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George W. S. Trow

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Within the Context of No Context Paperback – March 26, 1997

by George W.S. Trow (Author)

4.6 28 ratings

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Written originally for a special issue of The New Yorker and reissued here with a new forward by the author, Within the Context of No Context is George W. S. Trow's brilliant exposition on the state of American culture and twentieth-century life. Published to widespread acclaim, Within the Context of No Context became an immediate classic and is, to this day, a favorite work of writers and critics alike. Both a chilling commentary on the times in which it was written and an eerie premonition of the future, Trow's work locates and traces, describes and analyzes the components of change in contemporary America -- a culture increasingly determined by the shallow worlds of consumer products, daytime television, and celebrity heroes. "This elegant little book is essential reading for anyone interested in the demise, the terminal silliness, of our culture." -- John Irving, The New York Times Book Review; "In this elegant, poignant essay, written with the grace of a master stylist, George Trow articulates the accelerated impermanence of American culture with a precision that is both flaunting and devastating." -- Rudy Wurlitrer; "Within the Context of No Context is a masterpiece of the century that belongs on a shelf next to Theodore Adorno's Minima Moralia and Guy Debord's The Society of the Spectacle." -- Michael Tolkin; "Within the Context of No Context may appear to be a book of the mind, for it is suffused with such a keen intelligence, but it is actually a book of the heart -- passionate, brave, and stirring." -- Sue Halpern.

Print length

192 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Atlantic Monthly Press
Publication date

March 26, 1997
Dimensions

5.5 x 0.25 x 8.75 inches
ISBN-10

0871136740
ISBN-13

978-0871136749
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Publisher ‏ : ‎ Atlantic Monthly Press; Reprint edition (March 26, 1997)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 192 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0871136740
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0871136749
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 5.5 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.25 x 8.75 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #122,208 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #98 in Human Geography (Books)
- #342 in Popular Culture in Social Sciences
- #4,155 in Politics & Government (Books)

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4.6 28 ratings

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Mike in Pennsylvania

Moving and astounding

Reviewed in the United States on December 7, 2021

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I write for a living, including reviews. My policy is never to call anything a must-see or a must-read. So I will simply say that the title essay in this book (there are two of them) is one of the most moving and thought-provoking things I have come across in my decades of reading. And please don't let the word "essay" dissuade you. This piece is thunderously good.

It's an old essay. From 1980, using many cultural references of the time, since the piece is about life in our culture here in the USA. These cultural references are now dated and some may be unfamiliar to younger readers. What's amazing is how utterly germane the piece remains in spite of that. Indeed the dated-ness may even have become a strength. It helps you see how we got to where we are from where we used to be.

I have read the essay more than once over the years. Somewhere in my paper files is a clipped copy from its original appearance in The New Yorker, way back when. But I have bought multiple copies of the book and just bought two more, for gift-giving to fellow writers. I would suggest that you give yourself a gift and read it.

3 people found this helpful

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MoonDreamer

What Did I Read?

Reviewed in the United States on June 19, 2017

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I gave this five stars for being so darned intellectually heavy that I could barely understand it. But I did go to the New York World's Fair when I was a kid, and it was fun to read about some of the behind-the-scene happenings.

One person found this helpful

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Timothy Haugh

Challenging, but Rewarding

Reviewed in the United States on August 30, 2018

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This is a very interesting piece of writing. It will not give up its secrets on a single reading. Having now read it twice, I’m still not sure I understand everything Mr. Trow is trying to say.

It feels a bit disjointed in its development and subtle about its points; however, almost every page has a thought-provoking line or two: “A child will have seen upwards of four thousand hours of television before he or she ever sees a school.” (p. 39). “You parents had a third parent—television.” (p. 39). “The most successful celebrities are products. Consider the real role in American life of Coca-Cola. Is any man as well loved as this soft drink is?” (p. 48). “Daytime stories [soap operas] are just television loneliness.” (p. 84).

Still, his theme that people have lost a factual context for making choices because of the rise of television (and magazines that emulate television), is powerful. For example, he has special ire for Richard Dawson and Family Fued, a place where you win not by knowing facts but by knowing what other American feel about something. He also does a wonderful analysis of magazines like Life and People, showing how the content has become disconnected from anything of value.

This was written nearly 40 years ago but it’s amazing how his argument holds even more power today than it did then. Mr. Trow does show himself to have a bit of elitist disconnect in some of his stories and as a son of the Land of Lincoln I can’t help but point out his disrespect to the Illinois Pavilion of the New York World’s Fair (where Mr. Trow worked for the notorious Robert Moses). On the other hand, this is a book that needs to be read now, even if it takes a few times through really to digest it.

4 people found this helpful

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Eminence Grise

Cheap printing, but that is as it should be

Reviewed in the United States on December 10, 2012

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This classic needs to be read by anyone who wants to write media commentary. It's as much a part of the lexicon as "The Elements of Style." Get the (other) "Little Book!"

One person found this helpful

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James T. Trombetta

Trow

Reviewed in the United States on April 5, 2015

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Absolutely dead-on but unique analysis of US post-60s culture.

Reviewed in the United States on February 1, 2003

The New Yorker has turned the entirety of its magazine over to a single work four times. John Hersey's Hiroshima, Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, and Jonathan Schell's The Fate of the Earth, cautionary and apocalyptic all, were three. The fourth is this book.
Within the Context of No Context went out of print almost instantly after it was published in 1980. Nobody got this book in 1980. It's a difficult read, in a voice that is diffuse, associative, and allusive, and at the same time makes direct assertions about the way things are, which few of us are comfortable reading. It's not a book that people were quite ready to read in 1980.
Except for newsmen. People who made their living by drinking out of the firehose and transforming the experience into column inches understood this book right away. (These are the same people who don't need anyone to explain the first sentence of The White Album to them.)
Trow put their unease into words. And for 15 years Within the Context of No Context existed in a kind of samizdat, a thick sheaf of photocopied pages handed from one reporter or columnist or editor to another.
You shouldn't buy this book, ideally. Someone should give you a copy of it, Xeroxed from The New Yorker, saying "Read this. This makes sense. This makes everything make sense."
22 years later, it's much easier to read and understand, to criticize and quibble with. It's no longer prophecy. Unlike the apocalypses that John Hersey and Rachel Carson and Jonathan Schell were warning us about, the one Trow outlined has already happened. We've even gotten used to it.

75 people found this helpful

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Tom Tiding

During award season, I always think of Trow

Reviewed in the United States on January 16, 2012

Seeing friends talk about nothing except the Golden Globes, or the NFL playoffs, always reminds me of this book.

People who have so much to share with each other about their own lives instead choose to talk about celebrities and athletes as if the famous ones were our real friends.

And this, for me, is what "Within the Context of No Context" is all about: the substitution of television and celebrity culture for our broader social networks.

Of course, the broader social networks that Trow loved so much formed part of a WASP sense of entitlement and cultural elitism. Trow failed to grasp that the decline in the influence of WASP experts and the democratization of culture were not, by themselves, problems. He complains that demographics now trump history-- that many cultural touchstones have no meaning outside one particular culture-- but he fails to understand that his WASP heritage is just such an echo chamber.

But I think the central question he asks is the right one: "Does what I'm reading right now have any meaning outside of this context?" In other words, if you strip away the context of the Golden Globes, do any of the awards make any difference?

5 people found this helpful

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