I. Thinking About History. 1. The Unpredictable Past: Reflections on Recent American Historiography. 2. The Historian and the Culture Gap -- II. Patterns of African-American Culture. 3. Slave Songs and Slave Consciousness: Explorations in Neglected Sources. 4. "Some Go Up and Some Go Down": The Meaning of the Slave Trickster. 5. African Culture and U.S. Slavery. 6. The Concept of the New Negro and the Realities of Black Culture. 7. Marcus Garvey and the Politics of Revitalization -- III. Towards an Understanding of Popular Culture. 8. William Shakespeare and the American People: A Study in Cultural Transformation. 9. Jazz and American Culture. 10. Progress and Nostalgia: The Self Image of the Nineteen Twenties. 11. American Culture and the Great Depression. 12. Hollywood's Washington: Film Images of National Politics During the Great Depression. 13. The Historian and the Icon: Photography and the History of the American People in the 1930s and 1940s.

14. The Folklore of Industrial Society: Popular Culture and Its Audiences.