I consider technology as a partial explanation of the historical shift towards big government. The late nineteenth century and early twentieth century saw a fundamental change in the production technology for large government, and for large institutions more generally. Large institutional...

Frontmatter -- Acknowledgments -- Contents -- Introduction -- 1 The Arts in a Market Economy -- 2 The Market for the Written Word -- 3 The Wealthy City as a Center for Western Art -- 4 From Bach to the Beatles: The Developing Market for Music -- 5 Why Cultural Pessimism? -- Notes -- Index

A Frenchman rents a Hollywood movie. A Thai schoolgirl mimics Madonna. Saddam Hussein chooses Frank Sinatra's "My Way" as the theme song for his fifty-fourth birthday. It is a commonplace that globalization is subverting local culture. But is it helping as much as it hurts? In this strikingly...