Inside Culture: Art and Class in the American Home

Dubbed as "You Are What You Hang (or Don't)" by the New York Times,Inside Culture takes us on a tour of 160 homes in and around New York City, from affluent townhouses on Manhattan's Upper East Side and rowhouses in blue-collar Brooklyn to middle and upper-class suburbs of Long Island. The result is an unprecedented portrait of the use of cultural artifacts€"fine art, photographs, religious art€"in private lives.

"This is a first-class addition to what we know about culture in the specific rather than the abstract."€"Howard S. Becker, Contemporary  Sociology

"This book is well worth reading, especially in your own home."€"Eugene Halton, American Journal of Sociology

"David Halle's researches earned him a license amateur voyeurs would kill for. . . . Refreshing for readers outside his discipline."€"Peter Campbell, London Review of Books

"[This book] tells us interesting things about ourselves. . . . It affords us a birds-eye view of American culture from which we can see . . . unsuspected patterns of tastes and acquisitions."€"James Gardner, Washington Times

"[A] voyeuristic thrill. . . . Lucid and entertaining. . . . A fascinating book that will open the eyes of anyone who's ever glibly said about art, 'I know what I like.' After reading Inside  Culture, they'll also know a little bit more about why."€"Maureen Corrigan, New York Observer