Arthur Asa Berger

ARTHUR ASA BERGER I am the author of more than 100 articles and more than 90 books on popular culture, media, humor, advertising and tourism. I have also written some academic murder mysteries in which I bump off academics various ways and write nasty things about academia. I was born in Boston, Mass. I went to school at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, MA for my BA degree in literature and philosophy. I went to the University of Iowa in Iowa City for my MA degree in journalism (but I also studied at the Writers' Workshop there)and I went to the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis for my Ph.D degree in American Studies. I wrote my dissertation on the comic strip Li'L Abner. After I received my MA degree I was drafted into the US Army and I did public information in Washington DC for two years. I also wrote high school sports for the Washington Post weekends while I was in the Army. I lived in Italy for a year in 1963 and taught American literature at the University of Milan. I also lived in England for a year in 1973 doing research on pop culture there. I taught at San Francisco State University from 1965 until 2003, when I retired. My books have been translated into Russian, Italian, German, Arabic, Indonesia, Swedish, Korean and Chinese. These Chinese like my books and have translated 12 of my books. Not all reviewers like my books. A review of my book THE TV-GUIDED AMERICAN, published in the early 1970s read "Berger is to the study of television what Idi Amin is to tourism in Uganda." I've lectured in many different countries, such as England, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Thailand, Vietnam, Peru, and Tunisia. I was a visiting professor in Hong Kong for two months (in a school of tourism)in 2008 and I taught media criticism for six weeks in 2009 at Jinan University in Guangzhou and Tsing Hua University in Beijing. I spent a month in Argentina in September and October of 2012 lecturing on semiotics, media criticism and post modernism. In the course of my career I've lectured in around 20 foreign countries. I have continued to write and love to travel. I've visited more than 60 countries over the years. I live in Mill Valley, California. I have some new books I've written are being published that will be of interest: Everyday Life in the Postmodern World (Springer), Crowds in American Culture (Anthem), Searching for a Self (Anthem), Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors (Anthem), The Political Animal (Cambridge Scholars). Here is a complete list of my books and their publishers. 1. Li'l Abner, 1970 (Twayne), 1994 (Univ. of Mississippi Press) 2. The Evangelical Hamburger, 1970 (MSS Publications) 3. Pop Culture, 1973 (Pflaum) 4. About Man, 1974 (Pflaum) 5. The Comic Stripped American, 1974 (Walker & Co., Penguin, Milano Libri) 6. The TV Guided American, 1975 (Walker & Co.) 7. Language in Thought and Action (in collaboration with S.I.Hayakawa, 1974, 1978) (HBJ) 8. Film in SOCIETY, 1978 (Transaction) 9. Television as an Instrument of Terror, 1978 (Transaction) 10. Media Analysis Techniques, 1982, 2nd Edition 1998 (SAGE) 11. Signs in Contemporary Culture, 1984 (Longman); 2nd edition, Sheffield, 1998. (Indonesian edition, 2003) 12. Television in SOCIETY, l986 (Transaction) 13. Semiotics of Advertising, 1987 (Herodot) 14. Media USA, 1988, (Longman 2nd Edition, 1991 15. Seeing is Believing: An Introduction to Visual Communication, 1989 (McGraw-Hill). 16. Political Culture and Public Opinion, 1989 (Transaction) 17. Agitpop: Political Culture and Communication Theory, 1989 (Transaction) 18. Scripts: Writing for Radio and Television, 1990 (SAGE) 19. Media Research Techniques, 1991, 2nd edition 1998 (SAGE) 20. Reading Matter, 1992 (Transaction) 21. Popular Culture Genres, 1992 (SAGE) 22. An Anatomy of Humor, 1993. (Transaction) 23. Improving Writing Skills, 1993 (SAGE) 24. Blind Men & Elephants: Perspectives on Humor, 1995 (Transaction) 25. Cultural Criticism: A Primer of Key Concepts, 1995 (SAGE 26. Essentials of Mass Communication Theory, 1995 (SAGE) 27. Manufacturing Desire: Media, Popular Culture & Everyday Life, 1996 (Transaction) 28. Narratives in Popular Culture, Media & Everyday Life, 1997 (SAGE) 29. The Genius of the Jewish Joke, 1997 (Jason Aronson) 30. Bloom’s Morning, 1997 (Westview/HarperCollins) 31. The Art of Comedy Writing, 1997 (Transaction) 32. Postmortem for a Postmodernist, 1997 (AltaMira). 33. The Postmodern Presence, 1998. (AltaMira) 34. Media & Communication Research Methods, 2000. (SAGE) 35. Ads, Fads & Consumer Culture, 2000. (Rowman & Littlefield) 36. Jewish Jesters, 2001. (Hampton Press) 37. The Mass Comm Murders: Five Media Theorists Self-Destruct. 2002 (Rowman & Littlefield). 38. The Agent in the Agency. 2003 (Hampton Press) 39. The Portable Postmodernist, 2003 (AltaMira Press) 40. Durkheim is Dead: Sherlock Holmes is Introduced to Social Theory, 2003 (AltaMira Press) 41. Media and Society, 2003 (Rowman & Littlefield) 42. Games and Activities for Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Students. 2004. (Rowman & Littlefield) 43. Ocean Travel and Cruising, 2004 (Haworth) 44. Deconstructing Travel: A Cultural Perspective, 2004 (AltaMira Press) 45. Making Sense of Media: Key Texts in Media and Cultural Studies, 2004 (Blackwell) 46. Shop Till You Drop: Perspectives on American Consumer Culture. 2004. (Rowman & Littlefield) 47. The Kabbalah Killings. 2004. (PulpLit) 48. Vietnam Tourism. 2005. (Haworth) 49. Mistake in Identity: A Cultural Studies Murder Mystery. 2005. (AltaMira) 50. 50 Ways to Understand Communication. 2006. Rowman & Littlefield. 51. Thailand Tourism. 2008. (Haworth Hospitality and Tourism Press) 52. The Golden Triangle. 2008. (Transaction Books). 53. The Academic Writer’s Toolkit: A User’s Manual. 2008. (LeftCoast Press) 54. What Objects Mean: An Introduction to Material Culture 2009. (LeftCoast Press) 55. Tourism in Japan: An Ethno-Semiotic Analysis. 2010 (Channel View Publications) 56. The Cultural Theorist’s Book of Quotations. 2010. (Left Coast Press) 57. The Objects of Affection: Semiotics and Consumer Culture. 2010. (Palgrave) 58. Understanding American Icons: An Introduction to Semiotics. 2012. (Left Coast Press). 59. Media, Myth and Society. 2012. (Palgrave Pivot) 60. Theorizing Tourism. 2012. (Left Coast Press). 61. Bali Tourism. 2013. (Haworth). 62. A Year Amongst the UK: Notes on Character and Culture in England 1973-1974. Marin Arts Press. 63. Dictionary of Advertising and Marketing Concepts. 2013 (Left Coast Press) 64. Messages: An Introduction to Communication. 2015. (Left Coast Press) 65. Gizmos, or The Electronic Imperative. 2015. (Palgrave) 66. Applied Discourse Analysis. 2016. (Palgrave) 67. Marketing and American Consumer Culture. 2016 (Palgrave) 68. Perspectives on Everyday Life. 2018 (Palgrave) 69. Cultural Perspectives on Millennials. 2018 (Palgrave) 70. Freud is Fixated: Sherlock Holmes and Psychoanalytic Theory. 2018. (Marin Arts Press) 71. Semiotics of Sport. 2018. (Marin Arts Press) 72. Signs and Society: 2019 (Nanjing Normal University Press) 73. Three Tropes on Trump. 2019. (Peter Lang) 74. Brands and Cultural Analysis. 2019 (Palgrave) 75. Shopper’s Paradise: Retail and American Consumer Culture 2019 (Brill) 76. Humor, Psyche, and Society. 2020. (Vernon) 77. Saussure Suspects. 2020. (Marin Arts) 78. Travel Notes. 2020. (Marin Arts) 79. My Name is Sherlock Holmes. 2020 (Marin Arts) 80. Trump’s Followers. 2020. (Peter Lang) 81. USA POP. 2020. (Cambridge Scholars) 82. LUXE: Luxury in American Consumer Culture. 2020 (Cambridge Scholars) 83. The Creative Process. 2021. (Cambridge Scholars) 84. Smooth Sailing. 2022. (Brill) in press 85. Why We Love Westerns. 2022. (DSP) 86. Searching for a Self. 2022. (Vernon) 87. Everyday Life in the Postmodern World. 2022. (Springer) in press 88. Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors. 2022. (Anthem) in press 89. Semiotics of Sport. 2022. (Brill) in press 90. The Political Animal. 2022? 91. The New Crowd: An American Variation. 2022? 92. Taste: Why We Like What We Like. 2022?