Popular Culture in the 1930s

If you can identify Lum and Abner, if you can remember when van Gogh was virtually unknown in the United States, and if you get a clear image of a great white tack and ball when you hear the words trylon and perisphere, you especially will savor Hopes and Ashes: The Birth of Modern Times, 1929-1939. The book is a brisk if spotty social history of the 1930s emphasizing advertising and publicity as the nourishers of popular culture.