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O Say Can You Hear: A Cultural Biography of "The Star-Spangled Banner"

2022-06-14 History
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Release : 2022-06-14
Genre : History
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Book Rating : 398/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis O Say Can You Hear: A Cultural Biography of "The Star-Spangled Banner" by : Mark Clague

Download or read book O Say Can You Hear: A Cultural Biography of "The Star-Spangled Banner" written by Mark Clague. This book was released on 2022-06-14. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times Editors' Choice The fascinating story of America’s national anthem and an examination of its powerful meaning today. Most Americans learn the tale in elementary school: During the War of 1812, Francis Scott Key witnessed the daylong bombardment of Baltimore’s Fort McHenry by British navy ships; seeing the Stars and Stripes still flying proudly at first light, he was inspired to pen his famous lyric. What Americans don’t know is the story of how this everyday “broadside ballad,” one of thousands of such topical songs that captured the events and emotions of early American life, rose to become the nation’s one and only anthem and today’s magnet for controversy. In O Say Can You Hear? Mark Clague brilliantly weaves together the stories of the song and the nation it represents. Examining the origins of both text and music, alternate lyrics and translations, and the song’s use in sports, at times of war, and for political protest, he argues that the anthem’s meaning reflects—and is reflected by—the nation’s quest to become a more perfect union. From victory song to hymn of sacrifice and vehicle for protest, the story of Key’s song is the story of America itself. Each chapter in the book explores a different facet of the anthem’s story. In one, we learn the real history behind the singing of the anthem at sporting events; in another, Clague explores Key’s complicated relationship with slavery and its repercussions today. An entire is chapter devoted to some of the most famous performances of the anthem, from Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock to Roseanne Barr at a baseball game to the iconic Whitney Houston version from the 1991 Super Bowl. At every turn, the book goes beyond the events to explore the song’s resonance and meaning. From its first lines Key’s lyric poses questions: “O say can you see?” “Does that banner yet wave?” Likewise, Clague’s O Say Can You Hear? raises important questions about the banner; what it meant in 1814, what it means to us today, and why it matters.

Don't Stick to Sports

2023-10-11 Social Science
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Release : 2023-10-11
Genre : Social Science
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 727/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Don't Stick to Sports by : Derek Charles Catsam

Download or read book Don't Stick to Sports written by Derek Charles Catsam. This book was released on 2023-10-11. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A significant examination of how athletes have fought for inclusion and equality on and off the playing field, despite calls for them to “stick to sports.” The claim that sports are—or ought to be—apolitical has itself never been an apolitical position. Rather, it is a veiled attempt to control which politics are acceptable in the athletic realm, a designation intricately linked to issues of race, gender, ethnicity, and more. In Don't Stick to Sports: The American Athlete’s Fight against Injustice, Derek Charles Catsam carefully explores this disparity. He looks at how, throughout recent sports history in the United States, minority athletes have had to fight every step of the way for their right to compete, and how they continue to fight for equity today. From African Americans and women to LGBTQ+ and religious minorities, Catsam shows how these athletes have taken a stand to address the underlying injustices in sports and society despite being told it’s not their place to do so. While it’s impossible for a single book to tell the entire history of exclusion in the sporting world, Don’t Stick to Sports looks at key moments from the World War I era to the present to shatter the myth of sports as a meritocracy, of sports-as-equalizer, highlighting the reality as something far more complicated—of sports as a malleable world where exclusion and inclusion are rarely straight-forward.

Entertainment Nation

2022-11-01 Performing Arts
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Release : 2022-11-01
Genre : Performing Arts
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 249/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Entertainment Nation by : NMAH

Download or read book Entertainment Nation written by NMAH. This book was released on 2022-11-01. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: US history gets the star treatment with this essential guide to the Smithsonian's first permanent exhibition on pop culture, featuring objects like Muhammad Ali’s training robe, and Leonard Nimoy’s Spock ears, and Dorothy’s ruby slippers, oh my! Entertainment Nation is a star-studded and richly illustrated book celebrating the best of 150 years of US pop culture. The book presents nearly 300 breathtaking Smithsonian objects from the first long-term exhibition on popular culture, and features contributors like Billie Jean King, Ali Wong, and Jill Lepore. Entertainment Nation offers the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, the passion and grit of star athletes, the limelight of the music industry and theater, and the amazing entertainers we love to watch, with dazzling cultural touchstones like: Music and Theater Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton costume John Coltrane’s saxophone Selena's leather outfit Film and Television Captain America’s shield Mr. Roger’s sweater Seinfeld’s puffy shirt Sports Mia Hamm’s Olympic jersey Kristi Yamaguchi’s ice skates Babe Ruth autographed baseball The book includes essays that contextualize the objects’ place in time and history, exploring how entertainment sparks conversation and debate, reveals social tensions and political power, and dictates who gets to be the hero or the villain. Taking a nostalgic look at old favorites and an exhilarating glimpse of contemporary attractions, Entertainment Nation is a love letter to pop culture.

Symbols of Freedom

2023-06-13 Social Science
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Release : 2023-06-13
Genre : Social Science
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Book Rating : 252/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Symbols of Freedom by : Matthew J. Clavin

Download or read book Symbols of Freedom written by Matthew J. Clavin. This book was released on 2023-06-13. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How American symbols inspired enslaved people and their allies to fight for true freedom In the early United States, anthems, flags, holidays, monuments, and memorials were powerful symbols of an American identity that helped unify a divided people. A language of freedom played a similar role in shaping the new nation. The Declaration of Independence’s assertion “that all men are created equal,” Patrick Henry’s cry of “Give me liberty, or give me death!,” and Francis Scott Key’s “star-spangled banner” waving over “the land of the free and the home of the brave,” were anthemic celebrations of a newly free people. Resonating across the country, they encouraged the creation of a republic where the right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” was universal, natural, and inalienable. For enslaved people and their allies, the language and symbols that served as national touchstones made a mockery of freedom. Deriding the ideas that infused the republic’s founding, they encouraged an empty American culture that accepted the abstract notion of equality rather than the concrete idea. Yet, as award-winning author Matthew J. Clavin reveals, it was these powerful expressions of American nationalism that inspired forceful and even violent resistance to slavery. Symbols of Freedom is the surprising story of how enslaved people and their allies drew inspiration from the language and symbols of American freedom. Interpreting patriotic words, phrases, and iconography literally, they embraced a revolutionary nationalism that not only justified but generated open opposition. Mindful and proud that theirs was a nation born in blood, these disparate patriots fought to fulfill the republic’s promise by waging war against slavery. In a time when the US flag, the Fourth of July, and historical sites have never been more contested, this book reminds us that symbols are living artifacts whose power is derived from the meaning with which we imbue them.

Yankee Doodle Dandy

2024 Biography & Autobiography
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Release : 2024
Genre : Biography & Autobiography
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 401/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Yankee Doodle Dandy by : Elizabeth T. Craft

Download or read book Yankee Doodle Dandy written by Elizabeth T. Craft. This book was released on 2024. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Composer, lyricist, playwright, performer, director, theater owner, and star actor George M. Cohan (1878-1942) definitively shaped the burgeoning genre of musical comedy and the institution of Broadway in the early twentieth century. Remembered today for classic tunes like "You're a Grand Old Flag" and "Give My Regards to Broadway," he has been called "the father of musical comedy" and is memorialized with a statue in Times Square. In his day, he was famous as the "Yankee Doodle Boy" from his hit song and as the "Man Who Owned Broadway" from his musical of the same name. His songs and shows captured the spirit of an era when staggering social change gave new urgency to efforts to define Americanism. This book, the first on Cohan in fifty years and the first scholarly study on the subject, is not a biography but rather situates Cohan as a central figure of his day, placing his multifaceted contributions within overlapping historical and cultural contextual webs to examine his wide-ranging cultural impact. Chapters interweave discussion of his songs and shows with explorations of the roles he played in public life-entertainer, Broadway magnate, Irish American, celebrity, and, above all, emblem of patriotism. This approach offers not only a fuller understanding of his shows and career but also new perspectives on fundamental debates about American identity and the performing arts in the early twentieth-century United States"--

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