The Lyceum and Public Culture in the Nineteenth-Century United States (Rhetoric & Public Affairs) [Paperback]

Angela G. Ray (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 29, 2005 | ISBN-10: 0870137441 | ISBN-13: 978-0870137440

Angela Ray provides a refreshing new look at the lyceum lecture system as it developed in the United States from the 1820s to the 1880s. She argues that the lyceum contributed to the creation of an American "public" at a time when the country experienced a rapid change in land area, increasing immigration, and a revolution in transportation, communication technology, and social roles.
     The history of the lyceum in the nineteenth century illustrates a process of expansion, diffusion, and eventual commercialization. In the late 1820s, a politically and economically dominant culture—the white Protestant northeastern middle class— institutionalized the practice of public debating and public lecturing for education and moral uplift. In the 1820s and 1830s, the lyceum was characterized by organized groups in cities and towns, particularly in the Northeast and the Old Northwest (now the Midwest). These groups were established to promote debate, to create a setting for study, and to provide a forum for members’ lecturing. By the 1840s and 1850s, however, most lyceums concentrated on the sponsorship of public lectures, presented for institutional profit as well as public instruction and entertainment. Eventually, lyceum lectures became a commercial enterprise and desirable platform for celebrities who wished to expand their incomes from lecturing.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Angela G. Ray is Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Northwestern University. Her dissertation, upon which this work is based, won a Gerald R. Miller Outstanding Dissertation Award from the National Communication Association. 
     Angela has received three awards for The Lyceum and Public Culture in the Nineteenth-Century United States: the National Communication Association 2006 Winans-Wichelns Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Rhetoric and Public Address; the National Communication Association 2006 Diamond Anniversary Award; and the 2006 Rhetoric Society of America Book Award.

Product Details

• Paperback: 371 pages
• Publisher: Michigan State University Press (June 29, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0870137441
• ISBN-13: 978-0870137440
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,206,727 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lyceum in forming American popular culture and its interests, August 2, 2005

By 

Henry Berry "Henry Berry" (Southport, CT) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Lyceum and Public Culture in the Nineteenth-Century United States (Rhetoric & Public Affairs) (Paperback)

The word "lyceum" is a Latin word with a Greek derivative that was a name for the god of the sun. The association with classical learning and culture and the "enlightening" the audience of lyceum events would undergo were intentional. The idea of the lyceum in America arose in the early 1800s as a means to provide common knowledge and ideas, or at least some common experiences, for the population of an America that was expanding geographically, changing demographically from large numbers of immigrants, and engaging with the early phases of industrialism and new inventions such as the steamboat. Lyceums throughout the U. S., including frontier areas, were seen by both promoters and audiences as matrixes for unity and communication for the increasingly complex democratic society. In spite of the high-mindedness and vision of their originators, it wasn't long before lyceums were holding circus-like entertainments and other events straying from their intended purposes. But lyceums drew large local audiences wherever they were held, inevitably playing a large part in forming the democratic public culture, much as the universality and eclecticism of television does today. The lyceum--the numerous ones in all parts of the country--is studied not only as representing the diversity and interests of 19th-century America, but also as a central, fundamental ground of rhetoric as "that art by which culture and community and character are constituted and transformed." Though "lyceum" is now an antique word and only traces of the idealism of its originators remain, one recognizes by Ray's historical and social study that the lyceum contributed greatly to the foundation of a unique American culture. This author is a professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Northwestern University.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Only Serious Study, July 23, 2008

By 

MARGARET, PETER "LECTIODIVINABOOKS" (RIPON, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Lyceum and Public Culture in the Nineteenth-Century United States (Rhetoric & Public Affairs) (Paperback)

This is the only really serious study of the Lyceum in American culture. I think Merle Curti would have been proud to mention this study in his "Growth of American Thought" where he bemoans the fact that no satis-

factory study of the Lyceum movement exists in 1951. But even today there is a surprising dearth of serious studies. So, Prof. Ray deserves all the admiration for a job well done!