Popular Culture category: 4839 books
Laurel Canyon
The Inside Story of Rock-and-Roll's Legendary Neighborhood
Language: English
Release Date: May 1, 2010
In the late sixties and early seventies, an impromptu collection of musicians colonized a eucalyptus-scented canyon deep in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles and melded folk, rock, and savvy American pop into a sound that conquered the world as thoroughly as the songs of the Beatles and the Rolling...
Cowboys Full
The Story of Poker
Language: English
Release Date: October 27, 2009
From James McManus, author of the bestselling Positively Fifth Street, comes the definitive story of the game that, more than any other, reflects who we are and how we operate.
Cowboys Full is the story of poker, from its roots in China, the Middle East, and Europe to its ascent as a global**—but...
The Big Rewind
A Memoir Brought to You by Pop Culture
Language: English
Release Date: July 7, 2009
Nathan Rabin viewed pop culture as a life-affirming form of escape throughout his childhood and adolescence. As an adult, pop culture became his life. Head writer for A.V. Club for more than a decade, Rabin uses specific books, songs, albums, films, and television shows as springboards for dissecting...
Ecological Crisis and Cultural Representation in Latin America
Ecocritical Perspectives on Art, Film, and Literature
Language: English
Release Date: October 4, 2016
Worldwide environmental crisis has become increasingly visible over the last few decades as the full scope of anthropogenic climate change manifests itself and large-scale natural resource extraction has expanded into formerly remote areas that seemed beyond the reach of industrialization. Scientists...
The Sociology of Sports
An Introduction, 2d ed.
Language: English
Release Date: August 1, 2015
In its second edition, this book takes a fresh approach to the study of sports, presenting key concepts such as socialization, economics, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, politics, the media and the role of sports in society. The authors offer a critical examination but highlight also the many positive...
What the Eye Hears
A History of Tap Dancing
Language: English
Release Date: November 17, 2015
Magisterial, revelatory, and-most suitably-entertaining, What the Eye Hears offers an authoritative account of the great American art of tap dancing. Brian Seibert, a dance critic for The New York Times, begins by exploring tap's origins as a hybrid of the jig and clog dancing from the British Isles...
Planet Funny
How Comedy Took Over Our Culture
Language: English
Release Date: May 29, 2018
A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year
The witty and exuberant New York Times bestselling author Ken Jennings relays the history of humor in “lively, insightful, and crawling with goofy factlings,” (Maria Semple, author of Where’d You Go Bernadette)—from fart jokes on clay Sumerian...
Mad as Hell
The Making of Network and the Fateful Vision of the Angriest Man in Movies
Language: English
Release Date: February 18, 2014
The behind-the-scenes story of the making of the iconic movie Network, which transformed the way we think about television and the way television thinks about us
"I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!"
Those words, spoken by an unhinged anchorman named Howard...
by Paula Johanson
Language: English
Release Date: February 22, 2012
Language: English
Release Date: February 22, 2012
Lady Gaga: A Biography details Lady Gaga's life from birth to 2011. Readers will learn about her personal background—where she was born, who her parents were, what her early school years as a "weird girl" with "rabbit teeth" were like—as well as her pre-fame years where she...
Hello, It's Me
Dispatches from a Pop Culture Junkie
Language: English
Release Date: July 1, 2010
In Hello, It’s Me, pop culture historian Chris Epting celebrates the cultural touchstones of the past 40 years-the music, movies, television, hobbies, and fads that have defined recent generations.Whether it’s shooting hoops with NBA legend Elgin Baylor, drinking whiskey in a Radio City Music Hall...
Everybody's Heard about the Bird
The True Story of 1960s Rock 'n' Roll in Minnesota
Language: English
Release Date: November 7, 2015
If you didn’t experience rock and roll in Minnesota in the 1960s, this book will make you wish you had. This behind-the-scenes, up-close-and-personal account relates how a handful of Minnesota rock bands erupted out of a small Midwest market and made it big. It was a brief, heady moment for the...
Geek in Thailand
Discovering the Land of Golden Buddhas, Pad Thai and Kickboxing
Language: English
Release Date: January 26, 2016
A Geek in Thailand is a light-hearted but perceptive look at one of the world's most visited countries from the viewpoint of a young foreign resident.
More than just a Thai travel guide, it offers a concise but insightful take on Thailand for tourists, expats, would-be expats, and others—anyone,...
The Simpsons
An Uncensored, Unauthorized History
Language: English
Release Date: October 13, 2009
The Simpsons is one of the most successful shows to ever run on television. From its first moment on air, the series's rich characters, subversive themes, and layered humor resounded deeply with audiences both young and old who wanted more from their entertainment than what was being meted out at...
Buffalo Bill's Wild West
Celebrity, Memory, and Popular History
Language: English
Release Date: December 22, 2015
A fascinating analysis of the first famous American to erase the boundary between real history and entertainment
Canada, and Europe. Crowds cheered as cowboys and Indians--and Annie Oakley!--galloped past on spirited horses, sharpshooters exploded glass balls tossed high in the air, and cavalry...