"But recognition of the important place that popular culture has assumed in our society has not been restricted to the academy. Increasingly, Americans are realizing that American culture and popular culture are virtually one and the same, and that whether we are looking at out political system, our economy, or simply our national consciousness, the power of popular culture to shape our lives is strikingly apparent." Preface, pg. vii)

"Given the importance of popular culture to our lives and the life of our country, it may seem surprising that until recently its study was largely excluded from university curricula. Equated with 'low' or 'mass' culture, popular culture was subordinated to the 'high' culture that academia was charged with preserving and propagating. Not until the advent of cultural studies, which was first pioneered in English universities and which came to America in the late 1980s, did the study of...