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Star Sociologists: Anatomy of a Disciplinary Elite (Socio-Historical Studies of the Social and Human Sciences)
by Philipp KoromThis book aims to overcome sociology’s preoccupation with individual authors by exploring a larger social phenomenon that occurs in all academic disciplines but has been paid little attention: the prestige elite. Members of this elite attain the highest levels of peer recognition, their books sometimes circulate by the hundreds of thousands, and every student has read about them. Based on large citation studies, Star Sociologists provides a roster of eminent sociologists, documents the changing elite’s composition over time, contrasts the elite’s career pathways with those of the Nobel Laureates in economics, gives insights into how scholars rise to or fall from eminence, and empirically probes the gatekeeping power of one of its key proponents. The book explores eminence by contextualising conditions that are outside of the elite and argues that in any discipline that is intellectually as disintegrated as sociology, eminence is to be understand as a nested phenomenon: scholars make it into the elite if their ideas are adopted in very different intellectual fields that share little common ground.
Star-Spangled Banner: The Unlikely Story of America's National Anthem
by Marc FerrisThe first comprehensive history of America’s controversial national anthem and how it evolved from an English barroom ballad into a patriotic hit.Nearly every American knows The Star-Spangled Banner, the national anthem of the United States of America. Yet many people dislike the song, contend that it glorifies militarism, and question its suitability as the musical embodiment of nationhood. Even professional vocalists have trouble singing the multi-octave melody and remembering the words. So why in 1931 did Congress designate it as the official national anthem, more than a century after Francis Scott Key put pen to paper?Filled with fascinating, little-known facts drawn from a variety of primary sources, Star-Spangled Banner provides the first narrative history of this controversial song, which turns 200 years old in 2014. Marc Ferris’s lively account, which traces the evolution of the song’s instant popularity as well as its use and abuse by Americans of different political stripes, also explains the changing rituals surrounding the song, including the practice of standing—with hats removed and hand held over the heart—during public performances.This entertaining book will appeal to patriots of all persuasions, along with sports fans, musicians, veterans, history buffs, and anyone who has ever struggled to hit the high notes in the land of the free and the home of the brave.
The Star-Spangled Hustle: The Story of a Nixon Promise
by Arthur I. Blaustein Geoffrey P. FauxThe Star-Spangled Hustle reviews the Nixon administration's work to defuse political advocacy of African Americans by offering economic opportunities, with limited success.
Star-Spangled Men: America's Ten Worst Presidents
by Nathan MillerPicking America's best presidents is easy. George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin D. Roosevelt usually lead the list, But choosing the nation's worst presidents requires more thought. In Star-Spangled Men, respected presidential biographer Nathan Miller puts on display those leaders who were abject failures as chief executive. With pointed humor and a deft hand, he presents a rogues' gallery of the men who dropped the presidential ball, and sometimes their pants as well.Miller includes Richard M. Nixon, who was forced to resign to escape impeachment; Jimmy Carter, who proved that the White House is not the place for on-the-job training; and Warren G. Harding, who gave "being in the closet" new meaning as he carried on extramarital interludes in one near the Oval Office. This current edition also includes a new assessment of Bill Clinton -- who has admitted lying to his family, his aides, his cabinet, and the American people.
Star Stories: Constellations and People
by Anthony Aveni“Skillfully guides us around the awesome night sky through the imagination of different peoples around the world, past and present. A wonderful treasury.” —Jacqueline Mitton, author of Zoo in the SkyMost of us can recall searching the clouds as children for recognizable shapes and pictures. Similarly, since the dawn of humankind, the night sky has been filled with countless points of light that beckon gazers to connect the dots.We can see love, betrayal, and friendship in the heavens, if we know where to look. A world expert on cultural understandings of cosmology, Anthony Aveni provides an unconventional atlas of the night sky, introducing tales beloved for generations. The constellations included are not only your typical Greek and Roman myths, but star patterns conceived by a host of cultures, non-Western and indigenous, ancient and contemporary.Follow an epic animal race, a quest for a disembodied hand, and an emu egg hunt in these constellation stories from diverse cultures. The sky has long served as a template for telling stories about the meaning of life. People have looked for likenesses between the domains of heaven and earth to help marry the unfamiliar above to the quotidian below. Perfect for all sky watchers and storytellers, this book is an essential complement to Western mythologies, showing how the confluence of the natural world and culture of heavenly observers can produce a variety of tales about the shapes in the sky.Praise for Anthony Aveni“A pioneering cultural astronomer.” —Publishers Weekly“He writes with a mastery and polish that is wonderfully accessible, akin to an engaging classroom lecture.” —The New York Times Book Review
Star Teachers Of Children In Poverty
by Martin Haberman Wallace D. Draper Peggy G. ElliottDr. Haberman shares composites from more than 1,000 interviews to illustrate how star teachers think and behave differently from those who fail with students or quit the profession, providing a guide to effective action for those committed to students' successful learning through teaching excellence.
Star Trek: The Human Frontier
by Duncan Barrett Michèle BarrettIn a world shrunk by modern transport and communication, Star Trek has maintained the values of western maritime exploration through the discovery of ‘strange new worlds’ in space. Throughout its fifty-year history, the ‘starry sea’ has provided a familiar backdrop to an ongoing interrogation of what it means to be human. This book charts the developing Star Trek story from the 1960s through to the present day. Although the core values and progressive politics of the series’ earliest episodes have remained at the heart of Star Trek throughout half a century, in other ways the story it tells has shifted with the times. While The Original Series and The Next Generation showed a faith in science and rationalism, and in a benign liberal leadership, with Deep Space Nine and Voyager that ‘modern’ order began to decline, as religion, mental illness and fragmented identities took hold. Now fully revised and updated to include the prequel series Enterprise and the current reboot film series, this new second edition of Star Trek: The Human Frontier – published to coincide with Star Trek’s golden jubilee celebrations – addresses these issues in a range of cultural contexts, and draws together an unusual combination of expertise. Written to appeal to both the true Trekker and those who don’t know Star Trek from Star Wars, the book explores and explains the ideas and ideals behind a remarkable cultural phenomenon.
Star Trek: Gesellschaftsvisionen für die Gegenwart
by Katja Kanzler Christian SchwarkeDie neue Star-Trek-Serie Discovery thematisiert die gegenwärtige Unsicherheit über die Zukunft der westlichen Gesellschaften. Die Beiträge des Bandes zeigen, welche Möglichkeiten die Serie durchspielt. Spiegeluniversen, Zeitreisen, Klingonen und Terraner halten der Gegenwart einen Spiegel vor, in dem Utopien und Dystopien sichtbar werden. Der InhaltStar Trek und die neue Unübersichtlichkeit. Eine Einführung.- Amerikanische Befindlichkeiten in Star Trek: Discovery.- Star Trek als das „einzig greifbare Beispiel“ einer gelingenden Zukunft? Zur semantischen Krise normativer Potentiale.- Star Trek und der Traum von der Allgegenwart. Technik und die Realisierung von Utopien.- Interstellare Gerechtigkeit. Star Treks Ideal einer speziespluralistischen Gesellschaft.- Zwischen Serenity undDiscovery: Female Warriors in Science Fiction. Zwischenräume von Klischee und Agency.- Star Trek: Discovery: Fremdsetzung, Serialität und der Star Trek-KanonDie ZielgruppenStudierende, Wissenschaftler*innen und Lehrende der Geistes-, Medien- und SozialwissenschaftenDie Herausgeber*innenProf. Dr. Katja Kanzler ist Inhaberin des Lehrstuhls für amerikanische Literatur an der Universität Leipzig.Prof. Dr. Christian Schwarke ist Inhaber des Lehrstuhls für Systematische Theologie an der TU Dresden.
Star Trek: (Selbst-)Historisierung und Zukunftsvisionen
by Katja Kanzler Sebastian StoppeDieser Band befasst sich mit den neusten Serien des Star Trek-Franchise, die seit Erscheinen von Star Trek: Discovery (2017) entstanden sind. Im Mittelpunkt steht dabei das augenfällige Interesse dieser Serien an der Geschichte der Franchise-eigenen Zukunftsvisionen. Aus einem breiten Spektrum geistes- und sozialwissenschaftlicher Perspektiven gehen die Beiträge der Frage nach, warum sich gerade die Star Trek-Erzählungen der letzten Jahre mit der (eigenen) Vergangenheit beschäftigen, wie diese Selbstreflexion erzählerisch und ästhetisch umgesetzt wird und wie diese Beschäftigung den Blick der Serien auf die gesellschaftlichen Entwicklungen der Gegenwart prägt.
Star Trek: Celebrating the Federation's Ideals
by Robb PearlmanWhat is Starfleet? It is the universe&’s most famous and inspirational coalitions of all time. It has boldly gone where no pop culture franchise has gone before. It is the foundation for a thriving community of passionate fans. Creator Gene Roddenberry said Star Trek &“was an attempt to say that humanity will reach maturity and wisdom on the day that it begins not just to tolerate but take a special delight in differences in ideas and differences in life forms . . . If we cannot learn to actually enjoy those small differences, to take a positive delight in those small differences between our own kind, here on this planet, then we do not deserve to go out into space and meet the diversity that is almost certainly out there.&” After more than 50 years, 11 television series, 13 movies, and countless fan conventions later, Star Trek fans of all ages continue to gather—in person or virtually-- and enjoy, share, and live up to Roddenberry&’s optimistic vision of the future. Fully authorized and filled with full-color images spanning the entire canon, Star Trek: Starfleet is… celebrates of Roddenberry&’s vision. This commemorative book highlights 50 of the key traits of the Star Trek universe and demonstrates, through memorable images and beautiful artwork, how these ideals are personified by everyone from Kirk and Spock, to Picard and Janeway, to Burnham and Mariner, and their voyages to everywhere from Earth to Vulcan, from Q&’onoS to the Delta Quadrant, and even to the Mirror Universe and back in time—and how they are actively and sincerely lived by the Star Trek fans themselves. What is Starfleet? Starfleet is fun. Starfleet is not always logical. Starfleet is adventure. Starfleet is brave. Starfleet is compassion. Starfleet is diverse. Starfleet is evolving. And it is by sharing their passions, supporting one another through difficult times, celebrating one another&’s successes, and boldly going into a bright and hopeful future that Star Trek fans show that, above all, Starfleet is family. Starfleet is forever. A portion of the proceeds from Starfleet Is . . . will benefit ALS research.
Star Trek and the Politics of Globalism
by George A. GonzalezThe Absolute, philosophized most saliently about by Georg Hegel, encompasses the entirety of reality. The absolute (reality) is composed of five dimensions – height, length, width, time, and justice. The five dimensions operate dialectically, and the normative values of reality inhere within the fifth dimension (justice) – hard, soft, moral, ethical, yellow, etc. ad infinitum. The normative values from the fifth dimension (justice), in combination with the brain, comprise the human mind. With the issues of climate change, world-wide biosphere destruction, nuclear weapons, international trade regimes, humanity has created the phenomenon of global politics – thereby changing the fifth dimension. The argument in this volume is that the broadcast iterations of Star Trek allow us to comprehend significant aspects of justice and the politics of globalism – created through the advent of science, technology, engineering, etc. The creators of Star Trek hold that nationalism is a psychological pathology and internationalism is rationality.
Star Trek: Open a Channel: A Woman's Trek (Star Trek)
by Nana VisitorNana Visitor, Star Trek&’s Kira Nerys, explores how the series has portrayed and influenced women. Interviews with the stars, writers, producers, and celebrity fans reveal the struggles and triumphs of women both behind and in front of the camera throughout the sixty-year history of Star Trek, and how they have mirrored the experiences of women everywhere.Nana Visitor, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine&’s Kira Nerys, explores how the series has portrayed and influenced women. Interviews—with the stars, writers, producers, and audience members from all walks of life, including a politician and an astronaut—highlight the struggles and triumphs of women both behind and in front of the camera throughout the sixty-year history of Star Trek, and how they have mirrored the experiences of women everywhere. The groundbreaking casting of Nichelle Nichols as Lt. Uhura in 1966 was a paradigm shift for women and people of color. Pioneering is no picnic, and she planned to leave the show until none other than the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. contextualized her appearance in people&’s living rooms across America as a way for people of color to know they were indeed an important part of the future. Since then, each Star Trek show has both reflected the values of its time and imagined a future of equality. In her first book, Open a Channel: A Woman&’s Trek, Nana Visitor sets out to discover both how Star Trek led the way for women, and how each show was trapped in its own era. For Visitor, this is more than a book about Star Trek. It&’s also about how society and the stories we tell have evolved in the last sixty years, and how the role of women has changed in that time. STAR AUTHOR: Written by Star Trek: Deep Space Nine actor Nana Visitor, famous for playing Major Kira Nerys. This is both her story and her journey through the stories of other women involved with Star Trek from the 1960s to the 21st century. EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS: Features interviews with more than a dozen women who starred in Star Trek, including Kate Mulgrew, Sonequa Martin-Green, Terry Farrell, Gates McFadden, Denise Crosby, Tawny Newsome, and Jess Bush. INSPIRING STORIES: Explore how Star Trek has influenced women in the real world, including soldiers, scientists, and even astronauts. For the book, author Nana Visitor visited ESA HQ and interviewed astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti while she was in orbit around Earth on the International Space Station. PIONEERING SERIES: Following the humanistic tenets of creator Gene Roddenberry, Star Trek, throughout the decades, led the way in promoting diversity. Youths who grew up with Captain Janeway on Star Trek: Voyager, for example, not only learned to accept a woman as a leader but were also able to expand what they could imagine for themselves. The book makes clear how important storytelling is, and how the storytelling of Star Trek has had a profound effect on its audience.
Star Wars after Lucas: A Critical Guide to the Future of the Galaxy
by Dan GoldingPolitics, craft, and cultural nostalgia in the remaking of Star Wars for a new ageA long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away—way back in the twenty-first century&’s first decade—Star Wars seemed finished. Then in 2012 George Lucas shocked the entertainment world by selling the franchise, along with Lucasfilm, to Disney. This is the story of how, over the next five years, Star Wars went from near-certain extinction to what Wired magazine would call &“the forever franchise,&” with more films in the works than its first four decades had produced. Focusing on The Force Awakens (2015), Rogue One (2016), The Last Jedi (2017), and the television series Rebels (2014–18), Dan Golding explores the significance of pop culture nostalgia in overcoming the skepticism, if not downright hostility, that greeted the Star Wars relaunch. At the same time he shows how Disney, even as it tapped a backward-looking obsession, was nonetheless creating genuinely new and contemporary entries in the Star Wars universe.A host of cultural factors and forces propelled the Disney-engineered Star Wars renaissance, and all figure in Golding&’s deeply informed analysis: from John Williams&’s music in The Force Awakens to Peter Cushing&’s CGI face in Rogue One, to Carrie Fisher&’s passing, to the rapidly changing audience demographic. Star Wars after Lucas delves into the various responses and political uses of the new Star Wars in a wider context, as in reaction videos on YouTube and hate-filled, misogynistic online rants. In its granular textual readings, broad cultural scope, and insights into the complexities of the multimedia galaxy, this book is as entertaining as it is enlightening, an apt reflection of the enduring power of the Star Wars franchise.
Star Wars Be More Leia: Find Your Rebel Voice And Fight The System
by Christian BlauveltA humorous take on how to be yourself and fight the system with the help of Princess LeiaThis novelty Star Wars book is full of wise words and sage advice from the galaxy's leading rebel, Princess Leia, and many other brave, confident and radical characters. Full of Star Wars quotes, witty advice and stills from the iconic films, this book will help with everything from starting a revolution to succeeding at life in a galaxy of mindless stormtroopers. General. Senator. Princess. Rebel. Feminist icon. Leia Organa is a legendary Star Wars symbol of what it means to stand up for yourself and fight for what you believe in - no matter the personal cost. As the figurehead of the Rebellion and Resistance, and a prime example of an individual succeeding in a tyrannical workplace, Leia's name is synonymous with courage, grit and conviction. Whether she is refusing to comply with Darth Vader's demands, evading the wrathful clutches of the Empire or rescuing her friends from the Death Star, Leia is not afraid to challenge those in positions of authority and power. Filled with inspiring advice from Leia and other heroes - Rey, Padmé, Yoda, Obi-Wan, Jyn and many more - this book provides thoughtful and funny reflections on independence, staying true to yourself and challenging the status quo.The perfect gift for a Star Wars fan, Star Wars: Be More Leia is a humorous guide to rebellion, leadership and activism, featuring iconic moments from the Star Wars movies alongside key advice for life.© & TM 2019 LUCASFILM LTD.
Star Wars Multiverse (Quick Takes: Movies and Popular Culture)
by Carmelo EsterrichStar Wars may have started out as a film about a Manichean battle between good and evil, but as countless filmmakers, novelists, animators, fan artists and even cosplayers have taken the opportunity to play in the fictional world George Lucas created, it has expanded into something far greater, resulting in a richly layered and diverse Star Wars multiverse. Drawing from a full range of Star Wars media, including comics, children’s books, fan films, and television shows like Clone Wars and The Mandalorian, Carmelo Esterrich explores how these stories set in a galaxy far far away reflect issues that hit closer to home. He examines what they have to say about political oppression, authoritarianism, colonialism, discrimination, xenophobia, and perpetual war. Yet he also investigates subtler ways in which the personal is political within the multiverse, including its articulations of gender and sexuality, its cultural hierarchies of language use, and its complex relationships between humans, droids and myriad species. This book demonstrates that the Star Wars multiverse is not just a stage for thrilling interstellar battles, but also an exciting space for interpretation and discovery.
Star Woman: We Are Made From Stars and to the Stars We Must Return
by Lynne V. AndrewsThe true story of one woman's enlightenment, as she joins 2 American Indian medicine women to further her quest for ancient knowledge.
Star Worlds: Freedom Versus Control in Online Gameworlds
by William Sims BainbridgeStar Worlds explores the future-oriented universe of online virtual worlds connected with popular science fiction--specifically, with Star Wars and Star Trek--that have been inhabited for over a decade by computer gamers. The Star Wars and Star Trek franchises, both of which have shaped the dominant science fiction mythologies of the last half-century, offer profound conceptions of the tension between freedom and control in human economic, political, and social interactions. Bainbridge investigates the human and technological dynamics of four online virtual worlds based on these two very different traditions: the massive multiplayer online games Star Wars Galaxies; Star Wars: The Old Republic; Star Trek Online; and the Star Trek community in the non-game, user-created virtual environment, Second Life. The four "star worlds" explored in this book illustrate the dilemmas concerning the role of technology as liberator or oppressor in our post-industrial society, and represent computer simulations of future possibilities of human experience. Bainbridge considers the relationship between a real person and the role that person plays, the relationship of an individual to society, and the relationship of human beings to computing technology. In addition to collecting ethnographic and quantitative data about the social behavior of other players, he has immersed himself in each of these worlds, role-playing 14 avatars with different skills and goals to gain new insights into the variety of player experience from a personal perspective.
Starbucked: A Double Tall Tale of Caffeine, Commerce, and Culture
by Taylor ClarkSTARBUCKED will be the first book to explore the incredible rise of the Starbucks Corporation and the caffeine-crazy culture that fueled its success. Part Fast Food Nation, part Bobos in Paradise, STARBUCKED combines investigative heft with witty cultural observation in telling the story of how the coffeehouse movement changed our everyday lives, from our evolving neighborhoods and workplaces to the ways we shop, socialize, and self-medicate. In STARBUCKED, Taylor Clark provides an objective, meticulously reported look at the volatile issues like gentrification and fair trade that distress activists and coffee zealots alike. Through a cast of characters that includes coffee-wild hippies, business sharks, slackers, Hollywood trendsetters and more, STARBUCKED explores how America transformed into a nation of coffee gourmets in only a few years, how Starbucks manipulates psyches and social habits to snare loyal customers, and why many of the things we think we know about the coffee commodity chain are false.
Stardom: Industry of Desire
by Christine GledhillIn the past stars have been studied as cogs in a mass entertainment industry selling desires and ideologies. But since the 1970s, new approaches have reopened debate, as film and cultural studies try to account for the active role of the star in producing meanings, pleasures, and identites for a diversity of audiences. Stardom brings together for the first time some of the major writing of the last decade which seeks to understand the phemomenon of stars and stardom. Gathered under four headings - The System, Stars and Society, Performers and Signs, Desire and Politics - these essays represent a range of approaches drawn from film history, sociolgy, textual analysis, audience research, psychoanalysis, and cultural politics. They raise important issues about the politics of representation and the cultural limitations and possibilities of stars.
Stardom and the Aesthetics of Neorealism: Ingrid Bergman in Rossellini's Italy (Routledge Advances in Film Studies #15)
by Ora GelleyIn this exciting new book, Gelley considers the collaboration between Rossellini and Ingrid Bergman in light of the neorealist aesthetic. This study re-examines the director's postwar works in relation to the contemporary discussion on Italian national identity: rather than marking a radical break with the director's early neorealist successes, Rossellini's films with Bergman in fact extend the boundaries of neorealism and challenge the standard reading of its basic tenets, especially the relationship between character and setting. Gelley reassesses the relationship between European postwar and American cinema, looking at how the image of the Hollywood star was translated and transformed when it was imported into Rossellini's Italy. Rossellini's insertion of the Hollywood star into the native landscape had a significant influence on the director's approach to the neorealist aesthetic. His filming of the encounter between Bergman and the Italian landscape involves not only a re-interpretation and transformation of the Hollywood star persona, but also a challenge to the idealized notion of an authentic Italian national collective free of foreign influence. The disruption of Bergman's character into the Italian landscape became one means whereby the director was able to explore the ambivalence inherent in any attempt to construct a national identity.
Stardom in Contemporary Hindi Cinema: Celebrity and Fame in Globalized Times
by Aysha Iqbal Viswamohan Clare M. WilkinsonIn this book, film scholars, anthropologists, and critics discuss star-making in the contemporary Hindi-language film industry in India, also known as “Bollywood.” Drawing on theories of stardom, globalization, transnationalism, gender, and new media studies, the chapters explore contemporary Hindi film celebrity. With the rise of social media and India’s increased engagement in the global economy, Hindi film stars are forging their identities not just through their on-screen images and magazine and advertising appearances, but also through an array of media platforms, product endorsements, setting fashion trends, and involvement in social causes. Focusing on some of the best-known Indian stars since the late 1990s, the book discusses the multiplying avenues for forging a star identity, the strategies industry outsiders adopt to become stars, and the contradictions and conflicts that such star-making produces. It addresses questions such as: What traits of contemporary stars have contributed most to longevity and success in the industry? How has filmmaking technology and practice altered the nature of stardom? How has the manufacture of celebrity altered with the recent appearance of commodity culture in India and the rise of a hyper-connected global economy? By doing so, it describes a distinct moment in India and in the world in which stars and stardom are drawn more closely than ever into the vital events of global culture. Hindi films and their stars are part of the national and global entertainment circuits that are bigger and more competitive than ever. As such, this is a timely book creates opportunities for examining stardom in other industries and provides fruitful cross-cultural perspectives on star identities today."Grounded in rigorous scholarship as well as a palpable love of Hindi cinema, this collection of 19 essays on a dizzying array of contemporary Hindi film stars makes for an informative, thought-provoking, illuminating, and most of all, a joyful read. Pushing boundaries of not only global Star Studies but also film theory as a whole, this de-colonised and de-colonising volume is a must read for film scholars, students and cinephiles!" Dr. Sunny Singh, Senior Lecturer - Creative Writing and English Literature, Sir John Cass School of Art, Architecture & Design, London Metropolitan University “A wide-ranging overview of Hindi cinema’s filmi firmament today, focussing on its most intriguing and brightest-burning stars. The variety of approaches to stardom and celebrity by both established and upcoming scholars reveals a web of interconnecting stories and concerns that provide fascinating new insights into the workings of today's Hindi film industry, while shining fresh light on contemporary India and the world we live in.” Professor Rosie Thomas, Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Media (CREAM), College of Design, Creative and Digital Industries, University of Westminster
Stardom In Postwar France (Polygons: Cultural Diversities and Intersections #12)
by John Gaffney Diana HolmesThe 1950s and 1960s were a key moment in the development of postwar France. The period was one of rapid change, derived from post-World War II economic and social modernization; yet many traditional characteristics were retained. By analyzing the eruption of the new postwar world in the context of a France that was both modern and traditional, we can see how these worlds met and interacted, and how they set the scene for the turbulent 1960s and 70s. The examination of the development of mass culture in post-war France, undertaken in this volume, offers a valuable insight into the shifts that took place. By exploring stardom from the domain of cinema and other fields, represented here by famous figures such as Brigitte Bardot, Johnny Hallyday or Jean-Luc Godard, and less conventionally treated areas of enquiry (politics [de Gaulle], literary [Françoise Sagan], and intellectual culture [Lévi-Strauss]) the reader is provided with a broad understanding of the mechanisms of popularity and success, and their cultural, social, and political roles. The picture that emerges shows that many cultural articulations remained or became identifiably "French," in spite of the American mass-culture origins of these social, economic, and cultural transformations.
Stare in the Darkness: The Limits of Hip-hop and Black Politics
by Lester K. SpenceRap&’s critique of police brutality in the 1980s. The Hip Hop Political Convention. The rise (and fall) of Kwame Kilpatrick, the &“hip-hop mayor&” of Detroit. Barack Obama echoing the body language of Jay-Z on the campaign trail. A growing number of black activists and artists claim that rap and hip-hop are the basis of an influential new urban social movement. Simultaneously, black citizens evince concern with the effect that rap and hip-hop culture exerts on African American communities. According to a recent Pew survey conducted on the opinions of Black Americans, 71 percent of blacks think that rap is a bad influence. To what extent are African American hopes and fears about hip-hop&’s potential political power justified? In Stare in the Darkness, Lester K. Spence answers this question using a blend of neoliberal analysis, survey data, experiments, and case studies. Spence finds that rap does in fact influence black political attitudes. However, rap also reproduces rather than critiques neoliberal ideology. Furthermore, black activists seeking to create an innovative model of hip-hop politics are hamstrung by their reliance on outmoded forms of organizing. By considering the possibilities inherent in the most prolific and prominent activities of hip-hop politics, Stare in the Darkness reveals, in a clear and practical manner, the political consequences of rap culture for black publics.
Stark Mad Abolitionists: Lawrence, Kansas, and the Battle over Slavery in the Civil War Era
by Bob Dole Robert K. SuttonA town at the center of the United States becomes the site of an ongoing struggle for freedom and equality.In May, 1854, Massachusetts was in an uproar. A judge, bound by the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, had just ordered a young African American man who had escaped from slavery in Virginia and settled in Boston to be returned to bondage in the South. An estimated fifty thousand citizens rioted in protest. Observing the scene was Amos Adams Lawrence, a wealthy Bostonian, who "waked up a stark mad Abolitionist.” As quickly as Lawrence waked up, he combined his fortune and his energy with others to create the New England Emigrant Aid Company to encourage abolitionists to emigrate to Kansas to ensure that it would be a free state.The town that came to bear Lawrence’s name became the battleground for the soul of America, with abolitionists battling pro-slavery Missourians who were determined to make Kansas a slave state. The onset of the Civil War only escalated the violence, leading to the infamous raid of William Clarke Quantrill when he led a band of vicious Confederates (including Frank James, whose brother Jesse would soon join them) into town and killed two hundred men and boys.Stark Mad Abolitionists shows how John Brown, Reverend Henry Ward Beecher, Sam Houston, and Abraham Lincoln all figure into the story of Lawrence and "Bleeding Kansas.” The story of Amos Lawrence’s eponymous town is part of a bigger story of people who were willing to risk their lives and their fortunes in the ongoing struggle for freedom and equality.
Starlight Rider
by Ernest HaycoxTHERE WAS ONE MORE BATTLE FOR WEARY MAVERICK HUGH TRACY—AN ARMY OF RENEGADES.Hugh Tracy was a man born to trouble. He proved that when ne first bucked Tad Shadrow’s move to control the country around Antelope. Tough as he was, Tracy lost the fight to a gunslick hired to ambush him. It was a high price to pay for a spread that was almost worthless.But that was all in the past. Now Tracy was back in Antelope—back for another try at the savage land-grabber and the gunhawks he paid to do his dirty work. And back to prove to Shadrow that he was too big to scare and too tough to kill.