Dean MacCannell

The childhood and youth memoir by world-famous social scientist Dean MacCannell, whose classic 1976 book The Tourist: A New Theory of the Leisure Class launched the field of modern tourism studies. In this personal turn, he exposes some of the seamier aspects of "The Greatest Generation" and the depth of the fissures in American society that are often miscast as recent. Here too are the radically different influences in his upbringing and early education that led him to his distinctive approach to modern social relations. Enthusiasts of classic European sports car racing and mountaineering will also find much to interest them in this gripping tale of an American boyhood that is unique but also archetypal.

In this classic analysis of travel and sightseeing, author Dean MacCannell brings social scientific understandings to bear on tourism in the postindustrial age, during which the middle class has acquired leisure time for international travel. In The Tourist - now with a new introduction framing it as part of a broader contemporary social and cultural analysis - the author examines notions of authenticity, high and low culture, and the construction of social reality around tourism.

Is travel inherently beneficial to human character? Does it automatically educate and enlighten while also promoting tolerance, peace, and understanding? In this challenging book, Dean MacCannell identifies and overcomes common obstacles to ethical sightseeing. Through his unique combination of personal observation and in-depth scholarship, MacCannell ventures into specific tourist destinations and attractions: 'picturesque' rural and natural landscapes, 'hip' urban scenes, historic locations of tragic events, Disney theme parks, beaches, and travel poster ideals. He shows how strategies intended to attract tourists carry unintended consequences when they migrate to other domains of life and reappear as 'staged authenticity'. Demonstrating each act of sightseeing as an ethical test, the book shows how tourists can realize the productive potential of their travel desires, penetrate the collective unconscious, and gain character, insight, and connection to the world.

Is travel inherently beneficial to human character? Does it automatically educate and enlighten while also promoting tolerance, peace, and understanding? In this challenging book, Dean MacCannell identifies and overcomes common obstacles to ethical sightseeing. Through his unique combination of personal observation and in-depth scholarship, MacCannell ventures into specific tourist destinations and attractions: 'picturesque' rural and natural landscapes, 'hip' urban scenes, historic locations of tragic events, Disney theme parks, beaches, and travel poster ideals. He shows how strategies intended to attract tourists carry unintended consequences when they migrate to other domains of life and reappear as 'staged authenticity'. Demonstrating each act of sightseeing as an ethical test, the book shows how tourists can realize the productive potential of their travel desires, penetrate the collective unconscious, and gain character, insight, and connection to the world.

Photography and Painting Along the Normandy Coast, 1850-1874

Empty Meeting Grounds continues Dean MacCannell's search for the cultural subject that is about to emerge from the encounter of the ex-primitive and the post-modern. It contains fascinating chapters on `Cannibal Tours', `The Desire to be Postmodern', the Vietnam Memorial in Washington D. C., the Statue of Liberty Restoration Project and the urbanization of Yosemite Park.