On Cultural Markets

2005, 17 pages. University of Chicago Cultural Policy Center, 1155 E. 60th Street, Chicago, IL, 60637, 773-702-0926, culturalpolicy.uchicago.edu (Also published in New Left Review, No.17, September-October 2002)

Download pdf: http://culturalpolicy.uchicago.edu/pdfs/sassoon_paper.pdf

This carefully researched paper traces the economic and technological roots of international "trade" of popular culture among the industrialized nations of the West. Who would have guessed that translations of popular American "dime novel" detective stories were a big hit in Tzarist Russia at the turn of the century, or, how this set the stage for the world dominance of the U.S. film industry a century later. Overworked grantmakers deserve to take a copy of this delightful essay along on their next plane trip.