Pop culture captivates professor

Not everyone can watch reruns of “I Love Lucy” and call it research, but LeRoy Ashby can.

Until fairly recently, popular culture was considered frivolous, but the Claudius and Mary Johnson Distinguished Professor of History finds it fascinating, and he has for most of his life.

“I’ve always followed entertainment with a good deal of enthusiasm,” said Ashby, a Regents Professor with a reputation for “serious” research on democracy, social movements and child welfare.

But, following the publication of his 1997 book, “Endangered Children: Dependency, Neglect and Abuse in American History,” Ashby took a sabbatical and immersed himself in fun; more specifically, the buying and selling of fun and what it all means.

“You can learn all kinds of things from the popular culture,” he said recently, talking about his research from his Wilson Hall office.

Problems and promise
To critics who complain that American popular culture — characterized by sex-and-violence television, athlete drug scandals and soft-porn advertising — is evidence of a country in decline, Ashby says it has always been thus.

Ashby traces the birth of popular culture to 1829, when a drunken falls jumper, Sam Patch, leapt to his death while 12,000 watched from the shores of New York’s Genesee River. A speaker at Dartmouth College argues that “Sam Patch, leaping over Genesee Falls, could gather a greater crowd than Daniel Webster.”

“I’m willing to concede there’s an awful lot wrong with popular culture — its cult of celebrity, its often unflattering stereotypes, its emphasis on the acquisition of things, its power to render important ideas and movements meaningless, its capacity to mute civic engagement,” Ashby said.

“But, I would still defend it as an important source of ideals, diversity, tolerance and inclusion.” He calls it America’s most democratic art form and sees it, ultimately, as the arena where the disadvantaged or disenfranchised can begin to dream of a different life.

Popular culture both mirrors society and helps shape it, Ashby said, and the tension between the two is what makes his research fascinating. Who knew Lucille Ball, with her wacky attempts to be more than Ricky’s wife, was laying the groundwork for feminist Betty Friedan?

Patterns and relationships
While his research on culture has been informing his history classes for years — especially since his 1998 sabbatical — this month that research is being published by the University of Kentucky Press in a 648-page volume titled, “With Amusement for All: A History of American Popular Culture Since 1830.” Meticulously researched, with nearly 100 pages of notes and bibliography, the book traces the rise and sociological significance of mass entertainment — with reference to race, class, gender and politics — from the freak shows of P.T. Barnum to “Fear Factor.”

While there have been plenty of tomes written on the history of television, or film, advertising, sports or music, Ashby said he was determined to consider the whole kit and caboodle in one volume.

A starred review in “Library Journal” notes that “No single author has tackled popular culture with so much breadth and depth and managed to strike a balance between the popular and scholarly approach.”

“It’s a sampling,” Ashby said. “I’ve had to be very, very selective.” But, he said, only by attempting to look at the multifaceted dimensions of popular culture could be begin to see patterns and relationships.

For instance, in the 1960s, television shows such as “Mr. Ed” and “Petticoat Junction” were typical fare, while Hollywood was producing edgier social commentaries, such as “Midnight Cowboy,” “Cool Hand Luke” and “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?” But, he said, by the 1980s, the relationship had changed, with grittier television shows such as “Hill Street Blues” and “St. Elsewhere” becoming big hits, while Hollywood was striking it rich with “ET,” “Ghostbusters,” and “Back to the Future.”

Mass entertainment profitable
Popular culture, which Ashby defines as something created, bought and sold for mass entertainment, only became a legitimate area of study in the last 30 years. Even though pop culture has been a huge part of American life — both a mirror and an escape — since at least the mid-19th century.

In fact, Ashby originally planned to trace the history of American culture from the 1700s. However, he came to realize that a more appropriate starting place was 1830, when a rapidly expanding population, increased wealth and the growth of cities, coupled with improved transportation and a popular press, made it possible for people to profit from providing entertainment to the masses.

Ashby, whose early entertainment revolved around cowboy movies at the Saturday matinee, said he’s been “researching” popular culture for years.

“I’ve been working on it since I was a kid,” he said, and laughed.