The Real Thing: Imitation and Authenticity in American Culture, 1880-1940

by Miles Orvell

Examines the relationship between technology and culture around the turn of the century and considers the influence of the age of technology on photography, literature, and material culture

Genres: History, Nonfiction

412 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1989

About the author

Miles Orvell is Professor of English & American Studies at Temple University in Philadelphia. His publications have ranged from literary criticism to broader studies of American culture. His early book on Flannery O'Connor was followed by The Real Thing: Imitation and Authenticity in American Culture, 1880-1940 (1989), a study of technology and culture that was co-winner of the ASA's John Hope Franklin Prize (reissued in a Twenty-fifth Anniversary Edition). The Death and Life of Main Street: Small Towns in American Memory, Space, and Community (2012) was a Finalist for the Zócalo Public Square Book Prize for Best Book Published on Community and Social Cohesion, 2013. Orvell's Empire of Ruins: American Culture, Photography, and the Spectacle of Destruction was published by Oxford University Press in early 2021.

In addition, he is the author of After the Machine: Visual Arts and the Erasing of Cultural Boundaries (1995) and of American Photography (2003) in the Oxford History of Art Series. (Expanded and revised in 2016 as Photography in America.) Orvell has edited the volume, John Vachon's America: Photographs and Letters from the Depression to World War II (2003) and he has co-edited Public Place and the Ideology of Space in America (2009) and Rethinking the American City: An International Dialogue (2013). He was the founding editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of American Studies (American Studies Association--print and online), from 1998 to 2011. He is the recipient of several NEH awards and of the Bode-Pearson Prize in American Studies for lifetime achievement. In 2010, he received one of the University’s “Great Teacher” awards.

Reviews

[Kristi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Orvell argues that the culture change that marked the turn of the 20th Century was characterized by a transformation in value: from imitation and illusion to authenticity. Furthermore, he contends that this tension between imitation and authenticity is “key” to American culture since the Industrial Revolution and central to the understanding of modernization. Orvell’s evidence is based primarily on the analysis of changes in the use of photography and literature that reflect a perceptual intellectual shift from spectatorship to voyeurism. This shift centered on meanings of “realism,” wherein realism is no longer representative, but a palpable entity in itself (i.e. machines were no longer replicators, but objects themselves). According to Orvell, this period also saw a shift the democratization of luxury (epitomized by the Victorian parlor) to the elevation of the vernacular (Arts and Crafts). Physical labor was reimagined as healthful and moral, becoming a popular leisure activity.I enjoyed this book; it was compelling and pleasant to read.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two months ago one of my favorite UCLA professors, Thomas Hines, referenced this book in a lecture on modern architecture in Los Angeles. I was visiting a West Los Angeles bookstore for the first time and found the book--which confirms my theory that you should always go into a used bookstore because you never know what you may find.

The thesis of "The Real Thing" is simple: 19th Century American culture was characterized by "imitation" (think of Beaux Artes, historical-revivalist architecture, photographs made to look like paintings) while early 20th Century culture was concerned with "authenticity" (think of buildings by Mies Van der Rohe).

It's easy to develop a slide lecture on this topic (as Prof. Hines did) but the book itself is underwhelming. It feels like good grad student writing, but nothing better. The author uses phrases like "that of which", which any good writer eventually abandons. He talks about "middle class taste" as if everyone already knows what that is. A concept like that needs to be defined, not assumed. The early chapters lack the flow of a good, extended essay.

The book picks up some steam in discussions of the various ideas about "realism" surrounding literature and photography--especially interesting is how early critics and authors used photographic metaphors to discuss literature. The so-called "media society" has been around longer than we think.

Orvell is right to point out that definitions of "realism" are always up for grabs, and that blatant--though entertaining--fabulators are confident to claim that skillful manipulation of reality can create a more realistic effect.

So far, I can't recommend the book as a whole, but some individual chapters may be useful to readers with a specialized interest.