Theory

Professor Peter C. Rollins

So often, today, the contrasting approach either projects current "methodological models" on past materials or berates the past for not being as well-informed and sophisticated as we think we are. Really serious people today are interested in Theory. As one of the Harvard professors told me at an American Studies Association meeting years ago, the interest in theory "absolves them of doing research." Later, Ray Browne, Founder of the Popular Culture Association, would tell me that "theory is the hiding place for scoundrels."

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