Evangelists of culture: One Book programs and the agents who define literature, shape tastes, and reproduce regionalism

•Cultural evangelists try to win converts, in the present case, to reading.•Front-line cultural professionals share both elite and popular tastes but act independently.•One Book program selections are more cosmopolitan and diverse than popular books, and more gender and geographically egalitarian than prestigious books.•One Book selections show a wide-spread, persistent tropism toward place, localism, and regionalism.•Cultural evangelists heighten and perpetuate cultural regionalism.

The evangelists of culture are mid-level professionals who engage directly with the public. Sociological theories of cultural authority or popular demand fail to explain decisions made at this juncture. An analysis of 3110 selections made by 567 One Book programs, together with interviews with One Book program leaders from all 50 states, reveals that while those people working on the front line of culture both share the literary tastes of cultural authorities and recognize contemporary reader preferences, their choices do not reflect either. Instead, their selections are creative, the product of institutional needs, professional agendas, and a persistent tropism toward regional authors and themes. One Book programs perpetuate a culture of place – literary regionalism – that resists both elite tastes and market forces.