I. Thinking about history. The unpredictable past: reflections on recent American historiography ; The historian and the culture gap
II. Patterns of African-American culture. Slave songs and slave consciousness: explorations in neglected sources ; "Some go up and some go down": the meaning of the slave trickster ; African culture and U.S. slavery ; The concept of the new Negro and the realities of Black culture ; Marcus Garvey and the politics of revitalization
III. Towards an understanding of popular culture. William Shakespeare and the American people: a study in cultural transformation ; Jazz and American culture ; Progress and nostalgia: the self image of the nineteen twenties ; American culture and the Great Depression ; Hollywood's Washington: film images of national politics during the Great Depression ; The historian and the icon: photography and the history of the American people in the 1930s and 1940s ; The folklore of industrial society: popular culture and its audiences.
