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American Film Satire in the 1990s
by Johan NilssonSatire is often defined as a moral and rhetorical art that engages in social critique through wit and ridicule. During its long history it has come in many forms and genres as well as in different types of media (verse, drama, rhetorical performance, prose, cartoons, journalism, film, TV, internet). Here, Nilsson examines American film satire produced during the 1990s and how its style and form cue viewers towards constructing satirical meaning. The study offers an explanation for how a particular selection of films turned material circulating in American culture of the 1990s into satirical experiences for viewers and finds that there are elements of resistance to mainstream culture in the original material: resistance to norms and conventions in politics, to mainstream news channels and Hollywood, and to official American history.
American Films of the 70s: Conflicting Visions
by Peter LevWhile the anti-establishment rebels of 1969's Easy Rider were morphing into the nostalgic yuppies of 1983's The Big Chill, Seventies movies brought us everything from killer sharks, blaxploitation, and disco musicals to a loving look at General George S. Patton. Indeed, as Peter Lev persuasively argues in this book, the films of the 1970s constitute a kind of conversation about what American society is and should be—open, diverse, and egalitarian, or stubbornly resistant to change. Examining forty films thematically, Lev explores the conflicting visions presented in films with the following kinds of subject matter: Hippies (Easy Rider, Alice's Restaurant) Cops (The French Connection, Dirty Harry) Disasters and conspiracies (Jaws, Chinatown) End of the Sixties (Nashville, The Big Chill) Art, Sex, and Hollywood (Last Tango in Paris) Teens (American Graffiti, Animal House) War (Patton, Apocalypse Now) African-Americans (Shaft, Superfly) Feminisms (An Unmarried Woman, The China Syndrome) Future visions (Star Wars, Blade Runner) As accessible to ordinary moviegoers as to film scholars, Lev's book is an essential companion to these familiar, well-loved movies.
American Folk Art Quilts: Over 30 Designs to Create Your Own Classic Quilt
by Maggi McCormick GordonA Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Beautiful Quilts! Beautiful antique quilts and a workbook of patterns come together in this lavish photography book for quilters. The more than 30 featured quilts from the Wisconsin State Historical Society collection are displayed in period rooms at Old World Wisconsin, the Society's outdoor museum of German and Scandinavian farmhouses. Patterns and block layouts are provided for replicating each of the original quilts, and after seeing each of them in a true historical context, home sewers will be inspired to create their own versions.
American Folk Art for Kids: With 21 Activities (For Kids series #12)
by Richard PanchykDrawing on the natural folk art tendencies of children, who love to collect buttons, bottle caps, shells, and Popsicle sticks to create beautiful, imperfect art, this activity guide teaches kids about the history of this organic art and offers inspiration for them to create their own masterpieces. The full breadth of American folk art is surveyed, including painting, sculpture, decorative arts, and textiles from the 17th century through today. Making bubblegum wrapper chains, rag dolls, bottle cap sculptures, decoupage boxes, and folk paintings are just a few of the activities designed to bring out the artist in every child. Along the way kids learn about the lives of Americans throughout history and their casual relationships to everyday art as they cut stencils, sew needlepoint samplers, draw calligraphy birds, and design quilts. Important folk artists such as the last surviving Shakers, the legendary Grandma Moses, and the Reverend Howard Finster are also explored in sidebars throughout the book.
American Gamelan and the Ethnomusicological Imagination
by Elizabeth A. ClendinningGamelan and American academic institutions have maintained their close association for more than sixty years. Elizabeth A. Clendinning illuminates what it means to devote one’s life to world music ensemble education by examining the career and community surrounding the Balinese-American performer and teacher I Made Lasmawan. Weaving together stories of Indonesian and American practitioners, colleagues, and friends, Clendinning shows the impact of academic world music ensembles on the local and transnational communities devoted to education and the performing arts. While arguing for the importance of such ensembles, Clendinning also spotlights how performers and educators use them to create stable and rewarding artistic communities. Cross-cultural ensemble education emerges as a worthy goal for students and teachers alike, particularly at a time when people around the world express more enthusiasm about raising walls to keep others out rather than building bridges to invite them in.
American Girls
by Alison UmmingerA bittersweet, honest, and widely acclaimed YA coming-of-age novel that distills honest truths about American girldomAnna is a fifteen-year-old girl slouching toward adulthood, and she's had it with her life at home. So Anna "borrows" her stepmom's credit card and runs away to Los Angeles, where her half-sister takes her in. But LA isn't quite the glamorous escape Anna had imagined.As Anna spends her days on TV and movie sets, she engrosses herself in a project researching the murderous Manson girls—and although the violence in her own life isn't the kind that leaves physical scars, she begins to notice the parallels between herself and the lost girls of LA, and of America, past and present.In Anna's singular voice, we glimpse not only a picture of life on the B-list in LA, but also a clear-eyed reflection on being young, vulnerable, lost, and female in America—in short, on the B-list of life. Alison Umminger writes about girls, violence, and which people society deems worthy of caring about, which ones it doesn't, in a way not often seen in teen fiction.American Girls is:An ALA Booklist Top 10 First Novel A KirkusBest Book of the YearA Barnes & Noble Best YA Book of the YearA Chicago Public Library Best of the Best of 2016A Bustle Best YA Book of the YearYALSA's Best Fiction for Young Adults"Messy, honest, and unflinchingly real. I can't get this book out of my head. I don't want to get this book out of my head." —Becky Albertalli, Morris Award-winning author of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda
American Graffiti
by Margo ThompsonDepuis le début des années 1970, les graffeurs décorent l'extérieur des rames de métro avec des tags toujours plus grands et toujours plus élaborés. Dans le schéma primitiviste, les graffeurs, en tant qu'artistes en marge, offraient de nouvelles perspectives à la société américaine. Ils tendaient un miroir à la culture hégémonique. Les références aux médias ou à des elements culturels que les artistes intégraient dans leurs créations revêtent aujourd'hui une importance toute particulière, parce qu'elles représentent un point de contact entre les cultures et ont rendu cette « sousculture » plus accessible à son nouveau public. Cette forme d'expression résolument rebelle est ici analysée par Margo Thompson qui met en relation l'art du graffiti avec l'art contemporain. Tout comme les graffeurs apportaient une voix à une classe ethnique sous-représentée, l'auteur, grâce à une thèse originale, tend à servir d'ambassadrice à cette forme d'art souvent méconnue.
American Graphic: Disgust and Data in Contemporary Literature (Post*45)
by Rebecca B. ClarkWhat do we really mean when we call something "graphic"? In American Graphic, Rebecca Clark examines the "graphic" as a term tellingly at odds with itself. On the one hand, it seems to evoke the grotesque; on the other hand, it promises the geometrically streamlined in the form of graphs, diagrams, and user interfaces. Clark's innovation is to ask what happens when the same moment in a work of literature is graphic in both ways at once. Her answer suggests the graphic turn in contemporary literature is intimately implicated in the fraught dynamics of identification. As Clark reveals, this double graphic indexes the unseemliness of a lust—in our current culture of information—for cool epistemological mastery over the bodies of others. Clark analyzes the contemporary graphic along three specific axes: the ethnographic, the pornographic, and the infographic. In each chapter, Clark's explication of the double graphic reads a canonical author against literary, visual and/or performance works by Black and/or female creators. Pairing works by Edgar Allan Poe, Vladimir Nabokov, and Thomas Pynchon with pieces by Mat Johnson, Kara Walker, Fran Ross, Narcissister, and Teju Cole, Clark tests the effects and affects of the double graphic across racialized and gendered axes of differences. American Graphic forces us to face how closely and uncomfortably yoked together disgust and data have become in our increasingly graph-ick world.
American Ground: Unbuilding the World Trade Center
by William LangewiescheAn interesting study of the rescue effort after 9-11 and the attempt to clear away the debris, including the conflict between the fire and policemen.
American Homestead Christmas: 21 Felt & Fabric Projects for Homemade Holidays
by Ellen MurphySimple to stitch, perfect for gifts: Make your Christmas crafty with handmade ornaments, stockings, tree skirts, and more!American Homestead is back again—this time with charming small projects you can sew anytime, anywhere. Ellen Murphy shares twenty-one embroidered felt and quilted designs for the holidays in her signature folk-art style. These classic patterns can also be stitched up in alternate colors to be suitable all year round. Festive projects, from all-new felt ornaments to cheerful stockings, make beautiful tree trimmings and treasured gifts for family and friends.
American Homestead Quilts: Projects Inspired by Iconic House Styles from Brownstone & Saltbox to Craftsman & Farmhouse
by Ellen MurphyPair timeless quilt designs and classic American homes with this book featuring “lyrical commentary [and] clear how-tos” (Publishers Weekly).Designer Ellen Murphy has created unique quilts inspired by the colors and shapes of American houses. From colonial farmhouses to brownstones, these quilts will beautify any décor. This book includes patterns and complete instructions for nine traditional pieced quilts in a variety of sizes and color palettes, plus inspirational photos featuring iconic American homes. Classic-styled quilts are perfect for building your sewing skills: Begin with simple squares and work your way up to more challenging diamond patterns.
American Horror Film: The Genre at the Turn of the Millennium
by Steffen HantkeCreatively spent and politically irrelevant, the American horror film is a mere ghost of its former self—or so goes the old saw from fans and scholars alike. Taking on this undeserved reputation, the contributors to this collection provide a comprehensive look at a decade of cinematic production, covering a wide variety of material from the last ten years with a clear critical eye. Individual essays profile the work of up-and-coming director Alexandre Aja and reassess William Malone’s much-maligned Feardotcom in the light of the torture debate at the end of President George W. Bush’s administration. Other essays look at the economic, social, and formal aspects of the genre; the globalization of the US film industry; the alleged escalation of cinematic violence; and the massive commercial popularity of the remake. Some essays examine specific subgenres—from the teenage horror flick to the serial killer film and the spiritual horror film—as well as the continuing relevance of classic directors such as George A. Romero, David Cronenberg, John Landis, and Stuart Gordon. Essays deliberate on the marketing of nostalgia and its concomitant aesthetic and on the curiously schizophrenic perspective of fans who happen to be scholars as well. Taken together, the contributors to this collection make a compelling case that American horror cinema is as vital, creative, and thought-provoking as it ever was.
American Hotel: The Waldorf-Astoria and the Making of a Century
by David FreelandCompleted in 1931, New York’s Waldorf-Astoria towers over Park Avenue as an international landmark and a masterpiece of Art Deco architecture. A symbol of elegance and luxury, the hotel has hosted countless movie stars, business tycoons, and world leaders over the past ninety years. American Hotel takes us behind the glittering image to reveal the full extent of the Waldorf’s contribution toward shaping twentieth-century life and culture. Historian David Freeland examines the Waldorf from the opening of its first location in 1893 through its rise to a place of influence on the local, national, and international stage. Along the way, he explores how the hotel’s mission to provide hospitality to a diverse range of guests was put to the test by events such as Prohibition, the anticommunist Red Scare, and civil rights struggles. Alongside famous guests like Frank Sinatra, Martin Luther King, Richard Nixon, and Eleanor Roosevelt, readers will meet the lesser-known men and women who made the Waldorf a leader in the hotel industry and a key setting for international events. American Hotel chronicles how institutions such as the Waldorf-Astoria played an essential role in New York’s growth as a world capital.
American House Styles (Second edition): A Concise Guide
by John Milnes Baker“An engaging historical account and an attractive, practical resource.” —Booklist Colonial, Neoclassical, Queen Anne, Craftsman—what distinguishes one architectural style from another? This unique book will allow readers to recognize the architectural features and style of virtually any house they encounter. Here, architect John Milnes Baker explains the historical, cultural, and technical influences that shaped each of these styles and many more. Organized in periods, from Early Colonial (1600–1715) to the Modern Movement (1920–60) and beyond, this tour of America’s varied residential architecture is rendered in elevation drawings that precisely illustrate the key characteristics of each style. Nearly 25 years since the original publication of American House Styles, this updated edition includes a new preface and house styles from the mid-1990s to the present—from the rise and fall of the McMansion to energy-efficient, regionally influenced homes. The illustrations, now in color, are more delightful than ever in a new, larger format. This a must-have volume for anyone interested in architecture or adding a bit of style to their home.
American Idol: The Untold Story
by Richard RushfieldThe currency is fame, and it's bigger than money, more desired than power. Each season American Idol delivers on a promise whose epic scope is unparalleled in the annals of competition: to take an unknown dreamer from the middle of America and turn him or her into a genuine star. It has become not only the biggest show on television, but the biggest force in all of entertainment; its alumni dominate the recording charts and Broadway, win Academy Awards, and sweep up Grammys. In fact, American Idol has reshaped the very idea of celebrity. But it didn't start out that way. When the little singing contest debuted as a summer replacement on the U.S. airwaves, it was packed between reruns and low-cost filler. The promise that it would find America's next pop star produced a hearty round of guffaws from the country's media critics. Now, some ten years and millions of records later, no one is laughing. American Idol: The Untold Story chronicles the triumphs and travails, the harrowing backstage drama and the nail-biting onstage battles that built this revolutionary show. In this revealing book, veteran journalist Richard Rushfield goes deeper inside the circus than any reporter ever has. Candid interviews with Idol alumni, including Simon Fuller and Simon Cowell, shed new light on the show that changed the entertainment industry. And because Rushfield had full access to the people who created the show, starred in it, and kept it atop the pop culture pyramid, this book is the first to take Americans behind the curtain and tell what has really been happening on the world's most watched and speculated-about stage.
American Imperial Pastoral: The Architecture of US Colonialism in the Philippines
by Rebecca Tinio MckennaIn 1904, renowned architect Daniel Burnham, the Progressive Era urban planner who famously “Made No Little Plans,” set off for the Philippines, the new US colonial acquisition. Charged with designing environments for the occupation government, Burnham set out to convey the ambitions and the dominance of the regime, drawing on neo-classical formalism for the Pacific colony. The spaces he created, most notably in the summer capital of Baguio, gave physical form to American rule and its contradictions. In American Imperial Pastoral, Rebecca Tinio McKenna examines the design, construction, and use of Baguio, making visible the physical shape, labor, and sustaining practices of the US’s new empire—especially the dispossessions that underwrote market expansion. In the process, she demonstrates how colonialists conducted market-making through state-building and vice-versa. Where much has been made of the racial dynamics of US colonialism in the region, McKenna emphasizes capitalist practices and design ideals—giving us a fresh and nuanced understanding of the American occupation of the Philippines.
American Indian Beadwork
by W. Ben Hunt J.F. "Buck" BurshearsOne of the original classical books on Indian beadwork art. Includes detailed directions for various beading stitches as well as making and stringing a loom.
American Indian Design and Decoration
by Le Roy AppletonThe most original and most powerful design art produced in the Western Hemisphere is also its most indigenous: that of the Indian, in innumerable cultures existing from prehistory to the arrival of the white man, reaching from the Arctic Circle to Tierra del Fuego. It owes, of course, nothing to Europe or the classical Orient. It is tremendous in variety, differing region by region, era by era, often tribe by tribe. It is always vigorously distinctive. This book, 20 years in preparation, shows us that art in all its profuse diversity and in the almost numberless crafts for which the American Indian is famous. Well over 700 examples, drawn with painstaking care, are shown: representations of flora and fauna, men and gods, earth and sky; symbols of clan and tribe, religion and magic; formal designs from the primal to the highly intricate. They appear in examples of basketry, weaving, pottery, sculpture, painting, lapidary work, masks, drumheads, weapons, apparel, beadwork, goldwork, blankets, ponchos, and many other forms. The arts and crafts of Inca, Tiahuanaco, Chimú, Maya, Axtec, Zapotec, Totonac, Mixtec, Navaho, Zuni, Hopi, Apache, Cherokee, Creek, Winnebago, Dakota, Blackfoot, Nez Percé, Cheyenne, Crow, Sioux, Cochiti, Haida, Bellacoola, and others known and unknown are here. Each section is preceded by a page of typical motifs of an area, making it easy to isolate the design elements. In addition, the lore and tradition behind the designs are told in a text reproducing the Indians' own stories and songs. Separate indices simplify locating the work of particular tribes and regions. Craftspeople will find in this book a prolific source of timeless, eternally valid design ideas representing years of research in museums all over the hemisphere; for the graphic artist there is a wealth of material than can be adapted directly to his needs. All those interested in the Americans who preceded us on these continents will find this work unique.
American Indians of the Pikes Peak Region
by Pikes Peak Historical Society Celinda R. KaelinThousands of years before Zebulon Pike's name became attached to this famous mountain, Pikes Peak was home to indigenous people. These First Nations left no written record of their sojourn here, but what they did leave were stone circles, carefully crafted arrowheads and stone tools, enigmatic petroglyphs, and culturally scarred trees. In the 1500s, Spanish explorers documented their locations, language, and numbers. In the 1800s, mountain men and official explorers such as Pike, Fremont, and Long also wrote about these First Nations. Comanche, Apache, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Kiowa, and Lakota made incursions into the region. These nations contested Ute land possession, harvested the abundant wildlife, and paid homage to the powerful spirits at Garden of the Gods and Manitou Springs. Today Ute Indians return to Garden of the Gods and to Pikes Peak each year to perform their sacred Sundance Ceremony.
American Jewish Filmmakers
by Lester D. Friedman David DesserWoody Allen, Mel Brooks, Sidney Lumet, and Paul Mazursky, all sons of East European Jews, remain among the most prominent contemporary American film directors. In this revised, updated second edition of American Jewish Filmmakers, David Desser and Lester D. Friedman demonstrate how the Jewish experience gives rise to an intimately linked series of issues in the films of these and other significant Jewish directors. The effects of the Holocaust linger, both in gripping dramatic form (Mazursky's Enemies, a Love Story) and in black comedy (Brooks's The Producers). In his trilogy consisting of Serpico, Prince of the City, and Q&A, Lumet focuses on the failure of society's institutions to deliver social justice. Woody Allen portrays urban life and family relationships (Manhattan and Hannah and Her Sisters), sometimes with a nostalgic twist (Radio Days). This edition concludes with a newly written discussion of the careers of other prominent Jewish filmmakers such as Steven Spielberg, Barry Levinson, Brian Singer, and Darren Aronofsky.
American Kairos: Washington National Cathedral and the New Civil Religion
by Richard Benjamin CrosbyA history of Washington National Cathedral and the theory of an American civil religion.In 1792, Pierre Charles L'Enfant, the first city planner of Washington, DC, introduced the idea of a "great church for national purposes." Unlike L'Enfant's plans for the White House, the US Capitol, and the National Mall, this grand temple to the republic never materialized. But in 1890, the Episcopal Church began planning what is known today as Washington National Cathedral. In American Kairos, Richard Benjamin Crosby chronicles the history of not only the building but also the idea that animates it, arguing that the cathedral is a touchstone site for the American civil religion—the idea that the United States functions much like a religion, with its own rituals, sacred texts, holy days, and so on. He shows that the National Cathedral can never be the church L'Enfant envisioned, but it can be a starting point for studying the conflicts over belonging, ideology, and America's place in the world that define the American civil religion. By examining correspondence between L'Enfant, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and others, and by diving into Washington National Cathedral's archives, Crosby uncovers a crucial gap in the formation of the nation's soul. While L'Enfant's original vision was never realized, Washington National Cathedral reminds us that perhaps it can be. The cathedral is one of the great rhetorical and architectural triumphs in the history of American religion. Without government mandate or public vote, it has claimed its role as America's de facto house of worship, a civil religious temple wherein Americans conduct some of their highest, holiest rituals, including state funerals and National Day of Prayer services.
American Landscapes: Meditations on Art and Literature in a Changing World (University of Mississippi Museum and Historic Houses Series)
by Ann J. Abadie and J. Richard GruberAmerican Landscapes: Meditations on Art and Literature in a Changing World is a major contemporary survey of landscapes in art and literature of the United States, especially the American South. Inspired by William Dunlap’s extraordinary landscape Meditations on the Origins of Agriculture in America and a collection of forty paintings and photographs by Southern artists, this volume brings together artists, authors, and scholars to present new perspectives on art and literature both past and present. The volume includes art and text from artists John Alexander, Jason Bouldin, William Dunlap, Carlyle Wolfe Lee, Ke Francis, Linda Burgess, Randy Hayes; photographers Sally Mann, Ed Croom, and Huger Foote; museum directors Betsy Bradley, Jane Livingston, and Julian Rankin; and authors W. Ralph Eubanks, John Grisham, J. Richard Gruber, Jessica B. Harris, Lisa Howorth, Julia Reed, Natasha Trethewey, Curtis Wilkie, Joseph M. Pierce, and Drew Gilpin Faust. This diverse group explores major eras of American history portrayed in Dunlap’s painting, a landscape that evokes the displacement and genocide of Native Americans, the enslavement of Africans, the Civil War, and William Faulkner’s fiction. They examine the history of landscape art in America, connecting art with the works of major writers like William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, Natasha Trethewey, and Jesmyn Ward. In eighteen new essays written during the pandemic and since the events of January 6, 2021, the essayists emphasize how the key issues Dunlap addressed in his 1987 artwork have become part of the national discourse and make his work even more vital today.
American League: The Early Years (Images of Sports)
by David Lee PorembaShowcasing two influential decades of home runs, stolen bases, and national heroes, David Lee Poremba invites us to take an in-depth look back through the history of baseball in The American League: The Early Years. Poremba has collected over 200 images and captions in this new volume that documents the fledgling American League and its charismatic teams, from its creation in 1901 to its lively rebirth as America's Pastime in 1920. Founded nearly a century ago when Western League President Ban Johnson renamed the circuit in 1900, the American League defied the norm. Amidst the struggles to name a National League president and the expiration of the National Agreement which governed the baseball world, Johnson leapt into open competition for players and fans. Seen in this extensive photographic collection are the historic players lured away from the National League and into the higher paying American League, including Ty Cobb, "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, "Wee" Willie Keeler, Cy Young, Nap Lajoie, and many others. With the introduction of the cork-centered baseball in 1910 and the advent of the Sultan of Swat, Babe Ruth, the game of baseball would change forever.
American Lightning
by Howard BlumIt was an explosion that reverberated across the country--and into the very heart of early-twentieth-century America. On the morning of October 1, 1910, the walls of the Los Angeles Times Building buckled as a thunderous detonation sent men, machinery, and mortar rocketing into the night air. When at last the wreckage had been sifted and the hospital triage units consulted, twenty-one people were declared dead and dozens more injured. But as it turned out, this was just a prelude to the devastation that was to come.In American Lightning, acclaimed author Howard Blum masterfully evokes the incredible circumstances that led to the original "crime of the century"--and an aftermath more dramatic than even the crime itself. With smoke still wafting up from the charred ruins, the city's mayor reacts with undisguised excitement when he learns of the arrival, only that morning, of America's greatest detective, William J. Burns, a former Secret Service man who has been likened to Sherlock Holmes. Surely Burns, already world famous for cracking unsolvable crimes and for his elaborate disguises, can run the perpetrators to ground. Through the work of many months, snowbound stakeouts, and brilliant forensic sleuthing, the great investigator finally identifies the men he believes are responsible for so much destruction. Stunningly, Burns accuses the men--labor activists with an apparent grudge against the Los Angeles Times's fiercely anti-union owner--of not just one heinous deed but of being part of a terror wave involving hundreds of bombings. While preparation is laid for America's highest profile trial ever--and the forces of labor and capital wage hand-to-hand combat in the streets--two other notable figures are swept into the drama: industry-shaping filmmaker D.W. Griffith, who perceives in these events the possibility of great art and who will go on to alchemize his observations into the landmark film The Birth of a Nation; and crusading lawyer Clarence Darrow, committed to lend his eloquence to the defendants, though he will be driven to thoughts of suicide before events have fully played out.Simultaneously offering the absorbing reading experience of a can't-put-it-down thriller and the perception-altering resonance of a story whose reverberations continue even today, American Lightning is a masterpiece of narrative nonfiction.From the Hardcover edition.
American Lightning
by Howard BlumIt was an explosion that reverberated across the country--and into the very heart of early-twentieth-century America. On the morning of October 1, 1910, the walls of the Los Angeles Times Building buckled as a thunderous detonation sent men, machinery, and mortar rocketing into the night air. When at last the wreckage had been sifted and the hospital triage units consulted, twenty-one people were declared dead and dozens more injured. But as it turned out, this was just a prelude to the devastation that was to come.In American Lightning, acclaimed author Howard Blum masterfully evokes the incredible circumstances that led to the original "crime of the century"--and an aftermath more dramatic than even the crime itself. With smoke still wafting up from the charred ruins, the city's mayor reacts with undisguised excitement when he learns of the arrival, only that morning, of America's greatest detective, William J. Burns, a former Secret Service man who has been likened to Sherlock Holmes. Surely Burns, already world famous for cracking unsolvable crimes and for his elaborate disguises, can run the perpetrators to ground. Through the work of many months, snowbound stakeouts, and brilliant forensic sleuthing, the great investigator finally identifies the men he believes are responsible for so much destruction. Stunningly, Burns accuses the men--labor activists with an apparent grudge against the Los Angeles Times's fiercely anti-union owner--of not just one heinous deed but of being part of a terror wave involving hundreds of bombings. While preparation is laid for America's highest profile trial ever--and the forces of labor and capital wage hand-to-hand combat in the streets--two other notable figures are swept into the drama: industry-shaping filmmaker D.W. Griffith, who perceives in these events the possibility of great art and who will go on to alchemize his observations into the landmark film The Birth of a Nation; and crusading lawyer Clarence Darrow, committed to lend his eloquence to the defendants, though he will be driven to thoughts of suicide before events have fully played out.Simultaneously offering the absorbing reading experience of a can't-put-it-down thriller and the perception-altering resonance of a story whose reverberations continue even today, American Lightning is a masterpiece of narrative nonfiction.From the Hardcover edition.