Come take a closer look at ordinary footwear, like sneakers, or children's toys and Saturday cartoon TV shows, or make a comparison between Don Quixote and John Rambo of the Sylvester Stallone movie. Although some regard popular culture as "shallow," this book reveals that it is more often complex, deep, meaningful and subject to the style changes we associate with high art. Bergesen shows how complex philosophical ideas of reincarnation are embedded in Transformer toys; how sneakers have gone through a life cycle of style types; why the decline of empires like Spain and the United States led to fictional characters like Don Quixote and Rambo; and why monsters from Japan look different than those from the United States.

Authored by Bergesen, Albert J.

chapterONE Introduction; chapterTWO The Baroque Sneaker; chapterTHREE Rambo and Don Quixote; chapterFOUR A Sociology of Monsters; chapterFIVE A Sociology of Toys; chapterSIX Bringing the Art Object Back In;