While the 1940s saw a terrible war and allied troops fighting on various continents, those Americans who stayed behind were assured of their role in the war effort not by fighting but consuming for the final victory. Even though many goods such as tires, gasoline, metals, fibers and sometimes even electricity were rationed, the marketing […]
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Author: Dr. A. Ebert
Super-History. Comic Book Superheroes and American Society… by Jeffrey K. Johnson (2012)
There are many ways to describe and finally explain not only the evolution of the comic book superhero but find causes and reasons for their change, adjustment and complete modification throughout superhero history. As World War II historian Jeffrey K. Johnson unfolds very carefully, there is mostly one explanation why the colorful superheroes changed with […]
Alfred Hitchcock’s America by Murray Pomerance (2013)
With his second publication on Alfred Hitchcock, Professor Pomerance has now given focus to the Americanization of the great director’s themes and film settings. After all, Hitchcock remained British in character all of his life and probably had not imagined becoming an American subject in his early days. That things would turn out so well […]
Tiki Pop. America Imagines its Own Polynesian Paradise by Sven Kirsten (2014)
The 1960s in the United States saw the peak of the Tiki craze, the fascination with physical products of Polynesia and, more important than that, the easy and happy way of life, as it was glorified by the American public. There actually was a very strong influence of Tiki culture on American everyday life then, […]
The Occult Arts of Music: An Esoteric Survey… by David Huckvale (2013)
To start with: there are very, very few books that deal with this subject-matter. So finding literature about the music linked to the unspeakable, mysterious, secret and hidden (hence: lat. occultus) is interesting enough. But David Huckvale is not a novice when it comes to exotic topics, he is a writer and journalist who has […]
Working Class Heroes: Rock Music and British Society… by David Simonelli (2012)
David Simonelli, associate professor of history at Youngstown State University, must have plundered archive after archive, at least the ones of the NME, Melody Maker, Billboard and the BBC as well. At the center of his study is the approach to the shifting image of a young generation of musicians and their fans, by then […]
The Silver Age of DC Comics by Paul Levitz (2013)
If this is your first book of Taschen’s DC chronicles of the comic ages you may feel comfortably transported back in time. To the years between 1956 and 1970 to be exact, when after some stagnation in the Super Hero “business” new impulses started a fresh age. And with another BANG! this hardcover book continues […]
Comic Books and the Cold War, 1946-1962… by Chris and Rafiel York (eds.) (2012)
The comic books of the post WWII years differ in many respects from their predecessors. For one reason, they (generally) invented new dangers, new villains and new challenges for the keepers of the peace, fighters for freedom and justice, aka the Superheroes and the Federal Agents, the T-Men, a moniker for government agents of the […]
Sex, Politics, and Religion in Star Wars by Douglas Brode and Leah Deyneka (eds.) (2012)
Director George Lucas must have sensed something of the future success of his space saga when in 1977, he presented the first episode to the public; wisely, he established a deal with 20th Century Fox, which would grant him full rights to licensing and merchandising. Reproductions of his characters could be found on almost any […]