Following tradition
Subtitle: folklore in the discourse of American culture
By: Simon J. Bronner.
Publisher: Utah State University Press
Published: 1998
Place of publication: Logan, Utah
Language: eng
Number of pages: 599
Subjects: Folklore -- United States.; Oral tradition -- United States.; United States -- Social life and customs.
Description: Following Tradition is an expansive examination of the history of tradition - "one of the most common as well as most contested terms in English language usage" - in Americans' thinking and discourse about culture. References to tradition most frequently concern the informal yet basic customs, beliefs, practices, and myths known as folklore. Hence, much of Simon Bronner's study concerns the history of both folklore studies and the use and interpretation of folklore in public forums.

His work is necessarily interdisciplinary. Major figures in the study of tradition, from the Brothers Grimm to Franz Boas to Richard Dorson, receive extensive discussion. An essential text for folklorists, Following Tradition will be a valuable reference as well for historians and anthropologists; students of American studies, popular culture, and cultural studies; and anyone interested in the continuing place of tradition in American culture.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 518-589) and index.
Table of contents: title: The problem of tradition; title: Folklore and ideology during the Gilded Age; title: The English connection, from cultural survivals to cultural studies; title: Studies; title: The Americanization of the Brothers Grimm; title: Martha Warren Beckwith and the rise of academic authority; title: Alfred Shoemaker and the discovery of American folklife; title: Henry W. Shoemaker and the fable of public folklore; title: Richard Dorson and the great debates; title: Displaying American tradition in folk arts.