“The Lonely Crowd . . . remains not only the best-selling book by a professional sociologist in American history, but arguably one that has had the widest influence on the nation at large.”—Orlando Patterson, New York Times  “As accessible as it is acute, The Lonely Crowd is indispensable reading for anyone who wishes to understand American society. After half a century, this book has lost none of its capacity to make sense of how we live.”—Todd Gitlin  Considered by many to be one of the most influential books of the twentieth century, The Lonely Crowd opened exciting new dimensions in our understanding of the problems confronting the individual in twentieth-century America. Richard Sennett’s new introduction illuminates the ways in which Riesman’s analysis of a middle class obsessed with how others lived still resonates in the age of social media.

Poet, social scientist, and literary essayist, Reuel Denney is best known perhaps as co-author of The Lonely Crowd with David Riesman and Nathan Glaser. These selected essays and poems, edited by Tony Quagliano, span a wide range of topics and more than a half century of American cultural history.The topics range from international finance to leisure, from Greek mythology to Disney, from American poetry to the great oral tradition of Polynesian poetry. Woven throughout is Denney's fascinating memoir Experience in the World, an autobiographical meditation on America in the twentieth century. This unique collection presents one poet and scholar's encounter with the complexities of American life. American culture, Denney shows us, is the product of the many cultures of the world; it is indeed a Feast of Strangers. This is a work for scholars, students, and other researchers of American literature and culture studies.

“The Lonely Crowd . . . remains not only the best-selling book by a professional sociologist in American history, but arguably one that has had the widest influence on the nation at large.”—Orlando Patterson, New York Times  “As accessible as it is acute, The Lonely Crowd is indispensable reading for anyone who wishes to understand American society. After half a century, this book has lost none of its capacity to make sense of how we live.”—Todd Gitlin  Considered by many to be one of the most influential books of the twentieth century, The Lonely Crowd opened exciting new dimensions in our understanding of the problems confronting the individual in twentieth-century America. Richard Sennett’s new introduction illuminates the ways in which Riesman’s analysis of a middle class obsessed with how others lived still resonates in the age of social media.

Poet, social scientist, and literary essayist, Reuel Denney is best known perhaps as co-author of The Lonely Crowd with David Riesman and Nathan Glaser. These selected essays and poems, edited by Tony Quagliano, span a wide range of topics and more than a half century of American cultural history.The topics range from international finance to leisure, from Greek mythology to Disney, from American poetry to the great oral tradition of Polynesian poetry. Woven throughout is Denney's fascinating memoir Experience in the World, an autobiographical meditation on America in the twentieth century. This unique collection presents one poet and scholar's encounter with the complexities of American life. American culture, Denney shows us, is the product of the many cultures of the world; it is indeed a Feast of Strangers. This is a work for scholars, students, and other researchers of American literature and culture studies.