The Intellectual Devotional Modern Culture: Revive Your Mind, Complete Your Education, and Converse Confidently with the Culturati

by David S. Kidder, Noah D. Oppenheim

In the tradition of the instant bestsellers The Intellectual Devotional and The Intellectual American History comes the third installment in this indispensable series. In The Intellectual Modern Culture, authors David S. Kidder and Noah D. Oppenheim explore the fascinating world of contemporary culture to offer 365 daily readings that provide the essential references needed to navigate the world today.Quench your intellectual thirst with an overview of the literature, music, film, personalities, trends, sports, and pop references that have defined the way we live. From the Slinky to Star Wars; Beatlemania to Babe Ruth; flappers to fascism—refreshing your memory and dazzling your friends has never been easier, or more fun. Whether you're a trivia genius, pop-culture buff, or avid reader, you'll be riveted by this comprehensive journey through contemporary culture.

Genres: Nonfiction, Reference, History, Trivia, Cultural, Education, Art

378 pages, Hardcover

Published October 14, 2008

About the author

Born in Upstate New York, David S. Kidder is a serial entrepreneur with a wide range of operational, technology, and marketing expertise focused on online product development and Internet advertising and marketing. He is currently co-Founder and serves as CEO of Clickable, an online advertising web service. Prior to Clickable, Kidder co-founded SmartRay Network, a mobile advertising delivery pioneer acquired by LifeMinders. Prior to SmartRay, he founded Net-X which was acquired by TargetVision. Kidder and his companies have appeared in publications and periodicals such as The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Fast Company, and TechCrunch, among others.

Kidder is a graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology and was a recipient of ID Magazine's International Design Award. He lives in Westchester County, New York, with his wife and two sons.

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book has 365 entries (one for each day of the year, one page each) that cover 7 fields of "culture". Everything from music, literature, politics, etc. Great book if you need something short or something you can browse quickly. Basically, a trivia book.

A few things I liked about this book:
- It beats reading shampoo labels at the toilet
- It provides lots of factoids, or useless bits of information that you may use for small chat (I didn't have a clue that Winston Churchill won the Literature Nobel Prize, or that Nirvana's "Smells like teen spirit" song's title refers to a deodorant brand). But then I don't know a lot of things
- It has a hard cover
- I paid 2 bucks for it

A few things I didn't like about the book:
- The subtitle is completely misleading ("Revive your mind"???????, "Complete your education"?????). Give me a break, guys: that is a "bit" too ambitious of a title
- It is extremely US-centered (well, the world is, but I would have loved to see a broader, more international perspective). Specially, a very large percentage of the sports entries were US-related
- Not being a sports-fan, I found the level of sports trivia excessive

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

If anyone has read my reviews you know that I've read maaaaany variations on this theme. This particular book doesn't try to be funny or clever, just sticks to being informative and succinct. While I respect that, I wouldn't necessarily call it "entertaining"---just very serviceable. I liked the format with the explanation followed by a few related highlights (such as almost-too-weird-to-be-true related factoids like George Gershwin and Aaron Copland had the same piano teacher. Truth!) What could have been better was the variety. There seemed to be an awful lot of baseball players and jazz musicians for example, and as much as I love both, to spend an inordinate amount of time addressing two specific areas kind of misses the whole point. Perhaps not quite as good as The Book of General Ignorance but quite a bit better than Don't Know Much About Anything: Everything You Need to Know But Never Learned.

[Marcia Haskell · Rating 4 out of 5]

My husband and I read one page a night and if the info is interesting or unknown to either of us we discuss the implication of the subject.

The subjects covered in this the second volume of this series are: Politics & Leadership, War & Peace, Rights & Reforms, Business, Building America, Literature and Arts.

[Roberta Wall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting format

[Lisa Lou · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

[Rupinder · Rating 4 out of 5]

An informative, bite-sized, daily tour of books, movies, ideas, sportspersons, and TV shows that every educated person should know or at least be familiar with.

[Eling · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I like the idea of these books better than the actual books. I do appreciate the concept of having just a page to read a day (I read a few on some days, none on others) and there is lots of good introductory information here on quite a selection of subjects. However, the vaguely opinionated tone on a number of the entries got to me after a while-- I guess if you're reading this to "converse confidently" you want to have an opinion-- but I didn't like that the default opinion seemed a little condescending; it definitely leaned a certain way.

[Özgür Baltat · Rating 2 out of 5]

Serinin diğer kitapları kadar başarılı değildi. Amerika popüler kültüründe, TV, spor, sinema ve kültür ikonları üzerine yazılmış, ayıredici bir özelliği olmayan vasat bir çalışma.

[Jennifer Garner]

Ok, I feel like I need to explain this one. Since I moved this year, I found this book on my bookshelf. I got it years ago maybe for Christmas. It is meant to be read as a devotional, one page a day to teach you about something you should be aware of in history, sports, literature, art, etc. Think of it as reading a Wikipedia entry a day (although the Wikipedia entries probably have more information on them). I'm about a week into reading it and so far I can say that I learned that basketball (unlike football and baseball) had a single inventor - who know or even thought about this before. I also learned that Albert Einstein died in 1955. I picuted him as more of a turn of the 20th century kind of guy (though I guess he was alive then), I never expected that he was still alive in parents life time, I don't know why. So, I'll chalk this book up to learning something new everyday. Let's see how many days I will actually keep with it.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

While the section on literature was interesting (although I was familiar with all the writers presented), there are topics presented that are just not "intellectual". Not to speak too dismissively, but why is "Beatlemania", "Star Wars", "Friends", and the "Slinky" considered intellectual?

That's pop culture. Get a little more esoteric with your theories and idol worship. 365 topics is not that HARD of a list.

[Scott Hayden · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good source to up your Trivial Pursuit game. Each entry, just one page, summarizes a person or event that this author thinks you ought to know if you want to be considered intellectually with it. In that way, it make quite quick, curious reading.
Occasionally makes irrelevant comments about deviancy. Annoying.
I picked it up because it was free. Now that I've read it, I'm glad I didn't spend money on it. I think I'll put it back in the "free pile" in the teacher's room where I found it.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I want to say I love this book, but there are a few little errors in it 🤨 that have been noticed, which is disappointing. It's so jam-packed with interesting info and cultural history, but knowing a few mistakes got through saddens me... what about ones I didn't catch?
Seriously, this is a freaking great overview of the 20th century, though.

[Miles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining trivia, ideal for bathroom reading! It was definitely interesting to read this in 2019, eleven years after it was published, to see how many of the recent pop culture icons had fallen from grace during that period - Woody Allen, Bill Cosby, Lance Armstrong, and Tiger Woods. Lots of fun and interesting trivia in here.

[Tracey Kunkel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative but interesting

[Errol S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting

The book is interesting, but given the format can sometimes leave you wanting more. This is my second book. I’m likely to read another.

[Mercedes McLean-Wheeler · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned some interesting things. We’ll see what I remember of them, but it was nice to be introduced to important topics that I don’t always seek out independently.

[Tamara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting, but dated.

[Mandi Hidalgo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like this one a bit more than the first Intellectual Devotional. It's definitely a great way to learn something that you might not have known before. I like that sort of thing.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kinda boring although I’ve learned a few things like the origin of rap music.

[Jmgnole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Devotional Series.

[Volkan Taş · Rating 3 out of 5]

Of you ara not familiar with USA or it’s culture, do not start reading.
2/5 of the book was useful for me. That is why I rated 3 stars.

[Analu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nota real: 3 1/2

[Stanley Turner · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent book, not up to the standards of the previous Intellectual Devotional I read, I know it is modern culture but some of the choices I feel were lacking. Still worth the read…SLT

[B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great book in a fantastic series.

[Elaysee · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good installment. Some of the entries are out-of-date in ways that are interesting to ponder.

[Ian White · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite good, slightly overweighted towards subjects I think aren’t as relevant. On the flip side I learned a lot of neat tidbits!

[Elliott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as edifying as the original The Intellectual Devotional, but worthwhile nevertheless.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Intellectual Devotional: Modern Culture by David S. Kidder and Noah D. Oppenhiem was by far their best. The addition of contributing editor, Alan Wirzbicki, and contributing writers, Daniel K. Fleschner and Kristen Myer, is definitely noticeable. The devotional includes 365 daily readings, organized into seven categories: personalities, literature, music, film, ideas and trends, sports, and pop culture. Since the copyright date is 2008, some of the material seems dated and not ‘modern culture’ anymore. However, that does not make it irrelevant and/or uninteresting. This was the third Intellectual Devotional that my husband and I have shared. We read one or two entries daily with one of our meals, giving us food for thought and discussion. All of the Intellectual Devotionals are great for shared reading. Intellectual Devotional: Modern Culture is the best that we’ve read so far. We’re currently reading the Intellectual Devotional: Health. Stay tuned, as our favorite may change!

[Lisa Rathbun · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book contains 365 short pages summing up modern culture in music, literature, film, sports, ideas/trends, personality, and "pop." One page for each item allows for only a brief view so the focus is sharp and succinct. I was pleased to see that I was familiar with most of them (Yay! Does that mean I'm one of the culturati or only capable of conversing with them?), but there were several that it helped to have more fleshing out of the vague impressions I had. A couple people I hadn't heard of included Rod Laver and Brian Eno. This reminded me of E. D. Hirsch and his works on Cultural Literacy.

I'm glad I found this at a thrift store and would like to read more in the series. It presents a great overview for someone not ready for an indepth read but wanting to be conversant with some major influences of the 20th century. (The book was published in 2009 so it is not totally current, but that doesn't change what is presented here, imo.)

[Cyndie Courtney · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fantastic description of modern culture references focused from about the beginning of the 1900 onwards. Definitely suffers from one of the risks of writing a book like this (becoming quickly irrelevant) but in ways that were often fascinating especially when coming across 2008 versions of pages on "Gay Rights" (no countrywide gay marriage rights in US yet) and "Donald Trump" (no 2016 presidential run yet). Really enjoy this series overall and especially enjoyed this modern take on the classic version.