Dwight Macdonald was the most prominent American excoriator of mass culture in the 1950s and ‘60s, but has since been derided as elitist and irrelevant. argues against previous interpretations, offering new perspectives on a figure that grappled with issues of culture that remain ever-pertinent.

Tadeusz Lewandowski, PhD, teaches at Opole University (Poland). A graduate of the University of Rochester and Opole University, he has taught at the State University of New York, and published a book on Polish/English interlingual errors along with many articles in American and European journals.

«[T]his short but persuasive and excellently researched new study of Macdonald’s outlook comes from a New York-educated academic of Polish origins, Tadeusz Lewandowski, who [...] has shown an extraordinary gift for close reading of Macdonald’s œuvre, including the fugitive essays as well as the books that made Macdonald’s wider name.» (R. J. Stove, The University Bookman, November 2014)

Contents: Dwight Macdonald – Mass Culture – Cultural Studies – A Theory of Popular Culture – A Theory of Mass Culture – Masscult and Midcult – Partisan Review – Matthew Arnold – Ortega Y Gasset – Frankfurt School – Max Horkheimer – Theodor Adorno – Clement Greenberg – T. S. Eliot – Gilbert Seldes – Daniel Bell – Edward Shils.