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This ten-volume encyclopedia explores the social history of
20th-century America in rich, authoritative detail, decade by
decade, through the eyes of its everyday citizens. Social History
of the United States is a cornerstone reference that tells the
story of 20th-century America, examining the interplay of policies,
events, and everyday life in each decade of the 1900s with
unmatched authority, clarity, and insight. Spanning ten volumes and
featuring the work of some of the foremost social historians
working today, Social History of the United States bridges the gap
between 20th-century history as it played out on the grand stage
and history as it affected—and was affected by—citizens at the
grassroots level. Covering each decade in a separate volume, this
exhaustive work draws on the most compelling scholarship to
identify important themes and institutions, explore daily life and
working conditions across the economic spectrum, and examine all
aspects of the American experience from a citizen's-eye view.
Casting the spotlight on those whom history often leaves in the
dark, Social History of the United States is an essential addition
to any library collection.
This is the first work to go beyond the popular myths of stock car
racing to fully examine the sport's true history. NASCAR Nation: A
History of Stock Car Racing in the United States details the
ongoing saga of this quintessentially American pastime. Looking at
the drivers, events, and teams, it positions NASCAR racing within
larger social, economic, and cultural trends in an attempt to
address the sport's phenomenal growth and popularity. This
chronological examination of the evolution of stock car racing is
the first history to go beyond the widely held myth that it was
"invented" by Prohibition-era moonshiners. The book traces stock
car racing history from its beginnings, to the formation of The
National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) in 1948,
through today. Of course, readers will meet the sport's many
colorful personalities, including the Earnhardts, Richard Petty,
Jeff Gordon (who has raked in more than $70 million in career
winnings), "Fireball" Roberts, Darrell Waltrip, Daytona pioneer
Bill France, and women drivers like Janet Guthrie, Louise Smith,
and Jennifer Jo Cobb. While the focus is on NASCAR, the book also
examines other prominent stock car racing organizations to round
out its comprehensive portrait.
The first full-length biography of William Dudley Pelley, an
important figure in the development of right-wing extremism in the
United States called by detractors the ""Star-Spangled Fascist.""
William Dudley Pelley was one of the most important figures of the
anti-Semitic radical right in the twentieth century. Best
remembered as the leader of the paramilitary ""Silver Shirts,""
Pelley was also an award-winning short story writer, Hollywood
screenwriter, and religious leader. During the Depression Pelley
was a notorious presence in American politics; he ran for president
on a platform calling for the ghettoization of American Jews and
was a defendant in a headline-grabbing sedition trial thanks to his
unwavering support for Nazi Germany. Scott Beekman offers not only
a political but also an intellectual and literary biography of
Pelley, greatly advancing our understanding of a figure often
dismissed as a madman or charlatan. His belief system, composed of
anti-Semitism, economic nostrums, racialism, neo-Theosophical
channeling, and millenarian Christianity, anticipates the
eclecticism of later cult personalities such as Shoko Asahara,
leader of Aum Shinrikyo, and the British conspiracy theorist David
Icke. By charting the course of Pelley's career, Beekman does an
admirable job of placing Pelley within the history of both the
anti-Semitic right and American occult movements. This exhaustively
researched book is a welcome addition to the growing body of
scholarship on American extremism and esoteric religions.
Despite its status as one of the oldest and most enduringly popular
sports in history, wrestling has been pushed to the background of
the current American sports scene. Most people today would have a
hard time even considering wrestling (with some of its modern
theatrics) in the same terms as track and field or boxing. But
until the 1920s, wrestling stood as a legitimate professional sport
in this country, and a widely practiced amateur one as well. Its
past respectability may not have endured, but the advent of cable
television in the 1980s offered the sport a renewed opportunity to
play a determining role in American popular culture. This
opportunity was not wasted, and wrestlers now assume places in
politics and film at the highest levels. Ringside, the first work
to fully examine the history of professional wrestling in this
country, provides an illuminating and colorful account of all of
the various athletes, entertainers, businessmen, and national
outlooks that have determined wrestling's erratic route through
American history. This chronological work begins with a brief
account of wrestling's global history, and then proceeds to
investigate the sport's growth as a specifically American
institution. Wrestling has continued to survive in the face of
technological developments, scandals, public ridicule, and a lack
of centralized control, and today this supremely adaptable
entertainment form represents, in sum, an international industry
capable of attracting enormous television and pay-per-view
audiences, along with massive amounts of advertising and
merchandizing revenue. Ringside focuses on the business of
wrestling as well as on the performers and their in-ring antics,
and offersreaders a fully nuanced examination of the development of
professional wrestling in America.
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