{"title":"Vanessa R. Schwartz","description":"Vanessa Schwartz is Professor of History at the University of Southern California and author of It's SO French! Hollywood, Paris and the Making of Cosmopolitan Film Culture.","products":[{"product_id":"modern-france-a-very-short-introduction-paperback","title":"Modern France: A Very Short Introduction - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn this \u003cem\u003eVery Short Introduction\u003c\/em\u003e, Vanessa Schwartz argues that modern France, as both a world stage and a global crossroads, is an essential actor in the development of contemporary culture. Indeed, French is the only language other than English spoken on five continents, and more people still visit France than anywhere else in the world. French fashion continues to dominate haute couture and, at the same time, French people are at the forefront of international \"style,\" which was as true in the first half of the twentieth century as it is today. This tension between \"Frenchness\" as both particular and transnational remains one of the most compelling qualities of the culture. If French culture and culture producers are working around the globe, if Paris is an international capital, the marvel is that France still manages to attract visitors from all over the world seeking out the drama of its historic castles and significant battlefields, its more than 300 cheeses and the renowned wines grown in its rich soil. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the Series: \u003c\/strong\u003eCombining authority with wit, accessibility, and style, \u003cstrong\u003eVery Short Introductions\u003c\/strong\u003e offer an introduction to some of life's most interesting topics. Written by experts for the newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, from philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51365698732255,"sku":"9780195389418","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/J7d0UZArVR9780195389418.webp?v=1789070118"},{"product_id":"spectacular-realities-early-mass-culture-in-fin-de-siecle-paris-paperback","title":"Spectacular Realities: Early Mass Culture in Fin-De-Siècle Paris - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eDuring the second half of the nineteenth century, Paris emerged as the entertainment capital of the world. The sparkling redesigned city fostered a culture of energetic crowd-pleasing and multi-sensory amusements that would apprehend and represent real life as spectacle.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eVanessa R. Schwartz examines the explosive popularity of such phenomena as the boulevards, the mass press, public displays of corpses at the morgue, wax museums, panoramas, and early film. Drawing on a wide range of written and visual materials, including private and business archives, and working at the intersections of art history, literature, and cinema studies, Schwartz argues that \"spectacular realities\" are part of the foundation of modern mass society. She refutes the notion that modern life produced an unending parade of distractions leading to alienation, and instead suggests that crowds gathered not as dislocated spectators but as members of a new kind of crowd, one united in pleasure rather than protest.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eFront Jacket\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eAn exciting, innovative, and significant work. The author points to how the crowd experience transcended class and gender divisions and was transformed from acts of collective violence into acts of collective consumption.--Michael B. Miller, author of \u003ci\u003eShanghai on the Métro\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51369698033887,"sku":"9780520221680","price":57.51,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/MMEUVXgoNQ9780520221680.webp?v=1789144344"}],"url":"https:\/\/blackandbarhe.com\/collections\/vanessa-r-schwartz.oembed","provider":"Black \u0026 Barhe Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}