What Is Cultural History?

Author(s): Geoffrey Eley

Source: New German Critique, No. 65, Cultural History/Cultural Studies (Spring - Summer,
1995), pp. 19-36
Published by: Duke University Press
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Whatis CulturalHistory?

Eley
Geoffrey

First,some quotations:

Culture is ordinary:thisis thefirst

fact.Everyhumansociety hasitsown
shape,its own purposes,its own meanings.Everyhumansociety
expresses these,ininstitutions,andinartsandlearning. Themaking ofa
societyis thefinding ofcommon meanings anddirections, anditsgrowth
is an activedebateand amendment underthepressures of experience,
contact, and discovery, writing themselves intotheland.The growing
societyis there,yetitis alsomadeandremadeineveryindividual mind.
Themaking ofa mindis,first,theslowlearning ofshapes,purposes, and
meanings, so thatwork,observations, andcommunication arepossible.
Then,second,butequalin importance, is thetesting ofthesein experi-
ence,themaking ofnewobservations, and
comparisons, meanings. A cul-
turehas two aspects:theknownmeanings and directions, whichits
members aretrained to;thenewobservations andmeanings, whichare
offered andtested.Thesearetheordinary processes of human societies
andhuman minds, andwe seethrough themthenature ofa culture:thatit
is alwaysbothtraditional andcreative;thatit is boththemostordinary
commonmeanings andthefinest individualmeanings. Weuse theword
cultureinthesetwosenses:tomeana wholewayoflife- thecommon
meanings; tomeantheartsandlearning - thespecialprocesses ofdis-
coveryandcreative effort.Somewriters reserve thewordforoneorother
ofthesesenses;I insistonboth,andonthesignificance oftheirconjunc-
tion.Thequestions I askaboutourculture arequestions aboutourgeneral
andcommon purposes, yetalsoquestions aboutdeeppersonal meanings.
Culture is ordinary,ineverysociety andinevery mind.
- Raymond Williams1

1. is Ordinary,"
"Culture
Williams,
Raymond Democ-
ResourcesofHope.Culture,
Socialism
racy, 1989)4.
Verso,
(London:

19

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20 Whatis Cultural
History

Afterall mostoftheworkI was doingwas in an areawhichpeople

eveninthenarrower
called"culture," sense,so thatthetermhada cer-
tainobviousness.Butyouknowthenumber oftimesI've wishedthatI
hadneverheardofthedamnedword.I havebecomemoreawareofits
notless,as I havegoneon.
difficulties,
- Raymond Williams2
The institutionally
or informally
organizedsocial productionand
ofsense,meaning,
reproduction andconsciousness.
- TimO'Sullivanetal.3

["Popularculture"]may suggest,in one anthropological inflexion

whichhas beeninfluential withsocialhistorians,an over-consensual
view of thiscultureas "a systemof sharedmeanings, attitudes and
values,andthesymbolic forms(performances, inwhichthey
artifacts)
are embodied."But a cultureis also a pool of diverseresources, in
whichtrafficpassesbetweentheliterate andtheoral,thesuperordi-
nateandthesubordinate, thevillageandthemetropolis; itis an arena
of conflictual
elements,whichrequiressomecompelling pressure -
as, forexample,nationalismorprevalent religiousorthodoxy or class
consciousness- totakeform as "system."And,indeed,theveryterm
"culture,"withitscozyinvocation ofconsensus, mayserveto distract
attentionfromsocial and culturalcontradictions,fromthefractures
andoppositions withinthewhole.
- EdwardP. Thompson4

Wearethinking oftheextraordinary
symbolic ofthemultitude
creativity
ofwaysinwhichyoungpeopleuse,humanize, decorateandinvestwith
meanings theircommon andimmediate lifespacesandsocialpractices
- personalstylesand choicesof clothes;selectiveand activeuse of
music,TV,magazines; ofbedrooms;
decoration therituals
ofromance
andsubculturalstyles;thestyle,
banteranddramaoffriendship groups;
music-making anddance.Norarethesepursuits andactivities
trivial
or
In conditions
inconsequential. oflatemodernizationandthewidespread
crisisofcultural
valuestheycanbe crucialtocreationandsustenanceof
individualandgroupidentities,
eventoculturalsurvival
ofidentity
itself.
Thereis work,evendesperate work,intheirplay.
- PaulWilliss

2. PoliticsandLetters.
Williams, Interviews
withNew LeftReview(London:New
Left,1979)154.
3. TimO'Sullivan,
John andJohn
DannySaunders,
Hartley, Fiske,KeyConcepts
in Communication 1983)57.
(London:Routledge,
4. EdwardP. Thompson, CustomsinCommon.Studiesin Traditional
PopularCul-
ture(NewYork:New P, 1993)6.
5. Paul Willis,Common Culture.
Symbolic Work
at Play in theEveryday
Cultures
oftheYoung OpenUP,1990)2.
(Boulder.

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 Geoffrey
Eley 21

I don'ttreatthesecultural as theforcible
representations impositionof
falseandlimiting InsteadI explorethedesirepresumed
stereotypes. by
thedesirewhichtouches
theserepresentations, feminist andnon-feminist
womenalike.Butnordo I treatfemaledesireas something universal,
unchangeable, arisingfromthefemalecondition. I see therepresenta-
tionsoffemale pleasureanddesireasproducing andsustaining feminine
Thesepositions
positions. areneither
distant rolesimposedon us from
outsidewhichit wouldbe easyto kickoff,noraretheytheessential
attributes
offemininity.Femininepositions areproduced as responses
to
thepleasuresoffered andidentity
tous; oursubjectivity areformed inthe
ofdesirewhichencircle
definitions us. Thesearetheexperiences which
makechangesucha difficult anddaunting task,forfemaledesireis con-
luredbydiscourses
stantly whichsustain maleprivilege.
- Rosalind Coward6

S.
. [T]hereare agreedlimitsto whatis and is notacceptable,and
althoughtheseare constantly theymustalwaysbe seen as
shifting,
fixed,sincetheyformtheground-plan of socialstability.
The shapes
of an eraaremoreeasilyfoundin itsfashions, itsfurniture,
itsbuild-
ings- whoselinesdo seemtotracethe'moods'ofsocialchange-
thanin theequallysignificantoutlinesof itsthoughtsand habits,its
conceptualcategories,whichareharderto see becausetheyare pre-
ciselywhatwe takeforgranted. How thencan we "see" them?Ifitis
in shapesand formsthatpassionslive- as lightning livesin a con-
ductor- itis likelytobe in images- in films,photographs, televi-
sion- thatsuchconduitsaremostclearlyvisible.Ouremotionsare
woundintotheseforms, onlytospringbackatus withan apparent life
oftheirown.Moviesseemtocontainfeelings, two-dimensional pho-
tographsseemto containtruths. The worlditselfseemsfilledwith
obviousness,full of naturalmeaningswhichthesemedia merely
Butwe investtheworldwithitssignificance.
reflect. Itdoesn'thaveto
be thewayitis,ortomeanwhatitdoes.
- JudithWilliamson7

The conscious,chosenmeaningin mostpeople'slives comesmuch

morefromwhattheyconsumethanwhattheyproduce.
- Judith
Williamson8

[This position]. . .sees popularcultureas a siteof struggle,

but,
while acceptingthe powerof the forcesof dominance,it focuses

6. RosalindCoward,FemaleDesires.How TheyAreSought,Boughtand Pack-

aged(NewYork:Grove 1985)16.
Weidenfeld,
7. Passions: The Dynamicsof Popular Culture
JudithWilliamson,Consuming
1986)15.
M.Boyars,
(London:
230.
8. Williamson

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22 Whatis Cultural
History

rather uponthepopulartacticsbywhichtheseforcesarecopedwith,
are evaded or are resisted.Insteadof tracingexclusivelythepro-
cessesofincorporation, itinvestigates
ratherthatpopularvitalityand
creativity thatmakesincorporation sucha constant Instead
necessity.
of concentrating on theomnipotent, insidiouspracticesof thedomi-
nantideology,itattempts tounderstand theeveryday resistancesand
evasionsthatmakethatideologyworkso hardand insistently to
maintainitselfand itsvalues.Thisapproachsees popularcultureas
potentially,and oftenactually, progressive(thoughnotradical),and
it is essentially
optimistic,foritfindsin thevigorandvitality of the
people evidencebothof thepossibility of social changeand of the
motivation to driveit.
- John Fiske9

Thatordinary peopleuse thesymbolicresourcesavailableto them

underpresent conditionsformeaningful activityis bothmanifest and
endlesslyelaborateduponby new revisionism. Thus emancipatory
projectsto liberatepeople fromtheirallegedentrapment, whether
theyknowtheyare entrapped ornot,arecalledintoquestionbythis
fundamental insight.Economicexploitations, racism,genderand
sexual oppression,to name but a few,exist,but the exploited,
estrangedand oppressedcope, and,furthermore, if suchwritersas
JohnFiskeand Paul Willisare to be believed,theycope verywell
indeed,makingvalidsenseoftheworldandobtaining grateful
plea-
surefromwhattheyreceive.Apparently, thereis so muchactionin
themicro-politicsofeveryday lifethattheUtopianpromisesofa bet-
terfuture,
whichwereonceso enticing forcriticsofpopularculture,
havelostall credibility.
- JimMcGuiganlo0

By cultureis understoodthecommonsenseorwayoflifeofa particu-

larclass,group,or socialcategory,thecomplexofideologiesthatare
actuallyadoptedas moralpreferences orprinciples
oflife.To insiston
thisusageis to insiston thecomplexrecreationof ideologicaleffects
as a moment oftheanalysisofconsciousness. Theeffects ofa particu-
larideologicalworkoraspectofhegemony canonlybe understood in
relation
to attitudes
andbeliefsthatarealreadylived.Ideologiesnever
address("interpellate")
a "naked"subject.Concrete socialindividuals
arealwaysalreadyconstructed as culturally
classedandsexedagents,
alreadyhavea complexly formed Outsidesomestructur-
subjectivity.
alisttexts,the"lonelyhour"of theunitary, primary, primordialand
culturelessinterpellation"nevercomes." Ideologiesalways work

9. John PopularCulture
Fiske,Understanding (Boston:UnwinHyman,1989)2
10. Jim Cultural
McGuigan, Populism andNewYork:
(London 1992)
Routledge,

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 Geoffrey
Eley 23

upona ground:thatground
is culture.
To insiston thisis also toinsist
on "history"...
- Richard
Johnsonl1
Here ... is theoutlineof one significantlineofthinking in Cultural
Studies.... It standsopposedto theresidualand merelyreflective
roleassignedto "thecultural." In itsdifferentways,itconceptualizes
cultureas interwoven withall socialpractices; andthosepractices,in
turn,as a commonformof humanactivity: sensuoushumanpraxis,
the activitythroughwhichmen and womenmake history.It is
opposedtothebase-superstructure wayofformulating therelationship
betweenideal and materialforces,especiallywherethe "base" is
defined as thedetermination
by"theeconomic"inanysimplesense.It
defines"culture"as both the meaningsand values which arise
amongst groupsandclasses,onthebasisoftheirgivenhis-
distinctive
toricalconditionsandrelationships, through whichthey"handle"and
respondto theconditions ofexistence; and as thelivedtraditionsand
practicesthrough whichthese"understandings" areexpressedand in
whichtheyareembodied.
- StuartHall12

In cultural
studiestraditions,
then,cultureis understood
bothas a way
of life- encompassing ideas,attitudes,
languages, institu-
practices,
tions,andstructuresofpower- anda wholerangeof cultural prac-
tices: artisticforms,texts,canons, architecture, mass-produced
commodities, andso on.
- CaryNelsonetal.13

This collage of quotationsis meantto hold a place for the extended

definitionalreflectiona shortpaper of this kind can't hope to perform;
given the notoriousdifficultyof organizingthe disorderlyprofusionof
intradisciplinary,cross-disciplinary,and varying national-intellectual
meanings and understandingsof the "culture concept" into anything
resemblingconsensual form,it may be thatthis approachwould in any
case be the most sensible. As Thompsonsays, "'culture' is a clumpish

11. Richard "Three

Johnson, Problematics: ofa Theory
Elements ofWorking-Class
Culture,"Working-Class and Theory,
Culture:StudiesinHistory eds. JohnClarke,Chas
andRichard
Critcher, Johnson 1979)234.
St.Martin's,
(London:
12. StuartHall, "CulturalStudies:Two Paradigms,"Culture/Power/History. A
Readerin Contemporary Social Theory,eds.NicholasB. Dirks,GeoffEley,andSherryB.
Ortner Princeton
(Princeton: UP,1993)527.
13. CaryNelson,Paula A. Treichler, and LarryGrossberg,"CulturalStudies:An
CulturalStudies,eds. Grossberg,
Introduction," Nelson,andTreichler (New York:Rout-
legde,1992)5.

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24 Whatis CulturalHistory

term,whichby gathering up so manyactivities and attributesintoone

commonbundlemay actuallyconfuseor disguisediscriminations that
shouldbe madebetweenthem."l14 Itsusagecan extendfromthearts,let-
ters,and aesthetics,through somemoregeneralized notionof thelifeof
themind,to a moreinstitutional perspective on suchthemesvia thepub-
lic sphereof artisticand intellectual activity,the educationalsystem,
otherinstitutions of higherlearning, and so on (broadlyspeakingthe
"high-cultural"traditionofscholarship); totherealmof symbolic andrit-
ual meaningin a society'sformsof cohesionand overallethos(the
anthropological field of approaches);and what Eagletoncalls "the
wholecomplexof signifying practices and symbolic processesin apar-
ticularsociety," has
which becomethedomainof culturalstudies.1Of
course,eventhisgrossclumping ofapproaches is insufficient,
and a full
surveyof current workwouldhaveto includecurrent socialsciencethe-
oriesof actionas well,eitherbecausetheybracketquestionsof culture
altogether(rationalchoicemodels),orbecausetheyterritorialize itsrele-
vance intoa separabledomainof study(as in formsof systemstheory,
including recentHabermasian conceptions of thelifeworld). One recent
symposium on Culture in for
History, instance,definesits subject
almostentirely via a combination of neo-institutional
approaches, ratio-
nal actormodels,and ideas of consumer preference. Here "culture"is
acknowledged as "a fundamental partof the distribution of resources
and therelationsof powerin a society," butdisappearsforthebulkof
the volumefromthe forefront of the analysis,exceptas the "values"
which"inform thestrategic calculations whichpeoplemakeabouttheir
interests"
andwhichsupport orinhibit pathsofdevelopment.16
particular
The bank of quotationsheadingthisessay is thusan incitement to
thought.It doesn'tpretend completeness, butmarksouta spaceof defi-
nitionthatcan be filled,extended, or addedto, as we choose.For the
purpose of my own contribution to our discussion,I'm going to
exploretheusefulness of culturalstudies- again,notas some suffi-
cientor ready-made solution,or as an approachthatcan workall by
but
itself, as a setofproposals withwhichtothink.
A still-emergentcross-disciplinaryformation,cultural studiescomprises

14. Thompson13.
15. Eagleton,Ideology:AnIntroduction
(London:Verso,1991)28.
16. JosephMellingandJonathan Barry,CultureinHistory:Production,
Consump-
tionand ValuesinHistorical eds.MellingandBarry(Exeter:U ofExeterP,
Perspective,
1992) 18f.

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 Geoffrey
Eley 25

a varyingmiscellanyof influences - sociologists, literaryscholars,

and social historiansin Britain(butinterestingly ratherfewanthropolo-
gists);mass film
communications, studies,literary theory, and reflexive
anthropology in the United States, with institutional supportsin
Women's Studies and American Culture, to offer a
only couple exam-
ples. So farthemainU. S. initiatives have comefromthehumanities,
whereasthe proliferating interdisciplinary programsand institutes in
the social scienceshave shownmuchless interest. In Britainthelogic
has tendedperhapsin theotherdirection, althoughthe greaterpreva-
lence of qualitativesociologieson thatside of the Atlantichas also
blurredthe sharpnessof thehumanities/social sciencedivide.On the
otherhand,feminist theoryhas had a big impactin bothBritainand
theUnitedStates,as has thepost-Saidian critiqueof colonialand racist
formsof thoughtin the westernculturaltradition. Again,individual
influences vary(forinstance,Gramsciand psychoanalytic approaches
in Britain,or Geertzand subsequentanthropologies in the United
States),but the so-calledlinguisticturnand thefascination withpost-
modernism have increasingly allowedthe two nationaldiscussionsto
converge.Moreover,althoughmost of the concreteresearchhas
focusedon the"longpresent"of culturalstudiessince 1945,thisis in
itselfalso a periodbadlyin need of historian's attention, and transfer-
ence of the interests involvedto earliertimesis alreadyunderway.
Simplyenumerating some main areas of currentactivityshouldbe
enoughto make thepoint:thegrowthof seriousworkon thevisual
technologies of film,photography, television, and video; on commer-
cial media like advertising,comicbooks,and magazines;and on the
relationshipof women in particularto popular reading genres
(romances,gothicnovels,and familysagas), television(soap operas,
detectivestories,and situation comedies),and film(filmnoir,horror,
sciencefiction, and melodrama). One can see also thegrowthof new
consumereconomies,especiallyin the mass entertainment industries,
but also affecting food,fashionand dress,domesticlabor in house-
holds,leisureandplay,and all mannerof lifestyle concerns;of theuse
of autobiography andthepersonalvoice;and,lastly,ofpostcolonial cul-
turalcritiqueandtheanalysisof"race,"tooffer onlya few examples.
An important aspectofthisculturalstudies wavehasbeenthereopening
of old debatesaroundtheopposition of "high"and "low" culture, witha
notablecommitment to engagingpopularculturein non-dismissive and
non-patronizing ways. Takingpopular culture as
seriously, manifesting real

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26 Whatis Cultural
History

needsand aspirations, as something to be decodedimaginatively in that

light,howeverbanal and apparently trivialthecontents, has becomea
centraltenetof thesediscussions; and herefeminist writingis showing
theway.Giventheconfrontational hostility topopularculture in thehey-
day of the Women's Liberation Movement in the late 1960s and early
1970s, thisis a noteworthy turnof affairs, for in that earliermoment the
power of conventional sex-gender in from
signs everything makeupto
romanticfictionwas takenas evidenceof backwardness, oppression,
and male exploitation in sometransparent and self-evidently indictable
way.Againstthisearlyconfrontationism, we've seengrowingefforts to
get insidepopularculturemoresympathetically to explorehow cultural
production workson needsin appealingand contradictory ways,from
soap opera to MTV. The emergence of a discourse duringthe 1980s
around"pleasure"and "desire"as categories of politicalunderstanding,
beyondtheirimmediate place in thepoliticsof sexualityin thestricter
sense, has been a majorsymptom of thismove,and signifies a rethink-
in
ingof the"popular" popularculture muchlargerthanthespecifically
feminist discussion.It impliesmorepositiveengagement withpopular
culturethaneitherthe"massculture" orthe"folkculture" orientedtradi-
tionsofanalysishavetendedto allow.It conjoinswiththepost-Foucaul-
diandevelopments in thetheory ofpower.Andit requiresa majorshift
inourunderstanding ofthesitesatwhichpoliticalactioncanbegin.
In thissense,"culture"is defining a groundof politicsbeyondthe
space conventionally recognizedby most politicaltraditions as the
appropriatecontextfor policy-making in educationand the arts.
Indeed,reachingbackthrough thetwentieth to thelaternineteenth cen-
tury,it's hardto finda democratic politics(whetherof the liberalor
socialistleftor theconservative, as opposedto the fascist,right)that
and
deliberately openly validated popularculturein its mass commer-
cialized forms.Historically, the very notionof "high culture"has
alwaysbeen counterposed to something else that'sless valued,to cul-
turethatis "low."In thelatenineteenth andtwentieth centuriesthecon-
struction of thiscultural"other"has takentwo mainforms,and both
have been heavilyoverdetermined by genderedassumptions of value
and capacity.One is thecolonialistrepresentation of non-western peo-
ples, whichexternalizes the distinction betweenhighand low within
racializedframeworks of culturalsuperiority, even(or especially)when
thedifferences concerned havebecomeinternal to theWesternsociety
via processesof migration. (Parenthetically, we mightobservethatit is

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 Geoffrey
Eley 27

via analysisof thisculturaland ideologicalfieldof relationships that

thediscussionof social imperialism, whichratherquicklybecamerei-
fiedafterWehler'sproposalof theconcept,mightbe usefullyrevived.)
But the second construction of "otherness" has been producedinside
Westernculturesthemselves and has generally been identifiedwiththe
"mass," with an idea of popular culture in which "the popular"has
been dissociatedfromromanticnotionsof authenticity and the folk,
becomingreattachedto the commercialized cultureof entertainment
and leisurein ways whichimplycorruption ratherthanpreservation,
as
artificiality opposed to naturalness,vulgarity ratherthanvirtue.This
idea of mass culturehas been further linkedto ideas of thecityand a
distinctivetwentieth-century structure of publiccommunication based
on the cheap technologies of film,radio,gramophone, photography,
television,
motorization, pulpfiction,massadvertising, andmagazines.
It is worthremaining withthisset of associations. Withthe idea of
themass has invariably comea narrative of decline,of corruption,and
moraldanger- a negativeimageryof "un-culture" and disorder, of
drunkenness, gambling, unregulated sexuality,violence,criminality,and
unstablefamilylife,organizedaroundsocial anxietiesaboutyouthin
explicitlygenderedways. The politicalvalence of this thinking has
alwaysbeen complex.The opposition "high" of and "low" is neither
rightnor leftin itself.Thus the socialisttradition has drawnjust as
sharpa line between,on theone hand,the ideal of an educativeand
upliftingcultureof theartsand enlightenment, and,on theotherhand,
an actuallyexisting popular culture of base roughness,
gratification, and
disorder,which (in the socialistmind) the commercialized apparatusof
massprovisionhas beenonlytoo gladto exploit.Socialistcultural poli-
cies,no less thanliberalones,forexample,havealwaysstressedthevir-
tues of self-improvement and sobriety over the disorderly realitiesof
muchworking-class existence.Forsocialists, placesof commercial pop-
ular entertainment - musichalls,circuses,fairs,all kindsof rough
sportsin the laternineteenth century; followedby thedance hall and
thepicturepalacesin theearlytwentieth century;and danceclubs,rock
concerts,juke boxes,bingohalls, and commercial televisionsince 1945
- have been a sourceof frivolity and backwardness in working-class
culture.Againstthismachinery of escapistdissipation, theycounter-
posed theargument thatworking peopleshouldorganizetheirown free
timecollectively and in morallyuplifting ways.Morerecently, withthe
late twentieth-century crisisof theinnercity,thisoppositionhas been

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28 Whatis Cultural
History

transcribed intotheraciallyconstructed imageof theimmigrant urban

poor, itselfhistoricallyreminiscent of an earliersubset of the dominant
high/low binarism, namely,thexenophobic reactionagainstEast Euro-
pean Jewishimmigrants in Britainand Germany beforetheFirstWorld
War.To thisextent, socialists,liberals,andconservatives haveinhabited
a commondiscourse.The preciseboundaries betweenthe "high"and
the"low,"the"cultured" andthe"not,"havevaried- thepowerofthe
distinctionperse hasnot.
However,if "official"politicsfailedto respondpositivelyor cre-
ativelyto themass culturephenomenon of theearlytwentieth century,
thisdoesn'tmeanthatmass culturewasn'tproducing powerfulmean-
ingsin eminently politicalways.Indeed,thenewapparatus of the"cul-
tureindustry" (to use one of thefamiliar pejorativenames),fromthe
razzmatazzof the cinemaand the dance hall to the rise of spectator
sports,thestarsystem, and themachineries of advertising and fashion,
provedremarkably effective in a
servicing privateeconomyof desire,
beginning in the 1920s, and expanding itsholdon thepopularimagina-
tioneversince.Thisis wheretherecentvalidating ofpopularculturein
culturalstudiesmakesitspoint.For theemerging popularculturecan
no longerbe so easilydismissed as an emptyanddepoliticized commer-
cial corruption of traditionalworking-class culture(thetypicalleftcri-
tique),buton thecontrary evinceddemocratic authenticities of itsown.
Some cultural practitioners of the1920scouldsee this.It was precisely
thenewtechnologies andmediaof communication andtheirmassaudi-
ences thatexcitedthe Germanleft-modernists like Benjamin,Brecht,
Piscator,and Heartfield. No less thanthe Russianfuturists and other
avant-garde in the aftermath of 1917,they used popularformslikecir-
cus, puppetry, and cabaret;workedthrough new technicalmedia like
posters,photographs, and film;and celebrated themass reproducibility
of theirworkwheremoreconventional artistscontinued to sanctify the
value and uniquenessof theindividual creation.Benjamin'snow-clas-
sic essayof 1936,"The Workof Artin theAge of MechanicalRepro-
duction,"is a brilliant meditation on theactuality of popularculturein
thissense,whileby theendof the 1920sthepracticeof someonelike
Brechtwas suffused withsimilarrecognitions. Whileculturalconserva-
tivesof all stripes(leftas wellas right)couldonlycounterpose thevul-
garitiesof the cinemaand othermass entertainments to the "true"
values of art,Brechtfoundthemthesourceof an artistic breakthrough.
The raucousness,cigar smoke, and plebeian tones of the boxing hall

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 Geoffrey
Eley 29

weretheepitomeof all thatthe"bourgeois" theater abhorred, and sport

becamethemodelforhowsuchpublicperformance couldbe reformed,
"withthestageas a brightly litringdevoidof all mystique, demanding
a critical,
irreverent attitudeon thepartoftheaudience."1'
How couldwe respondto thesediscussions as historians? Mostobvi-
ously, the discourse of the "mass" (mass society, mass culture,mass
public, mass and
politics, the rise of the masses) can be historicized
confidently withinthe laternineteenth century, witha distinctset of
beginningsin the yearsbetweenthe 1880s and 1914. This discourse
notonlyarticulated anxietiesaboutsocial boundariesand thepressure
of democracy on existingconstitutional arrangements, it was also orga-
nizedby misogynist constructions of theurbanmasspublicas danger-
ously feminine.Whereas"mass" had alreadyacquiredits positive
inflections in theusagesof theleft,withits connotations of powerin
and
numbers,solidarity, popular democratic strength, in the language
of democracy'scriticsit implied"lowness"and "vulgarity," thethreat
of the"rabble"and the"mob,"whoseinstincts wereonly"low, igno-
rant,unstable,"exposedto demagogues, hucksters, and profiteers,and
whosepoliticalpreferences were"uninstructed," ripeformanipulation
by thedominant interestsand thedefenders of thestatusquo.1 More-
over,such discomforts also permeated the sensibilityof the left,with
its culturallanguagesof sobriety and uplift,reflecting essentiallythe
fearthatleftto itselfthe new mass publicwouldbe seducedby the
city'spleasuresand excitements, preyto unscrupulous agitatorsof the
politicalright,no less thanto thequacksand charlatans of a tawdry
commercialism. Finally,thetransformation of thepublicsphere- that
reshapingof thepoliticalnationinitiated so powerfully by thepopular
mobilizations of the1890s- is thestructural context of thisnew con-
tentiousness aroundtheappearanceand allegiancesof theurbanmass
public. Here theopportunities of culturalanalysisare adumbrated by a
setof social histories,whicharethemselves stillimperfectly researched
and understood:the rise of a nationalreadingpublic,the massive
expansionof the popularpress,the establishment of comprehensive
postalcommunications and thelaterintroduction of thetelephone,the

1917-1933:Artand Politicsin the Weimar

17. JohnWillett,The New Sobriety,
Period(London:ThamesandHudson,1976) 103.
18. Williams, A Vocabulary
Keywords: ofCultureand Society(New York:Oxford
UP, 1983) 192-97.

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30 Whatis Cultural
History

buildingof railwaybranch-lines and minorroads,thespreadof librar-

ies, the of
burgeoning voluntary association,and the unprecedented
of
availability cheap reading-matter, soon to be extendedby the new
technologies ofprinting,
radio, and film.
Thereare two further reflections I wantto lay outon thesubjectof
the mass, each of whichbringin one of culturalstudies'principal
themes.The firstconcerns gender, andhereI wantto use a recentessay
by Eve Rosenhaft to makemypoint.Commenting on theexistingstate
of Germanhistoriography ("It is stillpossibleto write a generalaccount
of Germanhistory thatexcludeswomen,"sheregrets), shepointsto the
"impenetrably masculine" character of the of
history politicsor public
affairsin the Germanfield,whichthetwo significant recentgains in
connecting women'sactivity to theformal worldofpolitics("thefemini-
zationof thepublicsectorin thegrowth of thewelfarestate,"and "the
Nazi co-optationof the idea of femaleLebensraum")have barely
touched.As she says,in establishing thepoliticalrelevanceof thesesto-
ries ("in orderto findwomenin politics"),historians have had to
expand thedefinition
of what politicsconventionally includes:

Thetendency ofempirical
research uptonowhasbeentoestablish
the
roleofwomen inpolitics
as a positively absence;
charged there
wasa
women's butittookplaceinspheres
politics, distinct
fromtheonein
whichstatepowerwasdirectly assigned - inoccupa-
andexercised
tionalandconfessional thewomen's
organizations, sections
ofpoliti-
calparties,
theexpanding fieldofpublicandprivate
socialwork.19
Part of the difficulty,of course,is thatcontemporary consciousness
itselfmarkedtheseactivities as different,
as lyingbeyondthepolitical
spherein the"true"sense,andto getcloserto theplaceofgenderin the
politicalprocesswe have to makean additionaltheoretical move,by
considering the relationship
to publiclifeof themutually constitutive
understandingsof femininity and masculinity in anyone time
operative
and place. Thatis, we needto re-read thefamiliarlanguagesof politics
in orderto recognizewomenthrough themechanisms and structuresof
theirexclusion,
whether suchsilencings weretheresultofdirectdiscrim-
inatoryor exclusionary policiesor practice,
or whethertheyeventuated
19. Eve Rosenhaft, "Women, Gender, andtheLimitsofPoliticalHistory
intheAge
of 'Mass' Politics,"Elections,Mass Politics,and Social Changein ModernGermany:
New Perspectives,eds. LarryE. JonesandJamesN. Retallack,(Cambridge:Cambridge
UP, 1992) 151,149.

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 Geoffrey
Eley 31

through less consciously directedlogicsof social relationsand cultural

behavior.Rosenhaft invokestheworkof DorindaOutramon themean-
ings of the body in the FrenchRevolutionto suggesthow "modem
ideas of thebodypoliticandofthebourgeois individual as citizencame
to be realizedin socialpracticeand internalized as partof a civiciden-
titythatwas definedas essentially masculine," and arguesthatthepro-
cesses of continuous negotiationthrough which thisgendering of social
and politicalidentity became articulated with relations of domination
and subordination duringthe nineteenth and twentieth centuriescan
bringus closerto the circumstances of women,as the groupwhose
access to publicvirtueand theformalattributes of citizenship was so
expressly held at bay.20 Rosenhaft provides a number of specific exam-
ples, including the need to rescrutinizethe terms of conservative and
acquiescent religiosity through which women's active involvement in the
organized culture of Catholicism is usually devalued as "de-mobilizing"
or "de-politicizing," ratherthanbeing seen as a distinctive formof
women'spoliticalengagement. As she says,thisis a particularly strong
instanceof "the'private'politicsthatis notonlyimplicit in thefamiliar
masculineforms ofpoliticsbutconstitutesitspremise."21
The mostimportant point she makes concernsthe discourseof the
"mass"between the1880sand1930s,inwhichcertain feminized construc-
tionsof theurbanmasspublic"coincided" historicallywith the pressure
ofwomenforpoliticalrights, culminating underWeimarinbothaccessto
thefranchise andlarge-scale recruitmentintothenewapparatus ofthewel-
farestate.For Rosenhaft, "mass,"withits distinctive feminine coding,
"appearsalmostas a deliberate circumlocution" on thepartofmale 1920s
intellectualsfor"thissignificant feminizationofthepoliticalorder."22 The
newpublicarenaof commercially provided mass entertainment then pro-
videsa richfieldof analysisfora gendered readingofpoliticaldiscourse.
Butwhereasworkincultural studies,
focusing on genrecriticism andorig-
inating in
primarily literary theory,has accumulated a largecorpusofrele-
vantworkforsucha project, particularlyon film,historians havebarely
scratched thesurface As Rosenhaft
ofthesepossibilities. says:

20. Rosenhaft TheBodyand theFrenchRevolution:

159;see also DorindaOutram,
Sex,Class andPoliticalCulture(NewHavenandLondon:Yale UP, 1989);as wellas Joan
B. Landes,Women andthePublicSphereintheAgeoftheFrenchRevolution (Ithaca:Cor-
nellUP, 1988).
21. Rosenhaft 158.
22. Rosenhaft 162.

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32 Whatis CulturalHistory

As a termthatsimultaneously
insists
onthefemininityofthenewpub-
lic andobscuresthepresenceofwomen within
it,'themass'hasthe
advantage ustotheoperation
ofdirecting ofgender inthe
discourses
definition
ofpolitics
(andthepolitical andtotheissueofhow
subject)
thedevelopment ofnewmediaofmasscommunication affects
the
waysinwhich opinion
political areshaped.23
andparticipation
The finalreflection I haveconcerns Foucault.Thereis no space here
of
foran elaboratediscussion Foucault'sinfluence, but to explorethe
challengeof cultural studieswe do needto considerbriefly thepotential
uses of a post-Foucauldian perspective on power.On theone hand,the
latterhas encouraged us to lookforpoweranditsoperations awayfrom
the conventionally recognizedsitesof publicpoliticallife,re-directing
attention away frominstitutionally centered conceptions of government
and thestate,and towardsa moredispersedand de-centered notionof
power and its This
"microphysics." approach takes theanalysisofpower
away fromthecore institutions of thestatein the national-centralized
sense,andtowardtheemergence ofnewstrategies ofgovernance, regula-
tion,and control, focusedon bothindividuals and largersocial catego-
ries,whoseoperation restsas muchon theveryprocessof defining the
subjectpopulations as it does on the more practicalmechanics of coer-
civeorregulative control. On theotherhand,Foucault'sideashavesensi-
tized us to the subtleand complexinterrelations betweenpowerand
knowledge, particularly in the of
modalities disciplinary and administra-
tiveorganization ofknowledge ina society. "Discourse"is a wayoftheo-
rizingtheinternal rulesandregularities ofparticular fieldsofknowledge
in thissense(their"regimes oftruth"), as wellas themoregeneralstruc-
turesof ideas and assumptions thatdelimitwhatcan and cannotbe
thought and said in particular contexts of place and time. Such an
has
approach challenged the historian'susual assumptions aboutindivid-
ual andcollectiveagencyandtheirbasesof interest andrationality,help-
ing us to see insteadhow subjectivities are constructed and produced
withinand through languagesof identification thatlie beyondthevoli-
tionandcontrol ofindividuals intheclassicEnlightenment sense.
In thesetwosenses,Foucaultfindspowerat workin thebasic catego-
ries of modemsocial understanding - in thevisionsand imaginings

23. Rosenhaft 163f.See also PatricePetro,JoylessStreets:Womenand Melodra-

maticRepresentation
in WeimarGermany Princeton
(Princeton: UP, 1989); and Linda
Mizejewski,DivineDecadence:Fascism,FemaleSpectacle,and theMakingsof Sally
Bowles(Princeton:
Princeton
UP, 1992).

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 Geoffrey
Eley 33

thatprojectthecoherenceand transparency of society,in theprogram-

maticdescriptions andre-descriptions ofitsdesirableformsoforganiza-
tion,in thetheories(bothpracticaland esoteric)thatseek to orderand
alteritsworkings, and in thepoliciesandpracticesthatact on itsactu-
ally existing forms. Now, we don'thave to commitourselvesto the
entireFoucauldianpackage,so to speak,in orderto see theusefulness
of theseperspectives, and I wantto considerbriefly someof theimpli-
cationsforworkintheGermanfield.
At one level,forinstance, thisdiscursive move- therefocusing of
attentionon thehistories through whichdominant and familiar formsof
understanding (suchas categories, assumptions, perspectives, butalso poli-
cies and practices, as well as theories, programs, and philosophies) have
been shaped- involvesa turning backto questionsof ideology, and to
understand why such a Foucauldianapproachcan be attractive, some
reflection on treatments of ideologyin Germanhistorical discussionwill
help.Basically,thetermsandtoneof suchdiscussion weresetformany
yearsby workssuchas thoseof FritzStemand GeorgeMosse.24Here
"ideology"was approached as a setof falseandmalevolent beliefs,often
distortions of oldertraditions ofthought produced by pathologies of Ger-
manhistorical context (theSonderweg!), but which could only take wide-
spread hold in conditions of extremity, crisis, and disorientation,and
whichcouldbe tracked and
visibly unambiguously through policies,insti-
tutions,and decisions,assignedto individuals, and derivedfromprecur-
sors. An entiregenreof worksexistson the "ideologicalorigins"of
Nazismin thissense.To a greatextent, theturning to socialhistory in the
1960s and 1970swas a consciousrejection of thisstresson "ideology,"
on thegroundsthatthepeculiardynamism of Nazismhad an altogether
morecomplicated relationship both to its own internal structuresand to
thelarger socialcontext thansuchanemphasis hadallowed.
For a whilethisturnencouraged a certainindifference, bordering on
outright hostility,to ideologicalanalysisas such, in a dichotomized his-
toriographical outlookprivileging social historywhichin manyways
stilldefinesthefield.Yet givena different conception of ideology,one
discursively foundedand sociallyembedded, thereis no reasonforthis
to be so. I'd arguethattherecentinterest in theracialist, gendered, and
bio-medicaldimensions of Nazi policieshas providedideal groundfor
24. FritzStem,ThePoliticsofCultural
Despair(Berkeley: P,1961);and
U ofCalifornia
GeorgeL. Mosse,TheCrisisofGerman
Ideology andNicolson,1966).
(London:Weidenfeld

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34 Whatis Cultural
History

sucha differently conceptualized discussionof ideologyto begin,even

ifin mostparticular worksthisis happening so farin a mostlypractical
(as opposedto consciously theorized) way.The largerdomainof "bio-
logicalpolitics"as a unifying principleof Nazi practice,linkinganti-
Semitismand theracialistoffensive of thewaryearsto a complexof
policies before 1939, is the key: population planning,public health,
welfarepoliciesdirected at women,familypolicy,euthanasia, steriliza-
tion,and eugenics.The best work on the Third Reich has also stressed
theoriginsof thisracializedsocial-policy complex in ideas and innova-
tionsgoingback to theWeimarRepublicand beyond.Withoutdimin-
ishingthecentrality of theNazis' anti-Jewish genocidalcommitments,
thishas increasinglyshifted attention to thelargerracialistambitions in
whichthe Final Solution'slogic was inscribed.Moreover,the latter
could onlybecomefeasiblewiththepriordiffusion of eugenicistand
relatedideologiesof socialengineering, whichto a greatextent had per-
meatedthethinking of social-policy and health-care professionals long
beforetheNazis themselves had arrived. It was in thisdeeperhistorical
sensethattheground fortheFinalSolutionwasbeingdiscursively laid.
If we takethisargument abouttheJudeocide's conditions of possibil-
ityseriously- thepreconceptions and embeddedsocial practicesthe
Nazi politicalprojectrequiredto work,and the layingof the ground
before 1933 - thenthe importance of ideologicalanalysissurely
becomesclearnot as a return to theexegeticalfocuson Hitler'sand
otherNazi leaders' immediate ideas and theiretymology, but as an
expanded culturalanalysisof the production of meaningsand valuesin
pre-Nazi(and non-Nazi)society.In the immediate area of biological
politicsand racialhygiene, forinstance, thereis now a generalrecogni-
tionofthisneed:Nazi excessesonlybecamepossiblethrough the"nor-
mal" achievements of respectable science,so thattheNazis' appalling
schemesbecomeless an eruption of"un-science" andtheirrational than
theadventof technocratic reasonandtheethicalunboundedness of sci-
ence,continuous withthelogicsof earlierambitions. Thisamountsto a
decisive shiftof perspective, away fromNazism'shard-core cadresto
the broader,deeper-lying, and less visibleideologicalconsensusthey
were able to use - to "thegenesisof the 'Final Solution'fromthe
spiritof science,"in thewordsof DetlevPeukert'simportant essay.25
25. DetlevPeukert,"TheGenesisofthe'FinalSolution'fromtheSpiritofScience,"
theThirdReich,eds.ThomasChilders
Reevaluating andJaneCaplan(NewYork:Holmes
andMeier,1993)234-52.

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 Eley
Geoffrey 35

WhileFoucaultis seldomreferred to in thesediscussions, he couldeas-

ilybe thepatronsaintof thisnewdirection, giventhesalienceof argu-
mentsaboutdiscipline, knowledge, science,anddomination.
Thereare twokeyaspectsto thisreinstatement of theimportance of
ideology, in the extended of
understandingideologyqua discourse rve
brieflyindicatedabove. One concernsthenatureand effectiveness of
theNazis' popularappeal. In keepingwiththe shiftfromideological
analysisin theoldersense,thetendency formanyyearswas to down-
play the originality and powerof theNSDAP's own ideologicalmes-
sage duringthe electoralrise of 1928-33, stressinginstead the
chameleonnatureof Nazi propaganda and itsabilityto capitalizemani-
pulatively on the existing valuesof the middleclasses(or thebourgeoi-
sie and pettybourgeoisie). Thisapproachas suchis consistent withthe
post-Foucauldian notation of ideology(as widelydiffusedmeanings,
representations, ordering assumptions, andpractices), althoughitsmain
practitioners tendedto see themselves as doingsocialhistory in contra-
distinction to studiesof ideology.However,so farfromrevealingthe
unimportance of ideologyto theNazis' successor theircharacter as a
politicalformation, I would argue, both thehistory of the party'selec-
toralrise and thebases of theregime'sstability showthecrucialcen-
tralityof ideologicalanalysis.The NSDAP was a phenomenon without
precedent in the history of the in
right Germany in thatit both discov-
ered the formsof unification amongthe hopelesslyfractured parties
and constituencies of therightand simultaneously grounded itselfin an
unusuallybroadbase of popularsupportin sociologicalterms.And it
did so preciselyby its abilityto articulate together a diverseand hith-
ertocontradictory ensembleof ideologicalappeals.As thiswas a con-
structive achievement of remarkable powerand balefulimplications,
we needto workhardat understanding howitcameto occur.The ques-
tionis: Whatweretheconnotative principles (theintegrative or unify-
ing bases, theprinciples of articulation) thatallowedso manydiverse
categoriesof peopleto recognizethemselves in theNazi celebration of
therace/people, thatallowedtheNazis to capturethepopularimagina-
tionso powerfully beforeandafter1933?Andifwe formulate theques-
tionlike this,withits impliedcontrast withthepoliticalfragmentation
of earlierright-wing formations, some evidenttasks are posed for
research on the Wilhelminian and Weimarperiodsthatcame before.
Thatis, howexactlywerethepoliticsoftherightconstituted in thisear-
liertime,andwhatweretheconditions ofpossibility forchange?

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36 Whatis Cultural
History

Secondly,the arguments aboutthemorebroadlydiffused contextof

bio-medical discourseinthe1930sneedtobe grounded in a denselytex-
turedhistory of suchideasin theearlierperiodaftertheturnof thecen-
tury.This will mean muchfullerand moreimaginatively constructed
investigationsof the social-policycontexts of the Kaiserreich, in which
theproduction ofnewvalues,newmores,newsocialpractices, andnew
ideas aboutthegood and efficient society - new "normativities" - as
well as theirformsor projectedand achievedrealization occupypride
ofplace. It willmeanpayingcarefulattention to thegendered meanings
of suchhistories, as wellas to thepower-producing effects in Foucault's
"micro-physical" sense.Strategies of social policingand constructions
of criminality,notionsofthenormalandthedeviant, theproduction and
of
regulation sexuality, the definitionof the
intelligence, understanding
of thesociallyvaluedindividual, will all playa partin thisanalysis,as
will thecoalescenceof racializedthinking aboutthedesirablecharacter
of thepeople-nation and itssocialandpoliticalarrangements, aboutthe
characterof the bodypolitic.Some forayshave been made in these
directions,as in Paul Weindling's majorsynthesis on Health,Race and
GermanPolitics,whichextendsacrossthewholeperiodfrom1871 to
1945,or in DerekLinton'sworkon theyouthquestionbefore1914,and
Detlev Peukert'sworkon the generalissues affecting Sozialdisziplin-
ierung.26 One implication of suchworkis also to diminish theimpor-
tance of the old chronological of
markers Germanhistoryfromthis
pointofview(thatis,both1914-18and 1933),encouraging insteada re-
periodizing of thelatenineteenth and earlytwentieth centuries to stress
the coherenceof theyearsbetweenthe 1890s and 1930s as a unitary
context,one where definitethemesof nationalefficiency, social
hygiene,and racializednationalism coalesced.

26. Paul Weindling, Health,Race and GermanPoliticsbetween NationalUnifica-

tionand Nazism1870-1945(Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1989); DerekS. Linton,"Who
has theYouth,Has theFuture,"TheCampaigntoSave YoungWorkers in ImperialGer-
many(Cambridge:Cambridge UP, 1991); andDetlevPeukert,Grenzender Sozialdiszi-
plinierung.
AufstiegundKriseder deutschen 1878 bis 1932 (Cologne:
Jugendftrsorge
Bund,1986) andJugendZwischen KriegundKrise.Lebenswelten vonArbeiterjungenin
der WeimarerRepublik(Cologne:Bund,1987).

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