From the Publisher
This is a book about one of the great untold stories of modern cultural life: the remarkable ascendancy of prizes in literature and the arts. Such prizes and the competitions they crown are almost as old as the arts themselves, but their number and power—and their consequences for society and culture at large—have expanded to an unprecedented degree in our day. In a wide-ranging overview of this phenomenon, James F. English documents the dramatic rise of the awards industry and its complex role within what he describes as an economy of cultural prestige.
Observing that cultural prizes in their modern form originate at the turn of the twentieth century with the institutional convergence of art and competitive spectator sports, English argues that they have in recent decades undergone an important shift—a more genuine and far-reaching globalization than what has occurred in the economy of material goods. Focusing on the cultural prize in its contemporary form, his book addresses itself broadly to the economic dimensions of culture, to the rules or logic of exchange in the market for what has come to be called "cultural capital." In the wild proliferation of prizes, English finds a key to transformations in the cultural field as a whole. And in the specific workings of prizes, their elaborate mechanics of nomination and election, presentation and acceptance, sponsorship, publicity, and scandal, he uncovers evidence of the new arrangements and relationships that have refigured that field.
Phil Hall
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Hartford Courant
James F. English's compelling [book] offers a harsh view of the process of giving and receiving special prizes. Anyone who thinks that awards genuinely pay tribute to excellence in achievement should have their naivete shaken away with this often-startling book.
Simone Murray
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English's far-ranging examination of the prize phenomenon is able to provide concrete specificity--the history of individual awards, their trophies' value, their administrative costs--as well as engaging with the most abstract questions of 'cultural capital'...One of the joys of English's project is the way it merges high cultural theory...with an astounding range of newspaper, magazine and television commentary, providing in the process an analysis of the prize 'event' as much as prize outcomes.
Howard Davies
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Times Higher Education Supplement
[English] has embedded himself in the public history of awards, emerging with a slew of entertaining anecdotes.
Michael North
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The Economy of Prestige, as James F. English himself is only too aware, is part of the phenomenon it is meant to explain. At the most basic level, English's book is an engaging and readable account of "the rise of the prize," the veritable explosion of global self-congratulation apparently set off by the institution of the Nobel Prize in 1901. Full of information and anecdote as it is, The Economy of Prestige also intends to analyze the larger "cultural field" established by these prizes, including both the interest they inspire and the critical hostility they so increasingly evoke. One of the most striking claims made by the book, in fact, is that there is no escape from "the economy of prestige"--that, as the common wisdom has it, there is no such thing as bad publicity. Even the most vehement opposition to a particular prize, or, for that matter, to the institution of prizes as a whole, simply cements the prize system all the more firmly in place...A large part of the very real interest of this book comes from the author's unfastidious curiosity about every detail of the awards industry. Not satisfied just to list and describe many of the awards themselves, English digs deeply into what he calls the "peculiarities" surrounding the prizes, including the burdens of administering and judging them, even the cash amounts and the actual physical trophies handed out in addition to the honors.
David Figlio
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Journal of Economic Literature
In this fascinating book, James F. English deftly paints a portrait of the current state of play in the "economy of cultural value." While describing the history of cultural prizes, he offers a compelling explanation for the economic forces that have led to their extraordinary proliferation over the last several decades.
Imre Salusinszky
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Weekend Australian
Fascinating...In The Economy of Prestige: Prizes, Awards, and the Circulation of Cultural Value, English argues that scandal and discord are part and parcel of the prize enterprise. This is because at the heart of the literary or cultural prize lies a series of loosely connected ambivalences--between art and commerce; high and popular culture; inspiration and marketing; imagination and materialism; devotion to the muse and a lust for personal reward--that are outrageous by definition.
The Guardian
Did you know that there are more film prizes than there are feature films made every year? I didn't. Similar odd facts abound in this fascinating analysis of the business of prizes and awards: their meaning, their financing, their cultural machinery. English sets off at a brisk trot through the history of gongs, from the tragedy prize at Athens, through the Nobels, the Goncourt and Booker, to the Oscars and the sadly defunct alternative Hubby Awards, which featured 'Best Kung-Fu' and 'Best Mindless Sex Comedy' categories...I hope someone inaugurates a prize for Best Book About Prizes, and gives it to this one.
Jim Holt
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New York Magazine
Intellectually shrewd and consistently entertaining.
Elaine Showalter
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Times Literary Supplement
[An] elegant and entertaining book...English positions himself as an objective analyst, whose aim is not to criticize the awards industry but to see it as part of contemporary cultural practice. He is a witty, shrewd, and urbane observer.
Louis Menand
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New Yorker
[An] ingenious analysis of the history and social function of cultural prizes and awards.
Art Carey
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Philadelphia Inquirer
The Economy of Prestige: Prizes, Awards, and the Circulation of Cultural Value argues that we've become an awards-crazy culture in a prize-drunk world.
Bryan Appleyard
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Sunday Times
[This is a] frequently hilarious and gripping book...An anecdotal delight and an intellectual revelation.
What People Are Saying
No one has tried to discuss the ins and outs of nonacademic cultural prestige as dispassionately as English does. We have scads of gossipy tales of how the game works and is played, but nothing like the nonparticipant-observer account on offer here. This book is truly ground-breaking, as well as informative and entertaining.
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