Popular History

What was the real significance of William James's breakdown? Of the anti-Semitism in T.S. Eliot's writing? At each step in his latest journey through American cultural history, Menand has an original point to make.

From the sleek Aston Martin that spits out bullets, nails, and passengers at the push of a button to the microjet that makes hairpin turns to avoid a heat-seeking missile, the science and technology of James Bond films have kept millions of movie fans guessing for decades. Are these amazing feats and gadgets truly possible? The Science of James Bond takes you on a fascinating excursion through the true science that underlies Bond's most fantastic and off-the-wall accoutrements.

Drawing on new research and enlivened by Touré's unique pop-cultural fluency, I Would Die 4 U relies on surprising and in-depth interviews with Prince's band members, former girlfriends, musicologists, and even Bible scholars to deconstruct the artist's life and work. Prince's baby boomer status allowed him to play a wise older brother to the latchkey kids of Generation X. Defying traditional categories of race, gender, and sexuality, he nonetheless presented a very traditional conception of religion and God in his music.

The national debate over popular music's effect on character is both furious and confused. Conservatives complain primarily about lyrics, appealing to public decency and safety. Liberals, swift to the defense of any self-expression, simultaneously celebrate rock's liberating ethos and deny its cultural influence.

Beer is the world’s most popular alcoholic drink, but if you’ve only sampled the most popular brands, you are missing out some of the best tasting brews around. This audiobook guides you to the world’s best craft beers, how they are made, and what foods to pair them with. Each craft beer has a story, and much like fine wine, every batch has its own unique flavor and characteristics.

Whether you hate him or just feel disgusted with him, the fact is that Ted Bundy remains one of the most discussed serial killers even 27 years after his execution. Even now, anything even remotely connected to Bundy makes headlines. Bundy may have been charged for the murders of 36 women, but most people know that the count of his victims is actually higher than 100. He may have been executed in 1989 in an electric chair, but his charm, intelligence, and communication skills made him a celebrity.

This Very Short Introduction recounts the history of American culture and its creation by diverse social and ethnic groups. In doing so, it emphasizes the historic role of culture in relation to broader social, political, and economic developments. Across the lines of race, class, gender, and sexuality, as well as language, region, and religion, diverse Americans have forged a national culture with a global reach, inventing stories that have shaped a national identity and an American way of life.

What makes Buffy the Vampire Slayer a "brave dame" but Ally McBeal a "wimpette"? In this witty, incisive look at the role of women on screen and page, Susan Isaacs argues that assertive, ethical women characters are losing ground to wounded, shallow sisters who are driven by what she calls, "the articles of wimpette philosophy."

O Brasil está entre os países que mais lincham no mundo. Nos últimos 60 anos, mais de um milhão de brasileiros participou de ações de justiçamento de rua. Neste audiolivro oportuno e inquietante, o sociólogo José de Souza Martins busca, além dos motivos próximos, as raízes profundas dessa antiga prática, verdadeiro ritual de loucura coletiva.

America is a country built by thinkers on a foundation of ideas. Alongside classic works of philosophy and ethics, however, our presidents have been influenced by the books, movies, TV shows, viral videos, and social media sensations of their day. In What Jefferson Read, Ike Watched, and Obama Tweeted: 200 Years of Popular Culturen in the White House presidential scholar and former White House aide Tevi Troy combines research with witty observation to tell the story of how our presidents have been shaped by popular culture.

This is the first study to explore fully the myth of America as reflected in the nation's popular music. Beginning with the songs of the Pilgrims and continuing through more than two centuries of history and music, Born in the U.S.A. shows the emerging American myth and gives a close reading of the compositions of songwriters as diverse as William Billings, Henry Clay Work, Irving Berlin, Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, and Bruce Springsteen.

During the Cold War, over 500 songs were written about nuclear weapons, fear of the Soviet Union, civil defense, bomb shelters, uranium mining, the space race, espionage, the Berlin Wall, and glasnost. This music uncovers aspects of the world-changing events that documentaries and history books cannot. In Atomic Tunes, Tim and Joanna Smolko explore everything from the serious to the comical, the morbid to the crude, showing the widespread concern among musicians who were trying to cope with the effect of communism on American society.

For more than 50 years, Bill C. Malone has researched and written about the history of country music. Today, he is celebrated as the foremost authority on this distinctly American genre. This new collection brings together his significant article-length work from a variety of sources, including essays, book chapters, and record liner notes. Sing Me Back Home distills a lifetime of thinking about country and Southern roots music.

The professional judgment of gatekeepers defined the American news agenda for decades. Making the News Popular examines how subsequent events brought on a post-professional period that opened the door for imagining that consumer preferences should drive news production - and unleashed both crisis and opportunity on journalistic institutions.

De esporte de elite a entretenimento das massas; do amadorismo ao profissionalismo; dos salários modestos à globalização-exportação; o uso político do esporte e o uso da política pelo esporte. Quando se estuda futebol no Brasil, não se fala "só" de um jogo, mas da própria história do país, emaranhada com a evolução nas quatro linhas do campo. O jornalista e historiador Marcos Guterman mostra a trajetória do futebol no país desde sua chegada da Inglaterra, a formação dos primeiros clubes, os craques, os grandes fracassos, as peculiaridades.

Наша история - и древнейшая, и средневековая, и современная - полна неразрешимых до сих пор загадок и тайн. Среди них исчезновение цивилизаций, культур, городов и земель, существовавших когда-то и пропавших без следа.

The ticking bomb scenario is a thought experiment designed to demonstrate that torture can be justified in emergency conditions. If there was a bomb hidden somewhere in a major city, would it be justified to torture a captured informant in order to obtain the critical information that could prevent a devastating terrorist attack? In How to Justify Torture, cultural critic Alex Adams examines this thought experiment in depth by exploring the wide range of cultural productions. By critiquing the argument step-by-step, this audiobook reminds us why torture can never be justified.

In a long line of beloved books, Loud Pictures stands as Marc Spitz’s final project. This big, broad, noisy, and expansive exploration of art marries the two things Marc loved most—movies and rock and roll. In many ways, films can become imprinted on our brains because of their soundtracks.

The Sugababes have made a huge impact in the music industry. Their influence is still felt and is stronger than ever now the original line-up reunited over ten years ago. Their hits are still played in many radio stations today.

The hundreds of end-of-time prophecies splashed across the consciousness from the time of clay tablets to our Internet have had something besides hysteria in common: every one of them has been wrong. Here is a survey of three millennia of apocalyptic prophecies, tracing one of the most remarkable threads of our cultural history: our long and unproductive fascination with apocalyptic myths and miracles that can solve our problems without requiring committed action in our own lives.