The Romance of Commerce and Culture
Capitalism, Modernism, and the Chicago-Aspen Crusade for Cultural Reform, Revised Edition
by James Sloan Allen
Revised and updated, The Romance of Commerce and Culture is a lively and provocative history of how art and intellect formed an alliance with consumer capitalism in the mid-twentieth century and put Aspen, Colorado, on the map.
"One of the most significant pieces of cultural history to be published in the last decade." - The Sewanee Review
"In Allen's quite detailed, although always urbane, intelligent, and well-written book, we have an unusual and exceptionally suggestive perspective on the American upper class and its culture." - American Historical Review
"Rarely does a historian evoke the mood of an era as convincingly as James Sloan Allen in this portrayal of the relationship between business and 'high culture' in the years immediately after World War II.... Not only has Allen produced a model of interdisciplinary scholarship, but in doing so he also has rescued from obscurity a significant intellectual and social movement - one whose failure speaks volumes about the final years of the twentieth century." - Journal of American History
"In this tour de force, Allen manages to touch on such seemingly disparate topics as Bauhaus design, educational reform at the University of Chicago, Aristotelian philosophy, and the growth of skiing in the United States." - Business History Review
