326:(1984) did not impress critics. They were put off by its minimalist style and lack of plot, narrative momentum or involving characters. The book, which moves from the mid-19th century to the present, tracks the energy in three intertwined families, from the masculine vitality of a thuggish Irish immigrant to the weak flame of his elderly bachelor grandson, who lives on his income in two rooms in New York City, and spends his time caring for his clothes and going out into what remains of Society. The central concerns of the novel – the decline of masculine energy and the replacement of masculine social authority by feminine social authority – Trow later addresses explicitly in
306:. The book cover has a photograph of President Eisenhower, whom Trow admired as "the guy of guys". Trow asserts that the models of masculine adulthood presented to his generation by the official mass culture were so out of date or irrelevant that being in/on/with television (and adopting an ironic attitude to one's self) was the only possible choice. Some reviewers were put off by the book's haughtiness, elitism, or repeated statements of authority, e.g. "You'll have to trust me on that one." According to a close friend, Trow was "extremely upset" by the critical reception of
218:), had disappeared as people stayed home to watch television. Their replacements, television shows, were false contexts designed to be just compelling enough to keep people watching. What remained as real contexts for Americans to live in were "the grid of two hundred million" (the U.S. population at the time) and "the grid of intimacy" (the immediate family). Celebrities had a real life in both grids, and only they could now be complete. Deprived of real context, everyone else now wanted to be celebrities themselves.
342:
736:"The failure of Trow's essay is its failure to note the following: The old boys club had to be blown up. It had to be. And if it had to be, then the resulting world, a world of more equalized life chances and stiffer competition, would of course result in less continuity, more yuppie striving, and a more vulgarized pop culture." Metcalf, Stephen.
210:. In 1997, "No Context" was reprinted with a new introductory essay, "Collapsing Dominant". In "No Context", Trow pointed out the role of television in the destruction of American public culture and Americans' sense of history. "Middle-distance" institutions that had long given Americans' lives real contexts (such as
221:
Trow argued that as marketers segmented the viewers into demographically defined groups, and pitched advertisements and shows to particular niches, viewers for the first time learned to see themselves as part of an age-related demographic group rather than as part of a linear flow of people from the
290:, analyzes the cultural world of the United States in the 1950s, at the transitional time when television began to take over American culture. The book is written in a conversational style, sometimes transcribed from audiotapes. Trow "swirls" between pop and mainstream cultural icons, such as
189:
The appeal and value of Trow's work can be difficult to communicate, because the style "in its very essence resists summary. Summary, of course, flees from detail, whereas for Trow the details are the notes without which there is no song." Some critics have found Trow's works impenetrable and
267:, had been donated to Harvard as a nature preserve for scientific studies. Trow writes about the Harvard administration's indifference to the property except as a profit opportunity, and its eventual rescue and dedication to educational nature studies.
59:
Carter; 1918–2010) and George
William Swift Trow (1916–1997). His father was a newspaperman. His great-great paternal grandfather, John Fowler Trow (1810–1886), was a New York-based publisher who is known today as the namesake of
226:
had replaced history as the default context for understanding the world. Things were now valued not on an absolute scale, but by discovering if one was in tune with one's group. Trow illustrates this point with a reference to
251:
is quoted as saying that "No
Context" is no longer fashionable because "It's not a polemic for change. It's just a cold description of where things are going. There aren't many books that are unafraid to be that negative."
34:
for almost 30 years, and wrote numerous essays and several books. He is best known for his long essay on television and its effect on
American culture, "Within the Context of No Context," first published in
158:
to their own little events in their own little buildings and you can see them out on their balconies with their tuxedos and their often very beautiful girls who are also similarly there from the
233:, where a contestant was asked to guess "what a poll of a hundred people had guessed would be the height of the average American woman. Guess what they guessed. Guess what they guessed the
190:
elitist; some argue that Trow's nostalgia for the pre-television era was misplaced, because the subsequent civil rights movements had made
American culture more democratic.
911:
395:
921:
174:
Throughout his career, Trow analyzed mainstream
American cultural institutions to understand how the culture had changed from the newspaper-reading,
39:
on
November 17, 1980 (and later published as a book), one of the few times the magazine devoted its central section to a single piece of writing.
104:, writing articles for the magazine, especially in the section "The Talk of the Town," and contributing short fiction. He worked under editors
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Trow was socially ambitious: throughout his life, he was "striving to be part of the '10 percent of people at
Harvard who wear
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244:. His summary of the Fair: "At the Fair, one could see the world of television impersonating the world of history.”
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to oversee a special issue on women, Trow quit the magazine in protest. He abandoned the house he was building in
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80:
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In his essay "The
Harvard Black Rock Forest," Trow criticizes another mainstream American institution,
179:
240:"No Context" ends with a narrative memoir of Trow's experiences working two summers as a guide at the
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24:(September 28, 1943 – November 24, 2006) was an American essayist, novelist, playwright, and
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376:(New York: Step-Up Books (Random House), 1969), as George Swift Trow. A children's book.
310:. After that, he only published one known article, a critique of television news anchor
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562:"Is Dan Mad? The Mind of an Anchorman" (c. 1998), an online article about news anchor
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178:-dominated world of his childhood in the 1940s and early 1950s, to the ahistorical,
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97:
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206:, was published in book form in 1981 accompanied by Trow's profile of music mogul
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in the June 16, 23 and 30 issues of 1962; three articles that were the basis of
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30:
274:, many of which were "subtle to the point of unintelligibility", according to
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Within the
Context of WASP Context: Assessing the legacy of George W. S. Trow
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151:, Italy. In 2006 he died there, alone, having secluded himself for a decade.
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in the August 31, 1946, issue; the three articles that formed the basis of
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637:, in the February 1, 8 and 15 issues of 1982; and an article on the
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259:(which he had attended). The Black Rock Forest, 50 miles north of
155:
148:
140:
693:
Hertzberg, Hendrik. "The Talk of the Town: Postscript: Swift"
524:, (1984), republished (2004) by the University of Iowa Press,
136:
542:
Quartet, produced in 1987 at the
Theater at St. Clement's,
270:
In addition to his nonfiction, Trow also wrote casuals for
487:, a collection of short stories originally published in
198:"Within the Context of No Context", which was edited by
247:
In an obituary for Trow, the novelist and screenwriter
710:, March 26, 2007, quoting close friend Jacob Brackman.
568:
Screenplay credits include collaboration on the films
465:, starring Linda Hunt. It is a 75-minute soliloquy in
680:
Bernhard, Brendan. "A Death In Naples: Appreciation"
657:"George Trow, 63, a Critic of American Culture, Dies"
78:. He later served as an editor for its offshoot, the
807:
For example, Marzorati, Gerald. "Still No Context,"
47:Trow was born into an upper-middle-class family in
613:Other pieces given this honor were "Hiroshima" by
461:, a play produced in 1980 at Cubiculo Theater in
912:20th-century American dramatists and playwrights
863:
784:About Town: The New Yorker and the World It Made
759:(New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1997), p. 88
549:My Pilgrim's Progress: Media Studies, 1950–1998
288:My Pilgrim's Progress: Media Studies, 1950–1998
135:, and traveled around North America, living in
147:. Several years before his death, he moved to
404:); James Ivory & George Swift Trow &
597:The beginning of the essay is available at
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674:
672:
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538:a play incorporating performances by the
382:(New York: Evergreen/Grove Press, 1973),
922:American male dramatists and playwrights
639:massacre of the inhabitants of El Mozote
510:(Boston: Little, Brown & Co. 1984),
667:
559:, a memoir of the American 20th century
864:
821:"Is Dan Mad? The Mind of an Anchorman"
780:
749:
222:past into the future. In consequence,
697:December 11, 2006 (82:41), p. 42, 44
336:
84:, working with young humorists like
72:in 1965. There, he was president of
787:. Simon and Schuster. p. 403.
706:Levy, Ariel. "The Last Gentleman",
654:
100:. In 1966, Trow took a position at
13:
932:20th-century American male writers
96:. He served on active duty in the
42:
14:
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645:, in the December 6, 1993, issue.
757:Within the Context of No Context
494:Within the Context of No Context
418:"Motifs". The Talk of the Town.
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927:20th-century American essayists
882:20th-century American novelists
814:
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655:Fox, Margalit (December 2006).
479:(Boston: Little, Brown, 1980),
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897:Phillips Exeter Academy alumni
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186:and propagated by television.
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426:(46): 22–24. January 7, 1974.
22:George William Swift Trow Jr.
408:(story & screenplay for
398:(story & screenplay for
112:(1987–1992), whom he saw as
7:
10:
948:
892:The Harvard Lampoon alumni
844:Trow's publication history
504:, a long essay (119 pages)
380:Savages/Shakespeare Wallah
242:1964 New York World's Fair
169:
281:
193:
119:In 1994, when new editor
62:New York City directories
317:
182:sensibility born in the
917:American male essayists
907:National Lampoon people
887:American male novelists
809:New York Times Magazine
214:, bowling leagues, and
212:fraternal organizations
66:Phillips Exeter Academy
826:June 17, 2006, at the
473:just before her death.
328:My Pilgrim's Progress.
902:The New Yorker people
630:The Fate of the Earth
536:Prison-Made Tuxedoes,
324:The City in the Mist,
176:eastern Establishment
68:, and graduated from
811:, February 14, 1999.
781:Yagoda, Ben (2000).
508:The City in the Mist
396:Ruth Jhabvala Prawer
354:adding missing items
304:Dwight D. Eisenhower
755:Trow, George W. S.
441:, a play, produced
322:Trow's only novel,
75:The Harvard Lampoon
746:, December 8, 2006
661:The New York Times
641:, El Salvador, by
406:Michael O'Donoghue
401:Shakespeare Wallah
374:Meet Robert E. Lee
352:; you can help by
257:Harvard University
86:Michael O'Donoghue
70:Harvard University
64:. Trow studied at
55:, the son of Anne
853:George W. S. Trow
727:January 21, 1999.
708:New York Magazine
471:Queen Elizabeth I
445:in 1978 starring
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348:This list is
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301:
300:Elvis Presley
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208:Ahmet ErtegĂĽn
205:
204:William Shawn
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535:
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265:Hudson River
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26:media critic
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877:2006 deaths
872:1943 births
643:Mark Danner
615:John Hersey
574:(1972) and
467:blank verse
392:James Ivory
230:Family Feud
160:Vanderbilts
90:Henry Beard
53:Connecticut
866:Categories
585:References
564:Dan Rather
469:spoken by
447:Linda Hunt
388:0394177991
350:incomplete
312:Dan Rather
286:A memoir,
276:Ben Yagoda
263:along the
224:demography
200:New Yorker
129:Germantown
121:Tina Brown
830:(c. 1998)
771:, p. 116.
518:, a novel
455:, a play.
292:Doris Day
49:Greenwich
824:Archived
551:(1999),
496:(1981),
433:(1979),
361:May 2023
308:Progress
184:Jazz Age
162:and the
133:New York
123:invited
769:Context
602:website
571:Savages
477:Bullies
411:Savages
235:average
202:editor
180:tabloid
170:Writing
156:tuxedos
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580:(1996)
555:
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282:Memoir
194:Essays
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149:Naples
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318:Novel
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137:Texas
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