Mechanic Accents Dime Novels and Working-Class Culture in America

A second edition of this pioneering study. Mechanic Accents is a widely acclaimed study of American popular fiction and working-class culture. Combining Marxist literary theory with American labor history, Michael Denning explores what happened when, in the nineteenth century, working people began to read cheap novels and the "fiction question" became a class question. In a new afterword, Denning locates his study within the context of current debates on class and cultural studies.

Michael Denning teaches American Studies at Yale University. He is the author of Mechanic Accents, Cover Stories, Culture in the Age of Three Worlds, and The Cultural Front.