Introduction to reviews of John Hartley's A Short History of Cultural Studies

Abstract

A Short History of Cultural StudiesJohn HartleyLondon: Sage, 2003, 189 pp. (pbk), ISBN 0-7619-5028-1 Reviews of leading texts in media and cultural studies have tended to take one of two forms. The first is that where the ‘big name’ academic reviewers are brought out to review the new books of other ‘big name’ academics. While these exercises are often interesting—as much for what they tell the reader about the reviewer as what the reviewer says about the text—they do tend to perpetuate a perception that media and cultural studies is developed ‘from above’ by certain received authorities in the field, and is then passed downwards to the ‘front-line’ teachers and researchers. The second form, which is more disappointing for the ‘big name’ academic, is when the reviewers have passed on the book to available postgraduates or junior researchers, who then feel obligated to follow the conventional review path: say what's in the book, connect its contents to other work in the field, and perhaps engage in a small amount of critique as a way of sneaking in a bit of your own research through subterfuge.