ATG Book of the Week: Expanding the American Mind

ATG Book of the Week of May 22:

Expanding the American Mind: Books and the Popularization of Knowledge

By Beth Luey. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 2010. 9781558498167 (cloth). 218 pages.

This book compares fiction and nonfiction and their relative respectability in the eyes of experts and in the opinions of the readers themselves. The dominant medium for transferring knowledge from universities to the public is popularization and popularization has played an essential role in helping us to understand the world. Beth Luey is author of Handbook for Academic Authors (now in its fifth edition)and editor of Revising Your Dissertation: Advice fromLeading Editors. For twenty-five years, she directed the Scholarly Publishing Program at Arizona State University.