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David Masciotra

Autor(a) de Metallica's Metallica (33 1/3)

8 Works 36 Membros 1 Review

About the Author

David Masciotra is a regular contributor to Salon and Alter Net. He is the author of working on a Dream. The Progressive Political Vision of Brace Springsteen and has written for numerous publication, including the Washington Post, the Atlantic, and the Love Angles Review of Books.

Obras de David Masciotra

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Conhecimento Comum

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male

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(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)

To tell you the truth, before reading David Masciotra's Working on a Dream, I had never really given much thought to the work of Bruce Springsteen; I mean, yes, I liked Born in the USA as much as any other teen in the '80s, and then later in my alt-country phase I became briefly obsessed with his '82 album Nebraska, but it had never really occurred to me that the man's total oeuvre might in fact be an amazingly dense and prescient look at both the past and future of the far-liberal Progressive movement, a school of thought that originated with Teddy Roosevelt and his peers over a century ago and that encompasses such diverse communities as the folk artists of the Great Depression, the Beat poets of the '50s, the hard-rockers of the '70s and the sophisticated indie sounds of today. But as Masciotra shows here in this thoughtful collection of essays, Springsteen has both been influenced by all of these communities and has commented on all of them in his own finished work, crafting a career that has morphed and adapted with the times, but that has never strayed far from the core Progressive values of peace, tolerance, fair practices, human rights, and the struggle against isolation and alienation. In fact, about the only complaint I have about this book has more to say about me than it, I think -- that as someone with a low tolerance for academic-style writing, I found myself often zoning out on these formal and analytical essays long before finishing them, always interesting theses but ones that for the most part went on just way too long for my tastes. Those with a bigger enjoyment for this type of writing, though, are sure to love this very smart albeit admittedly highly biased book (hint -- Tea Partiers should stay well away), and it comes recommended to those who enjoy astute if not overly wordy looks at the current culture around us.

Out of 10: 8.0
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Marcado
jasonpettus | Nov 29, 2010 |

Estatísticas

Obras
8
Membros
36
Popularidade
#397,831
Avaliação
½ 3.6
Resenhas
1
ISBNs
17