Based upon a thorough understanding of the evolution of Black English and the development of American culture, Black English and the Mass Media integrates mass communications / journalism and linguistics within a broad theoretical and historical framework.From analysis of the mass media, Dr. Brasch develops a major new theory to explain the historical development of Black English, which he identifies as a valid dialect, and to present a hypothesis that may explain historical development of genre.

       Extensive description and analysis of data from the mass media justify the Cycle Theory of American Black English. According to Dr. Brasch, concern for American Black English has fallen within five separate and distinct cycles--each of which existed for twenty-five to forty years--with a peak period near the mid-point of the cycle and followed by an intercycle of between ten and twenty years. He contends that each cycle not only contained a greater volume of materials than the previous cycle but was dominated by a different genre from that of the previous cycle-just as the mass media were dominated by different genres at various times.

       The cycles are identified as the Colonial-Revolutionary Cycle (ca. 1765 - ca. 1800), the Antebellum Cycle (ca. 1820-ca. 1860), the Reconstruction Cycle (ca. 1867 - ca. 1902), the Negro Renaissance Cycle (ca. 1915 - ca. 1940), and the Civil Rights Cycle (ca. 1958 - ca. mid-1980s). A sixth cycle and subsequent ones are predicted.

Hardcover edition originally published by:
- University of Massachusetts Press
Paperback edition published by:
- University Press of America
Reprint edition published by:
- Author's Guild / iuniverse

Selections from Black English
Acknowledgments
Introduction