Reprint. Originally published: 2006. Includes bibliographical references (pages 587-612) and index.
Contents:
Prologue : popular culture on the brink -- Blackface, Barnum, and newspaper ballyhoo -- Taming rough amusements, 1840s-1860s -- Building an entertainment industry -- The billion-dollar smile : from burlesque to vaudeville and amusement parks -- The leisure problem at the turn of the century -- Popular culture and middle-class respectability in the early twentieth century -- Battling the Great Depression -- Building a wartime consensus in the 1940s and 1950s -- Counterpoints to consensus -- Popular culture and 1960s ferment -- Up for grabs : leaving the 1960s -- A pop culture society -- Epilogue : pop culture in a post-9/11 world.
Summary:
Popular culture is a central part of everyday life to many Americans. Personalities such as Elvis Presley, Oprah Winfrey, and Michael Jordan are more recognizable to many people than are most elected officials. With Amusement for All is the first comprehensive history of two centuries of mass entertainment in the United States, covering everything from the penny press to Playboy, the NBA to NASCAR, big band to hip hop, and other topics including film, comics, television, sports, dance, and music. Paying careful attention to matters of race, gender, class, technology, economics, and politics, LeRoy Ashby emphasizes the complex ways in which popular culture simultaneously reflects and transforms American culture, revealing that the world of entertainment constantly evolves as it tries to meet the demands of a diverse audience. Trends in popular entertainment often reveal the tensions between competing ideologies, appetites, and values in American society.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.