A Renegade History of the United States: How Drunks, Delinquents, and Other Outcasts Made America - Brossura

Russell, Thaddeus

Brossura

ISBN 10: 1847398642 ISBN 13: 9781847398642

Casa editrice: Simon + Schuster UK, 2011

Riassunto

In this groundbreaking book, noted historian Thaddeus Russell tells a new and surprising story about the origins of American freedom. Rather than crediting the standard textbook icons, Russell demonstrates that it was those on the fringes of society whose subversive lifestyles helped legitimize the taboo and made America the land of the free. In vivid portraits of renegades and their 'respectable' adversaries, Russell shows that the nation's history has been driven by clashes between those interested in preserving social order and those more interested in pursuing their own desires - insiders versus outsiders, good citizens versus bad. The more these accidental revolutionaries existed, resisted, and persevered, the more receptive society became to change. Russell brilliantly and vibrantly argues that it was history's iconoclasts who established many of our most cherished liberties. Russell finds these pioneers of personal freedom in the places that usually go unexamined - saloons and speakeasies, brothels and gambling halls, and even behind the Iron Curtain. He introduces a fascinating array of antiheroes: drunken workers who created the weekend; prostitutes who set the precedent for women's liberation; criminals who pioneered racial integration and brazen homosexuals who broke open America's sexual culture. This is not history that can be found in textbooks - it is a highly original and provocative portrayal of the American past as it has never been written before.

Su questo libro

L'autore:

Thaddeus Russell teaches history and American Studies at Occidental College and has taught at Columbia University, Barnard College, Eugene Lang College, and the New School for Social Research. Born and raised in Berkeley, California, he graduated from Antioch College and received a Ph.D. in history from Columbia University. His first book, Out of the Jungle: Jimmy Hoffa and the Re-Making of the American Working Class, was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 2001. He is a frequent contributor to the Daily Beast and has published articles in New York Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor, Salon, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, as well as scholarly essays in American Quarterly and the Columbia History of Post-World War II America. He has also appeared on the History Channel and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

Dalla quarta di copertina:

In this groundbreaking book, noted historian Thaddeus Russell tells a surprising story about the origins of American freedom.
In vivid portraits of America's renegades and their 'respectable' adversaries, Russell shows how the nation was shaped by outlaws. He finds these pioneers of personal freedom in saloons and speakeasies, brothels and gambling halls, introducing a fascinating array of antiheroes: drunken workers who created the weekend; prostitutes who set the precedent for women's liberation; criminals who initiated racial integration; immigrants who gave us birth control; and homosexuals who broke open America's sexual culture.
Accoring to Russell the enemies of the freedoms we now hold dear are the heroes of our history books - not only traditional idols like Thomas Jefferson, Franklin Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy, but also some of the most revered abolitionists, progressives, and leaders of the feminist, civil rights, and gay rights movements. This is not history that can be found in textbooks: it is a portrayal of the American past as it has never been written before.
'A lively revisionist work...You won't be able to put it down, for it's chock full of startling, upsetting, and entertaining anecdotes' Scotsman

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Simon + Schuster UK
• Data di pubblicazione: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1847398642
• ISBN 13: 9781847398642
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero di pagine: 400