Review by Choice Review
Burke (emer., Cambridge Univ., UK) is one of the most influential cultural historians of the Anglophone world. In What Is Cultural History? (CH, May'05, 42-5409), he summed up a lifetime of learning for students of that subject; now he does the same for those interested in cultural studies, whether they begin from the perspective of the humanities or of the social sciences. Burke conveys an astonishing range of learning with a light touch. He devotes a chapter to terminology and rightly so because aspects of "hybridity"--a relatively new word--have been known under such labels as "syncretism" and "mestizaje"; other chapters deal with the variety of texts and practices that embody hybridity, contexts in which cultural encounters happen and result in hybridity, and responses to and outcomes of hybridity. Even the most compressed of Burke's discussions of such issues as homogenization and globalization describe successfully the views of a scholarly majority and the possible objections to them. This is a remarkable achievement, and it makes this book--which will be an invaluable complement to Marwan Kraidy's Hybridity, or the Cultural Logic of Globalization (2005)--a starting point for less-experienced readers and a summary and review for advanced scholars. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates and graduate students. K. Tololyan Wesleyan University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
