Reference Reviews

Reference for Students

Greenwood Encyclopedia of World Popular Culture. Edited by Gary Hoppenstand. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2007 6 vols. 2424 p. $. ISBN 10: 0-313-33255-X; 13: 978-0-313-33255-5.

In trying to define popular culture, the editor poses two points of view: the first that popular culture began with Western civilization’s Industrial Revolution; and the second that it has existed since the beginning of human civilization. This set tries to cover both approaches. Since they cover the global regions of the world, Asia, Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, North America, South America, and Sub-Sahara Africa, each of the six volumes has its own editor. Beginning with an introduction to the popular culture of the region, most, but not all, have chapters on architecture; art; dance; fashion and appearance; film; food and foodways; games, toys, and pastimes; literature; love, sex, and marriage; music; periodicals; radio and television; sports and recreation; theater and performance; and transportation and travel. Inset boxes range in size from small to full page and offer additional information such as lists of nations, cities, languages, and religions and that "Star Wars," "Indiana Jones…," and "The English Patient" were filmed in Tunisia. Resource guides at the end of each chapter have print sources, Web sites, and notes; and they often list museums, films/videos, periodicals, and movies which teachers might consider useful in expanding their assignments. The choices of color photographs found on 16 inset pages provide a sense of what the editors considered very important such as a photo of Oprah Winfrey interviewing Toni Morrison and Johnny Carson with David Letterman. Students today are interested in and should learn about the origins of popular culture. These provide information in categories to help them research what is of most interest. An important resource to place current events into their cultural scene while offering other teachers such as art and music, ideas for their areas.