Kenneth Marcus

• Ph.D.
• Professor (Full) at University of La Verne

In an environment of racial tension and conflict in Southern California during the first half of the twentieth century, the Ramona Pageant and the plays by the Padua Hills Mexican Players offered Mexican American performers a vital role in perpetuating cultural memory through music and dance. The Ramona Pageant, which began in Hemet, California in...

As one of the most widely-respected German writers of the twentieth century, Thomas Mann (1875–1955) was a key figure in supporting and communicating the idea of a free and democratic Germany during a period of enormous international tension and conflict. While a professor of literature at Princeton (1938–41) and a resident of Los Angeles (1941–52)...

Recent work in American cultural history reveals a strong interest in the methodologies of other disciplines as well as developing transnational interpretations of American history. This article considers work that examines photography, film, and music. The use of visual and oral sources has long offered scholars alternative ways of viewing the pas...

Chinese elites who were exempted from the Exclusion Act of 1882 became important figures in interethnic dialogue in the West. This article focuses on herbalists and missionaries, who were often able to cross boundaries of race, geography, and gender through their professions. In comparing the experiences of these elites in Los Angeles with their co...

Scholars in American cultural history, ethnic studies, folklore, and musicology have increasingly placed music in its social and cultural context. This article surveys recent scholarship on popular music, country music and classical music, with an interest in determining how race and ethnicity, gender, and class have influenced the performance and...

German courts have long been renowned for their support of music. How long could this support continue in times of war? This article considers the fate of the Württemberg Hofkapelle during the Thirty Years War (1618-48), a conflict that forced many distinguished Hofkapellen to close their doors for much of the war's duration. The Hofkapelle (litera...

Decentralization and diversity characterized much of the performance of art music in Los Angeles. Decentralization defined the city's growth since the late-nineteenth century, and because the central city did not dominate music culture, as in the East and Midwest, a greater diversification of music emerged in the communities of Greater Los Angeles....