how they function-and what difference it all makes. She draws from them their own conceptions of the scope, and the basis of their authority; of the complex and delicate movements that can suddenly - and drastically - alter it; of the source of their individual success and phenomenal adaption to their jobs; how they perceive their relation to arts and to the public; how artists connect to them and to the institutions they run and often seem to embody; how they view the rights of the individual as opposed to the claims of organized society. . . . Beyond its revelations of the lives, minds, and psyches of powerful men, [this book] probes a crucial aspect of the institutionalization of culture: the amount and the limits of power - and of freedom - that an individual can have within the institution itself, as well as the extent to which the institutions vitally affect American culture. (Book jacket).

CONTENTS
Preface: Tenants of the house.
Post-preface.

Part I. An old man in a dry month/being read to by a boy.

Chapter 1.   Providing the thrust (the man is allowed by the organization to
                  lead it.
Chapter 2.   Structural fit (work in an appropriate place brings power).
Chapter 3.   Morality on the plains of Texas (a context for dissent).
Chapter 4.   The dream of a community of scholars (individualism within the
                  institution).
Chapter 5.   Vacant shuttles (loyalty to institutions).
Chapter 6.   Deeper motivations (power of the institution).

Part II. Whispering ambitions.

Chapter 7.   At the hot gates (stepping into power).
Chapter 8.   Knowledge as power (the young men, having learned from the old
                  man, replaces him).
Chapter 9.   Aspects of leadership (participation in process).
Chapter 10. Knowing the product (ways of getting on).
Chapter 11. Natural vices (the adoption of roles).
Chapter 12. The making of objects (their value and dissemination).
Chapter 13. Distortions of perception (looking at patterns).

Part III. The do-gooders.

Chapter 14. Green thoughts (planning growth).
Chapter 15. Our attention is distracted (the culture industry).
Chapter 16. Invitations to the dance (participating in the action).
Chapter 17. Superstructures (the action is surrounded).
Chapter 18. Contrived corridors (the action becomes focused).

Part IV. Thoughts of a dry brain.

Chapter 19. What's thought can be dispensed with (the protection of 
                  information as property).
Chapter 20. Focusing on what has just moved (information as news).
Chapter 21. Gradations of non-dissent (signs are taken for wonders).
Chapter 22. The real power (positioned).

Notes.
Bibliography.
Index.

Arts & Intersections:

Categories: Funding