tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/american-culture-9871/articlesAmerican culture – The Conversation2023-12-20T01:28:46Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2200192023-12-20T01:28:46Z2023-12-20T01:28:46ZWith ‘White Christmas,’ Irving Berlin and Bing Crosby helped make Christmas a holiday that all Americans could celebrate<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566447/original/file-20231218-29-3t65vi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=451%2C37%2C5721%2C3895&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">After Irving Berlin, left, penned 'White Christmas,' he pegged Bing Crosby as the ideal singer for what would become a holiday classic.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/american-composer-lyricist-and-songwriter-irving-berlin-and-news-photo/1296904202?adppopup=true">Irving Haberman/IH Images via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1989/09/23/obituaries/irving-berlin-nation-s-songwriter-dies.html">Irving Berlin</a> was a Jewish immigrant who loved America. As his 1938 song “<a href="https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200000007/">God Bless America</a>” suggests, he believed deeply in the nation’s potential for goodness, unity and global leadership. </p>
<p>In 1940, he wrote another quintessential American song, “<a href="https://achristmasclassic.org/">White Christmas</a>,” which the popular entertainer <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1977/10/15/archives/bing-crosby-73-dies-in-madrid-at-golf-course-bing-crosby-73-dies-at.html">Bing Crosby</a> eventually made famous.</p>
<p>But this was a profoundly sad time for humanity. World War II – what would become <a href="https://www.highpointnc.gov/2111/World-War-II">the deadliest war in human history</a> – had begun in Europe and Asia, just as Americans were starting to pick up the pieces from the Great Depression.</p>
<p>Today, it can seem like humanity is at another tipping point: <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-depolarise-deeply-divided-societies-podcast-193427">political polarization</a>, war in <a href="https://theconversation.com/west-banks-settler-violence-problem-is-a-second-sign-that-israels-policy-of-ignoring-palestinians-drive-for-a-homeland-isnt-a-long-term-solution-217177">the Middle East</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/russian-attempt-to-control-narrative-in-ukraine-employs-age-old-tactic-of-othering-the-enemy-206154">and Europe</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/2023s-extreme-storms-heat-and-wildfires-broke-records-a-scientist-explains-how-global-warming-fuels-climate-disasters-217500">a global climate crisis</a>. Yet like other historians, I’ve long thought that <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=pGEB0QIAAAAJ&hl=en">the study of the past</a> can help point the way forward.</p>
<p>“White Christmas” has resonated for more than 80 years, and I think the reasons why are worth understanding.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Bing Crosby sings ‘White Christmas’ in the 1942 musical ‘Holiday Inn.’</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Yearning for unity</h2>
<p>Christmas in America had always reflected a mix of influences, from ancient Roman <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-christmas-tree-is-a-tradition-older-than-christmas-195636">celebrations of the winter solstice</a> to the Norse festival <a href="https://theconversation.com/yule-a-celebration-of-the-return-of-light-and-warmth-218779">known as Yule</a>. </p>
<p>Catholics in Europe had celebrated Christmas with public merriment since the Middle Ages, but Protestants often denounced the holiday as a vestige of paganism. These religious tensions <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-puritans-cracked-down-on-celebrating-christmas-151359">spilled over to the American colonies</a> and persisted after the Revolutionary War, when slavery divided the nation even further.</p>
<p>After the Civil War, many Americans pined for national traditions that could unify the country. Protestant opposition to Christmas celebrations had relaxed, so Congress finally <a href="https://time.com/4608452/christmas-america-national-holiday/">declared Christmas a federal holiday in 1870</a>. Millions of Americans soon adopted <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-christmas-tree-is-a-tradition-older-than-christmas-195636">the German tradition of decorating trees</a>. They also exchanged presents, sent cards and shared stories of Santa Claus, a figure whose image the cartoonist <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/civil-war-cartoonist-created-modern-image-santa-claus-union-propaganda-180971074/">Thomas Nast</a> perfected in the late 19th century.</p>
<p>The Christmases that Berlin and Crosby “used to know” were those of the 1910s and 1920s, when the season expanded to include <a href="https://madisonsquarepark.org/community/news/2021/04/holiday-tree/">the nation’s first public Christmas tree lighting ceremony</a> and <a href="https://www.history.com/news/the-first-macys-thanksgiving-day-parade">the appearance of Santa Claus</a> at the end of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. </p>
<p>Despite these evolving secular influences, Christmas music and entertainment continued to emphasize Christianity. Churchgoers and carolers often sang “Silent Night” and “Joy to the World.”</p>
<h2>‘The best song anybody ever wrote’</h2>
<p>Berlin’s inspiration for the song came in 1937, <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/White-Christmas/Jody-Rosen/9780743218764">when he spent Christmas in Beverly Hills</a>. He was near the film studios where he worked but far from his wife, Ellin – a devout Catholic – and the New York City home in Manhattan where they had always celebrated the holiday with their three daughters. </p>
<p>Being apart from Ellin that Christmas was particularly difficult: Their infant son had died on Dec. 26, 1928. Irving knew his wife would have to make the annual visit to their son’s grave by herself.</p>
<p>By 1940, Berlin had come up with his lyrics. In his Manhattan office, he sat at his piano and asked his arranger to take down the notes.</p>
<p>“Not only is it the best song I ever wrote,” <a href="https://www.dacapopress.com/titles/laurence-bergreen/as-thousands-cheer/9780306806759/">he promised</a>, “it’s the best song anybody ever wrote.”</p>
<p>Berlin had connected his lonesome Christmas to the broader turmoil of the time, including the outbreak of World War II and fraught debates about America’s role in the world. </p>
<p>This new song reflected his response: a dream of better times and places. It evoked a small town of yesteryear in which horse-drawn sleighs crossed freshly fallen snow. It also imagined a future in which dark days would be “merry and bright” once again.</p>
<p>This was a new kind of Christmas carol. It did not mention the birth of Jesus, angels or wise men – and it was a song that all Americans, including Jewish immigrants, could embrace.</p>
<p>Berlin soon took “White Christmas” back to Hollywood. He wanted it to appear in his newest musical, one that would tell the story of a retired singer whose hotel offered rooms and entertainment, but only on American holidays. He titled the film “Holiday Inn” and pitched it to Paramount Pictures, with Crosby as the lead.</p>
<h2>Fighting for ‘the right to dream’</h2>
<p>Raised in Spokane, Washington, Crosby had launched his music career in the 1920s. A weekly radio show and a contract with Paramount led to stardom during the 1930s. </p>
<p>With his slim build and protruding ears, Crosby did not look the part of a leading man. But his easygoing demeanor and mellow voice made him immensely popular. </p>
<p>“<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034862/">Holiday Inn</a>” premiered in August 1942. Reviewers barely mentioned the song, but ordinary Americans couldn’t get enough of it. By December it was on every radio, in every jukebox and, as the Christian Science Monitor newspaper noted, in nearly “every home and heart” in the country.</p>
<p>The key reason was the nation’s entry into World War II.</p>
<p>“White Christmas” was not overtly patriotic, but it made Americans think about why they fought, sacrificed and endured separation from their loved ones. <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/White-Christmas/Jody-Rosen/9780743218764">As an editorial</a> in the Buffalo Courier-Express concluded, the song “provided a forcible reminder that we are fighting for the right to dream and for memories to dream about.”</p>
<p>This made it a song all Americans could embrace, including those not always treated like Americans.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Painting of Santa Clause wearing a stars-and-stripes hat as a young boy and girl sit on his lap." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566453/original/file-20231219-15-3zn321.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566453/original/file-20231219-15-3zn321.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566453/original/file-20231219-15-3zn321.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566453/original/file-20231219-15-3zn321.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566453/original/file-20231219-15-3zn321.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566453/original/file-20231219-15-3zn321.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566453/original/file-20231219-15-3zn321.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">During World War II, aspects of the Christmas holiday – family, home, comfort and safety – took on greater meaning.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/retro-santa-claus-wearing-a-stars-and-stripes-tophat-with-a-news-photo/525363617?adppopup=true">GraphicaArtis/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Affirming faith in humanity</h2>
<p>Berlin and Crosby didn’t set out to change how Americans celebrate Christmas. But that’s what they ended up doing.</p>
<p>Their song’s universal appeal and phenomenal success launched a new era of holiday entertainment – traditions that helped Americanize the Christmas season.</p>
<p>Like “White Christmas,” popular songs such as “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” (1943) tapped into a longing for being with friends and family. “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” (1949) and other new songs celebrated snow, sleigh rides and Santa Claus, not the birth of Jesus.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566381/original/file-20231218-25-udqob2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Red and blue cover for sheet music featuring photographs of two smiling young men and two smiling young women." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566381/original/file-20231218-25-udqob2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566381/original/file-20231218-25-udqob2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=799&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566381/original/file-20231218-25-udqob2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=799&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566381/original/file-20231218-25-udqob2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=799&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566381/original/file-20231218-25-udqob2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1004&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566381/original/file-20231218-25-udqob2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1004&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566381/original/file-20231218-25-udqob2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1004&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The sheet music for Irving Berlin’s ‘White Christmas.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/sheet-music-for-irving-berlins-white-christmas-new-york-news-photo/455915107?adppopup=true">Robert R. McElroy/Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>“White Christmas” <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Bing_Crosby_a_Pocketful_of_Dreams.html?id=2DRE2U_8WJIC">had already sold 5 million copies by 1947</a> when Crosby recorded “Merry Christmas,” the first Christmas album ever produced. On the album, “White Christmas” appeared alongside holiday classics such as “Jingle Bells” and “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town.”</p>
<p>Hollywood followed suit. In the popular 1946 film “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038650/">It’s a Wonderful Life</a>,” for example, bonds of family and friendship proved their value just in time for Christmas. </p>
<p>Faith was affirmed, but it was a faith in humanity. </p>
<p>Over the coming decades, Christmas entertainment continued to reach new audiences.</p>
<p>The upbeat songs of Phil Spector’s 1963 album “A Christmas Gift for You,” for example, appealed to baby boomers. Producers also catered to younger audiences with television specials such as “A Charlie Brown Christmas” and “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.”</p>
<p>Hollywood then rediscovered Christmas during the 1980s, largely because of “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085334/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_1_tt_7_nm_0_q_christmas%2520story">A Christmas Story</a>,” a film that didn’t exactly view Christmas through rose-colored glasses. While satirizing the chaos and angst of the holiday season, the film nonetheless embraced Christmas, warts and all. A steady stream of Christmas films followed – “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096061/">Scrooged</a>,” “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099785/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_1_tt_7_nm_0_q_home%2520alone">Home Alone</a>,” “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0319343/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_1_tt_7_nm_0_q_elf">Elf</a>” – where themes of nostalgia, family and togetherness were ever-present.</p>
<p>Since the 1940s, the Christmas season has become even more inclusive. <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2013/12/23/christmas-also-celebrated-by-many-non-christians/">A 2013 Pew Research survey</a> found that 81% of non-Christians in the U.S. celebrate Christmas. Yes, the holiday has also <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/122132/the-battle-for-christmas-by-stephen-nissenbaum/">become more commercial</a>. But that, too, has made it all the more American.</p>
<p>Amid these changes, Irving Berlin’s song has been a holiday mainstay, reminding listeners of what makes them not just American, but human: the importance of home, a longing for togetherness and a shared hope for a better future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220019/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ray Rast does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The secular carol doesn’t mention Jesus, angels or wise men, while reminding listeners of what makes them not just American, but human.Ray Rast, Associate Professor of History, Gonzaga UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2047342023-05-04T12:12:53Z2023-05-04T12:12:53ZJerry Springer may have perfected the art of chasing ratings, but his predecessors laid the groundwork<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523877/original/file-20230502-3336-4e90m3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C3%2C2118%2C1383&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Jerry Springer was the ringmaster of a trashy but very successful circus. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/jerry-springer-speaks-to-guests-during-his-show-december-17-news-photo/51096066?adppopup=true">Hulton Archive/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1966/06/05/93844948.html?pageNumber=137">In a widely quoted New York Times column</a>, the paper of record called his TV program “an electronic peepshow.” The Times’ media critic, Jack Gould, accused him of “making a commercial virtue of cheap sensationalism” and exploiting the worst in human behavior, just to get ratings. </p>
<p>But this was not a critique about controversial talk show host Jerry Springer, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/27/arts/television/jerry-springer-dead.html">who died on April 27, 2023</a>. It was a column about an equally controversial talk show host named <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/joe-pyne-first-shock-jock-180963237/">Joe Pyne</a>, who pioneered an opinionated and confrontational style of program, first on radio and then on TV, where he insulted callers and argued with guests. </p>
<p>Gould wrote the article on June 5, 1966. </p>
<p>In other words, we’ve been here before. </p>
<p>The death of Springer has prompted many comments about his role in America’s toxic media culture. Writing in The Guardian, Michael Carlson noted that while Springer was not the first to try this formula, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/apr/28/jerry-springer-obituary">he elevated it to an art form</a>, leading to “the rise of so-called reality television, in which contestants chosen for their exhibitionism tried to outdo each other in humiliations and conflicts created and scripted by the producers.”</p>
<p>But I think it’s important to put Springer’s passing in perspective and consider him in the context of some decadeslong media trends. </p>
<h2>Misplaced nostalgia</h2>
<p>As far back as the 1930s, parents were complaining that some radio programs were <a href="https://worldradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Site-Early-Radio/Archive-Radio-Guide-IDX-Site/IDX/1938/Radio-Guide-38-12-17-OCR-Page-0005.pdf#search=%22mrs%20con%22">setting a bad example for their kids</a>. </p>
<p>When television came along, those complaints intensified. In 1961, Federal Communications Commission Chair Newton N. Minow <a href="https://worldradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Business/Magazines/Archive-BC-IDX/61-OCR/1961-05-15-BC-OCR-Page-0056.pdf#search=%22vast%20wasteland%20television%22">gave his “vast wasteland” speech</a>, in which he criticized television executives for endless hours of “game shows, violence, audience participation shows, formula comedies, blood and thunder, mayhem, violence, sadism, murder … private eyes, gangsters, more violence, and cartoons.”</p>
<p>There are fond recollections of a time when the media were kinder and gentler, when <a href="https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/955/fairness-doctrine">the fairness doctrine</a> kept the nation’s airwaves from descending into partisan chaos. Even Minow has continued to insist that <a href="https://wtop.com/entertainment/2021/02/newton-and-nell-minow-reflect-on-tvs-vast-wasteland-fairness-doctrine/">the fairness doctrine served a positive purpose</a> because it ensured that both sides of issues were heard. </p>
<p>But as media historian <a href="https://theconversation.com/american-broadcasting-has-always-been-closely-intertwined-with-american-politics-94392">Michael Socolow has pointed out</a>, the fairness doctrine was never a magic answer. </p>
<p>When I wrote my book about talk shows, “<a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Icons_of_Talk.html?id=bCzuAAAAMAAJ">Icons of Talk</a>,” I explored how the genre had gradually evolved from informative – and, let’s be honest, sometimes dull – discussions between the host and experts to a more combative style championed by Pyne and his radio successor, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/03/nyregion/bob-grant-a-pioneer-of-right-wing-talk-radio-dies-at-84.html">Bob Grant</a>, a hard-right conservative who frequently insulted liberals, Black people, welfare recipients, feminists, gay people and anyone who disagreed with him. </p>
<p>Controversial programs, including “The Joe Pyne Show,” were on the air while the fairness doctrine was in force, and so were Grant and others of his ilk. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Man gestures while speaking into microphone." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523885/original/file-20230502-3972-471vls.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523885/original/file-20230502-3972-471vls.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523885/original/file-20230502-3972-471vls.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523885/original/file-20230502-3972-471vls.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523885/original/file-20230502-3972-471vls.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523885/original/file-20230502-3972-471vls.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523885/original/file-20230502-3972-471vls.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">FCC chair Newton N. Minow decried the ‘vast wasteland’ of television programming in 1961.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/minow.jpeg">AP Photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Similarly, while the FCC used to exert tighter control over offensive language, making it more difficult for DJs to push the envelope, a Los Angeles announcer named Bill Ballance was able <a href="https://www.newspapers.com/image/576168610/?terms=%22Bill%20Ballance%22%20%22topless%20radio%22&match=1">to debut “topless radio” in 1971</a>. It was a call-in format in which listeners, mostly women, revealed intimate details of their sex life to Ballance.</p>
<p>Critics called the show obscene, and some people wrote irate letters to the FCC. But the show proved wildly popular, <a href="https://www.newspapers.com/image/371361730/?terms=%22Bill%20Ballance%22%20%22Topless%20radio%22&match=1">becoming No. 1 in its time slot in Los Angeles</a>, and imitators cropped up around the country. (After receiving thousands of complaints, <a href="https://www.newspapers.com/image/74659606/?terms=%22Bill%20Ballance%22%20%22Topless%20radio%22%20%22FCC%22&match=1">the FCC finally took action in 1973</a>, warning stations broadcasting “topless radio” to stop airing “prurient trash.”) </p>
<h2>Fighting for eyeballs</h2>
<p>While Socolow is right that there never were any “good old days,” it’s worth noting that in the period from the 1920s through the 1960s, controversial programs were still the exception. </p>
<p>This was the era prior to deregulation, and the FCC played a more active role in approving or denying broadcasting licenses. Most station owners tried to avoid getting bad publicity that might upset the FCC and also alienate potential advertisers.</p>
<p>But then the media landscape changed. </p>
<p>By the time Springer hosted his first television show in 1991, the deregulation of broadcasting was well underway. For better or worse, the fairness doctrine was gone, and one-sided, partisan talk radio programs with outspoken hosts were proliferating. There was also more competition. </p>
<p>When I was growing up in the 1950s, there were only a handful of TV channels on the air. But by the late 1980s, the number of broadcast channels had steadily increased, and cable TV was experiencing dramatic growth, giving viewers even more choices. (Not everyone was impressed with all of those options; Bruce Springsteen’s 1992 song “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAlDbP4tdqc">57 Channels and Nothing On</a>” reflected the opinion that more didn’t always mean better.)</p>
<p>Given all of the competition, this meant even greater pressure on program hosts to get good ratings to generate revenue for their station. With so many programs, holding the audience’s attention was a challenge.</p>
<p>Even the news departments, historically immune from ratings pressures, were affected: News segments were shortened because <a href="https://www.newspapers.com/image/718945856/?terms=viewers%20%22shorter%20attention%20spans%22">people’s attention spans were becoming shorter</a>, and news anchors were expected to be more personable. The serious and dispassionate style of anchoring, personified by Walter Cronkite, was <a href="https://www.nexttv.com/news/changing-face-tv-anchors-171088">replaced with conversational banter</a>. </p>
<p>Springer, a former newscaster and politician, <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Icons_of_Talk.html?id=bCzuAAAAMAAJ">initially tried a traditional and issues-oriented daytime talk show</a>. But when ratings sagged, he gradually transitioned to a program guaranteed to attract more attention.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The first episode of ‘The Jerry Springer Show’ included a sober discussion with former National Security Council staffer Oliver North.</span></figcaption>
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<p>The revamped “Jerry Springer Show” was proudly lowbrow, an often-chaotic and always-combative show that was cheap to produce and had a simple formula: Viewers could be voyeurs, watching as the guests fought. </p>
<p>A guest might confront their spouse’s paramour, or reveal having a second family. Accusations flew, people screamed at each other and sometimes the set turned violent, with the Springer security force always primed to break up the fights. The studio audience cheered it all on, gleefully shouting “Jerry! Jerry!” as Springer stood by, calmly observing the chaos, the ringmaster of his trashy but very successful circus. </p>
<p>His show became the program the critics loved to hate. But as with Ballance, it became a ratings juggernaut. It was syndicated across the country and aired for 27 years. At its height, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/27/arts/television/jerry-springer-dead.html">“The Jerry Springer Show” attracted as many as 8 million viewers</a>. </p>
<p>When criticized, Springer defended his show, which also opened the door for other equally outrageous daytime tabloid programs to flourish. <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/04/27/1172435531/jerry-springer-dies-obituary">As he told media critic Eric Deggans in 1997</a>, the show had a positive purpose. </p>
<p>“When TV is at its best, it’s like a mirror. … If this does nothing more than get people to sit around the dinner table and discuss this, it’s done some good.” </p>
<p>In reality, the Springer show was never about “TV at its best.” It was all about getting big ratings. </p>
<p>As a media historian, I’m aware that there have been many other outrageous programs on the air. But I must admit I don’t understand the fascination with watching people at their lowest moments.</p>
<p>Chances are the next Jerry Springer will have to be even more outrageous, someone who does something different from what has already been done before. Tabloid, sensationalist programs have been written off before, and yet they keep attracting viewers. </p>
<p>Until audiences decide they no longer want to buy what this type of program is selling, it’s only a matter of time before the next Springer emerges.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204734/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Donna L. Halper does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In the competitive media landscape of the early 1990s, seizing audience attention was a priority. What better way to do it than with a cheaply produced show that appealed to viewers’ basest instincts?Donna L. Halper, Associate Professor of Communication, Lesley UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2025862023-04-11T12:06:47Z2023-04-11T12:06:47ZWhy more and more Americans are painting their lawns<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519945/original/file-20230407-24-ap7wd8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=417%2C17%2C2573%2C1764&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Americans – especially those living in areas affected by drought – are turning to paint to give their grass that perfect green sheen.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/green-canary-president-shawn-sahbari-sprays-green-water-news-photo/452491090?adppopup=true">Justin Sullivan/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>To paint or not to paint?</p>
<p>That is the question that many homeowners are facing as their dreams for perfect turf are battered – whether it’s from inflation pushing pricier lawn care options out of reach, or <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/05/09/california-drought-lawns-climate-change/">droughts leading to water shortages</a>.</p>
<p>Increasingly, many are turning in the spreader for the paint can, opting, according to <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/lawns-paint-green-landscaping-neighbors-6f54f61">a report in The Wall Street Journal</a>, for shades of green with names like “Fairway” and “Perennial Rye.” </p>
<p>Where does this yen for turning the outside of the house into a trim green carpet come from? </p>
<p>Some years ago, I decided to investigate and the result was my book “<a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/American_Green.html?id=vtbGHAAACAAJ">American Green: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Lawn</a>.” </p>
<p>What I found was that lawns extend far back in American history. Former presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson had lawns, but these were not perfect greenswards. It turns out that the ideal of perfect turf – a weed-free, supergreen monoculture – is a recent phenomenon. </p>
<h2>The not-so-perfect lawns of Levittown</h2>
<p>Its beginnings can largely be traced to the post–World War II era when suburban developments such as the iconic <a href="https://untappedcities.com/2020/07/31/the-controversial-history-of-levittown-americas-first-suburb/">Levittown, New York</a>, had its start. </p>
<p>Levittown was the brainchild of the Levitt family, which viewed landscaping – a word that only entered the English language in the 1930s – as a form of “<a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/American_Green_The_Obsessive_Quest_for_t/C3wEEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=american+green+steinberg&printsec=frontcover">neighborhood stabilization</a>,” or a way of bolstering property values. The Levitts, who built 17,000 homes between 1947 and 1951, thus insisted that homeowners mow the yard once a week between April and November and included the stricture in covenants accompanying their deeds.</p>
<p>But the Levitts took the obsession with the lawn only so far. “I don’t believe in being a slave to the lawn,” <a href="https://longreads.com/2019/07/18/american-green/">wrote Abraham Levitt</a>. Clover was, to him, “just as nice” as grass. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Black and white photo of woman standing outside her suburban home with a perfectly manicured lawn." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519948/original/file-20230407-951-px6n81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519948/original/file-20230407-951-px6n81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519948/original/file-20230407-951-px6n81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519948/original/file-20230407-951-px6n81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519948/original/file-20230407-951-px6n81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519948/original/file-20230407-951-px6n81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519948/original/file-20230407-951-px6n81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The developers of Levittown required homeowners to mow their yards once a week between April and November.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/1950s-woman-standing-at-front-door-of-frame-house-in-news-photo/1175266594?adppopup=true">ClassicStock/Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Engineering perfection</h2>
<p>All of which is to say that the quest for the perfect lawn did not come naturally. It had to be engineered, and one of the greatest influencers in this regard was the Scotts Co. of Marysville, Ohio, which took agricultural chemicals and created concoctions that homeowners could spread over their yards. </p>
<p>Formulators like Scotts had one great advantage: <a href="https://pesticidetruths.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Reference-Turf-Ornamentals-1998-03-00-The-Origins-of-Turfgrass-Species-Beard-GCM.pdf">Turfgrass is not native to North America</a>, and growing it on the continent is, for the most part, an uphill ecological battle. Homeowners thus needed a lot of help in the quest for perfection.</p>
<p>But first Scotts had to help lodge the idea of perfect turf in the American imagination. Scotts was able to tap into <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/As_Seen_on_TV/kvADAwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=marling+as+seen+on+tv&printsec=frontcover">postwar trends in brightly colored consumer products</a>. From yellow slacks to blue Jell-O, colored products became status symbols and a sign that the consumer had rejected the drab black-and-white world of urban life for the modern suburb and its kaleidoscopic colors – which included, of course, the vibrant green lawn.</p>
<p>Architectural trends also helped the perfect turf aesthetic take root. A <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_American_House_Today/NNKqzgEACAAJ?hl=en">blurring of indoor and outdoor space</a> occurred in the postwar era as patios and eventually sliding glass doors invited homeowners to treat the yard as an extension of their family room. What better way to achieve a comfy outdoor living space than to carpet the yard in a nice greensward. </p>
<p>In 1948, the perfect lawn took a giant step forward when the Scotts Co. began selling its “Weed and Feed” lawn care product, which allowed homeowners to eliminate weeds and fertilize simultaneously. </p>
<p>The development was probably one of the worst things ever to happen, ecologically speaking, to the American yard. Now homeowners were spreading the toxic herbicide 2,4-D – which has since been <a href="https://www.beyondpesticides.org/assets/media/documents/pesticides/factsheets/2-4-D.pdf">linked to cancer, reproductive harm and neurological impairment</a> – on their lawns as a matter of course, whether they were having an issue with weeds or not.</p>
<p>Selective herbicides like 2,4-D killed broadleaf “weeds” like clover and left the grass intact. Clover and bluegrass, a desirable turf species, <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/American_Green_The_Obsessive_Quest_for_t/C3wEEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=clover%20and%20bluegrass%20evolved%20together">evolved together</a>, with the former capturing nitrogen from the air and adding it to the soil as fertilizer. Killing it off sent homeowners back to the store for more artificial fertilizer to make up for the deficit. </p>
<p>That was bad news for homeowners, but a good business model for those companies selling lawn care products who, on the one hand, handicapped homeowners by killing off the clover and, on the other hand, sold them more chemical inputs to recreate what could have occurred naturally. </p>
<p>The “perfect” lawn had come of age.</p>
<h2>The meaning of grass painting</h2>
<p>By the early 1960s, homeowners were already looking for ways of achieving perfect turf on the cheap. </p>
<p>A 1964 article in Newsweek pointed out that green grass paint was being sold in 35 states. <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/American_Green_The_Obsessive_Quest_for_t/C3wEEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=american+green+steinberg&printsec=frontcover">The magazine opined</a> that because a homeowner “needs a Bachelor of Chemistry to comprehend the bewildering variety of weed and bug destroyers now fogging the market,” paint was becoming an attractive alternative. </p>
<p>So the interest in grass painting is not entirely new.</p>
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<img alt="A bird's eye view of suburban houses with green lawns." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520042/original/file-20230410-26-l74rcc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520042/original/file-20230410-26-l74rcc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520042/original/file-20230410-26-l74rcc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520042/original/file-20230410-26-l74rcc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520042/original/file-20230410-26-l74rcc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520042/original/file-20230410-26-l74rcc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520042/original/file-20230410-26-l74rcc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Suburban tract houses in Centerville, Md.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/ticky-tack-royalty-free-image/627412695?phrase=bird's%20eye%20view%20suburbia&adppopup=true">Edwin Remsberg/The Image Bank via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>What is new, however, is that the recent interest in painting the lawn is taking place in a context in which a more pluralistic vision of the yard has taken root. </p>
<p>People fed up with corporate-dominated lawn care are turning back the clock and <a href="https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/clover-lawns-37181185">cultivating their yards with clover</a>, a plant that is resistant to drought and provides nutrients to the lawn, to boot. And so the clover lawn has been making a comeback, with videos on TikTok tagged #cloverlawn <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/cloverlawn">boasting 78 million views</a>.</p>
<p>Together, the return of grass painting with the resurgent interest in clover lawns suggests that the ideal of the resource-intensive perfect lawn is an ecological conceit that the country may no longer be able to afford.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202586/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ted Steinberg does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The ideal of perfect turf – a weed-free, supergreen monoculture – is a relatively recent phenomenon.Ted Steinberg, Professor of History, Case Western Reserve UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1973872023-02-28T19:18:28Z2023-02-28T19:18:28ZDoc Watson at 100: The virtuoso guitarist brought Appalachian music to a worldwide audience and influenced generations of musicians<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512586/original/file-20230228-20-g95ir3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C7%2C5273%2C3457&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Doc Watson was the finest guitar picker of his time.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/portrait-of-guitarist-doc-watson-chicago-illinois-april-20-news-photo/531409355">Paul Natkin/Archive Photos via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Arthel Lane “Doc” Watson was born on March 3, 1923, in Stony Fork, North Carolina, in the Blue Ridge Mountains, but his music <a href="https://docat100.com/">is as influential now</a> – more than a decade after <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/30/arts/music/doc-watson-folk-musician-dies-at-89.html">his 2012 death</a> – as at any time during his long career. During that time he was arguably America’s most beloved folk musician. Today, Watson is viewed by artists and fans as one of the greatest guitarists of American roots music.</p>
<p>Making music came naturally to Watson, who grew up in a large <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/30/arts/music/doc-watson-folk-musician-dies-at-89.html">music-loving family</a>. Recordings made in people’s homes by folklorists during the early 1960s documented music gatherings featuring various Watsons alongside neighbors and friends, collectively celebrating their community’s musical culture – a shared repertoire of Appalachian ballads, songs and tunes. </p>
<p>Watson is widely credited with <a href="https://www.flatpick.com/category_s/2221.htm">popularizing the guitar style known as flatpicking</a>, a rapid-fire approach to playing notes and chords on guitar strings by use of a plectrum, or guitar pick. Virtually all guitar players who have used a pick over the past six decades have labeled Watson a pioneer of that style. These include roots music masters like <a href="https://www.bluegrasshall.org/inductees/clarence-white/">Clarence White</a>, <a href="https://thebluegrasssituation.com/read/end-of-the-road-a-conversation-with-norman-blake/">Norman Blake</a> and <a href="https://www.nodepression.com/iconic-bluegrass-guitarist-tony-rice-dies-at-age-69/">Tony Rice</a>; newer bluegrass stars like <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/mar/24/i-was-running-away-from-poverty-the-remarkable-rise-of-bluegrass-virtuoso-billy-strings">Billy Strings</a> and <a href="https://variety.com/2023/music/news/molly-tuttle-interview-best-new-artist-grammy-nomination-bluegrass-1235513365/#!">Molly Tuttle</a>; and guitarists in other genres, like <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Bob-Dylan-American-musician">Bob Dylan</a>, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2018/05/03/606072797/first-listen-ry-cooder-the-prodigal-son">Ry Cooder</a> and <a href="https://www.allmusic.com/artist/stephen-stills-mn0000021744/biography">Stephen Stills</a>.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Doc Watson inspired generations of guitarists.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Watson was also an accomplished practitioner of <a href="https://guitaralliance.org/2013/10/15/history-fingerstyle-guitar/">fingerpicking</a>, a guitar style involving plucking strings with the thumb and one or more fingertips using fingerpicks or fingernails. Watson’s agile and rhythmically intricate <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCl1emxubWM">two-finger approach with fingerpicks</a> is widely considered to be the apogee of the style.</p>
<h2>From Appalachia to the folk revival circuit</h2>
<p>Though remembered as a guitarist, Watson initially played other instruments. </p>
<p>The harmonica preoccupied Watson until he was 11, when his father made a maplewood fretless banjo for him and taught him basic techniques. Two years later, Watson’s father bought him a US$12 Stella guitar. Watson loved the instrument and practiced constantly. He eventually <a href="https://www.npr.org/2012/05/30/153704132/fresh-air-remembers-traditional-music-legend-doc-watson">purchased a Martin</a> guitar on a payment plan and took to playing on the streets of Boone, North Carolina – a town about 10 miles away from the Watson home – to pay for it. </p>
<p>Traveling to Boone and, in subsequent years, to more distant locales was no easy feat for Watson because an eye infection in infancy had left him <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/30/arts/music/doc-watson-folk-musician-dies-at-89.html">permanently blind</a>. But Watson did not allow blindness to limit him. During the Great Depression, Watson’s father encouraged him to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/30/arts/music/doc-watson-folk-musician-dies-at-89.html">do his share of household chores</a>, including cutting firewood.</p>
<p>At the age of 23, Watson married his neighbor Rosa Lee Carlton, the daughter of fiddler Gaither Carlton, and the union brought two children, Eddy Merle Watson and Nancy Ellen Watson. To support his family, Watson did odd jobs including tuning pianos and played music on the street. In the early 1950s he joined a Johnson City, Tennessee-based country band, which required that he play an electric guitar. When this band played at square dances, Watson would play fiddle tunes on his Gibson Les Paul Goldtop with a flatpick. </p>
<iframe style="border-radius:12px" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/playlist/0Il5QC8xLVb0TnkULuE9uS?utm_source=generator" width="100%" height="352" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" loading="lazy"></iframe>
<p>This blind musician with a strictly local reputation might never have entered the national folk music spotlight without serendipitous intervention. In September 1960, musician and folklorist <a href="https://folklife.si.edu/legacy-honorees/ralph-rinzler/smithsonian">Ralph Rinzler</a> arrived in the Blue Ridge from New York City to document old-time music in informal recording sessions. These sessions were led by <a href="https://wilkesheritagemuseum.com/hall-of-fame/previous-years/2010/clarence-tom-ashley">Clarence “Tom” Ashley</a>, a journeyman country musician known for “The Coo-Coo Bird,” his 1929 recording made in Johnson City and incorporated onto Folkways Records’ influential 1952 multi-LP set “<a href="https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/AnthologyOfAmericanFolkMusic.pdf">Anthology of American Folk Music</a>.” When Rinzler asked about nearby musicians to include in the sessions, Ashley recommended Watson. </p>
<p>Upon meeting Watson, Rinzler was baffled because Watson brought his electric guitar to an acoustic jam session. Watson had been playing electric guitar and didn’t own an acoustic guitar at the time. He had to borrow an acoustic guitar for the session. Rinzler’s recordings were released on a 1961 Folkways album, and Watson was soon recognized as a generational talent. Playing acoustic guitars exclusively, Watson toured the folk revival circuit, publicly showcasing his broad and deep repertoire and his unparalleled instrumental technique and tone.</p>
<h2>‘Traditional plus’</h2>
<p>Watson initially toured the U.S. as part of old-time ensembles headlined by Ashley, but it was Watson who received the lion’s share of the attention. He wowed audiences with his musical skills as a vocalist as well as an instrumentalist and delivered entertaining anecdotes, reflections and good-natured quips. Before long, his management booked gigs nationally for Watson as a solo act, including an <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/may/30/doc-watson">appearance at the 1963 Newport Folk Festival</a>. </p>
<p>While Watson had previously played a broad range of music – commercial country, blues, rockabilly, pop, jazz and Broadway – his management initially encouraged him to perform music associated with the rural culture of Appalachia. But as Watson expanded his on-stage repertoire in defiance of the perception that folk revival audiences only wanted to hear “authentic” folk music, no one complained. Indeed, <a href="https://misterguitar.us/bios/watsonbio.html">his fan base steadily increased</a>.</p>
<p>Watson recognized that any sustained success he might achieve as a full-time professional musician would depend on appealing to younger people. After touring alone and recording his eponymous debut album solo for Vanguard, Watson decided in 1964 to invite a musician half his age to be part of his act – someone who could help him reach younger fans and guide him from gig to gig. That someone was his son Merle, then 15, whose slide and fingerstyle guitar would complement his father’s vocal and instrumental work.</p>
<p>The father-son duo became a top concert draw and recorded a string of beloved albums for United Artists and independent labels Vanguard, Poppy, Flying Fish and Sugar Hill. In 1972 Doc Watson contributed memorably to the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s legendary collaborative album “<a href="https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/WTCBU%20essay.pdf">Will the Circle Be Unbroken</a>,” and that recognition dramatically expanded interest in Doc and Merle Watson.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">President Jimmy Carter hosted a performance by Doc Watson at the White House on Aug. 7, 1980.</span></figcaption>
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<p>While they knew countless traditional tunes, songs and ballads, Doc and Merle were equally devoted to interpreting newer material. Doc began to refer to the repertoire the duo performed, which drew from several genres of American music, as “traditional plus.” After <a href="https://www.upi.com/Archives/1985/10/23/Country-musician-Merle-Watson-who-teamed-with-his-father/3414498888000/">Merle’s tragic death</a> in a tractor accident in 1985, Watson continued to perform a “traditional plus” repertoire in collaboration with other musicians, including bassist T. Michael Coleman, guitarist Jack Lawrence, multi-instrumentalist David Holt and guitarist Richard Watson, Merle Watson’s son and Doc Watson’s grandson.</p>
<h2>‘Just one of the people’</h2>
<p>Watson said that his blindness had allowed him to <a href="https://www.npr.org/2012/05/30/153704132/fresh-air-remembers-traditional-music-legend-doc-watson">focus on honing his musical talents</a>. As Coleman said in my interview with him for the notes I wrote for the Doc Watson album “<a href="https://craftrecordings.com/products/doc-watson-life-s-work-a-retrospective-4-cd-box-set">Life’s Work, A Retrospective</a>”: “Doc told me that, being blind, he was not afraid to be anywhere or to do anything.” Certainly, Watson was fearless in many of the things he did throughout his life: cutting firewood, climbing a ladder to repair an upper-story window, constructing a utility building, hitchhiking to nearby towns to play music on the street, traveling by bus to perform in faraway cities and appearing on stages before thousands of people.</p>
<p>Fearlessness also infused his live performances and recordings. Whether playing fiddle tunes on his guitar at lightning speed with a flatpick or singing traditional and contemporary songs to fingerstyle accompaniment, he was a daring improviser.</p>
<p>Watson received numerous honors during his lifetime, including the <a href="https://www.arts.gov/honors/heritage/arthel-doc-watson">National Heritage Fellowship in 1988</a>, the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/showbiz/2012/05/30/von-doc-watson-national-medal-of-arts.pool">National Medal of Arts in 1997</a>, the <a href="https://www.bluegrasshall.org/inductees/arthel-doc-watson/">International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor in 2000</a> and the <a href="https://www.grammy.com/awards/lifetime-achievement-awards">Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004</a>. But fame did not matter much to Watson. He considered himself “<a href="https://outsider.com/entertainment/music/just-one-people-remembering-doc-watson/">just one of the people</a>.” Watson committed himself to a life in music because he loved entertaining others and because he was <a href="https://youtu.be/i5mZlriOogU?start=398">proud to make a living for his family</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197387/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ted Olson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Doc Watson’s popularity and influence came from his virtuosic guitar playing, powerful voice, broad musical taste, folksy storytelling and lack of pretense.Ted Olson, Professor of Appalachian Studies and Bluegrass, Old-Time and Roots Music Studies, East Tennessee State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1946142023-01-10T13:29:29Z2023-01-10T13:29:29ZGod and guns often go together in US history – this course examines why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502489/original/file-20221221-20-q1wuth.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C2%2C1986%2C1502&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Views on guns are intertwined with views on God for many Americans.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/pistol-on-open-bible-royalty-free-image/157197798?phrase=gun%20god&adppopup=true">RichLegg/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Text saying: Uncommon Courses, from The Conversation" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/uncommon-courses-130908">Uncommon Courses</a> is an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching.</em> </p>
<h2>Title of course:</h2>
<p>“God and Guns: the History of Faith and Firearms in America”</p>
<h2>What prompted the idea for the course?</h2>
<p>As <a href="http://jslaughter01.faculty.wesleyan.edu">a religion professor</a>, I’ve come to know many students from other countries who identify as Christian. I realized they were puzzled at some of the things Americans often bundled into their faith – things these international Christians didn’t consider relevant to their own religious identity.</p>
<p>One issue in particular sparked a question from a South Asian Christian student: Why did American evangelicals seem to have such an affinity for firearms? For example, Pew Research indicates <a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2017/november/god-gun-control-white-evangelicals-texas-church-shooting.html">41% of white evangelicals</a> own a firearm, compared with 30% of people in the U.S. overall. This unsettled the student, since they shared much of the same theology, and they wanted to know more about this connection.</p>
<p>I was embarrassed to admit that I didn’t have a satisfactory answer. Since I was trained as <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/122/article/766198">a historian of the 18th and early 19th centuries</a>, I suspected it wasn’t explained by the last 10 or 20 years. I knew we needed to go back and start with the Colonial era and work our way forward. This course is my humble attempt to answer these students’ questions.</p>
<h2>What does the course explore?</h2>
<p>We spend the first two weeks reading what the Bible says about violence. There are no firearms in the ancient text, of course – but there are plenty of other weapons.</p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judges+5&version=KJV">hymns of celebration</a> after <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judges+4&version=KJV">defeating enemies</a>, such as when Jael hammers a peg through the head of the military commander Sisera in the Book of Judges, appear to celebrate violence.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+5&version=KJV">the Sermon on the Mount</a>, however, Jesus teaches his followers to turn the other cheek. What do American Christians think about these types of passages, and to what degree do they inform their approach to firearms? </p>
<p>The surprises in the text are endless, especially since very few of my students have ever read the Bible.</p>
<p>Our readings help contextualize key themes in American history as we move through the course: from the Colonial era, <a href="https://wwnorton.co.uk/books/9780393334906-our-savage-neighbors-5712a22d-99af-4f98-ab18-ca2a75a2180e">when firearms, religion and violence were intertwined aspects of settlers’ lives</a>, to the Cold War, when we discover how evangelicals embraced a <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/9781631495731">masculine, warriorlike idea of Jesus</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A black and white old-fashioned portrait of a standing man with a long white beard in black clothing." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502500/original/file-20221222-22-kmbu5s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502500/original/file-20221222-22-kmbu5s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502500/original/file-20221222-22-kmbu5s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502500/original/file-20221222-22-kmbu5s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502500/original/file-20221222-22-kmbu5s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1063&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502500/original/file-20221222-22-kmbu5s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1063&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502500/original/file-20221222-22-kmbu5s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1063&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Portrait of John Brown (1800-1859).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/portrait-of-john-brown-militant-abolitionist-that-seized-news-photo/615230680?phrase=%22john%20brown%22&adppopup=true">Corbis Historical via Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Together, we explore digital and archival sources that show a wide range of attitudes toward weapons. For example, the abolitionist <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781442236707/John-Brown-Speaks-Letters-and-Statements-from-Charlestown">John Brown’s prison letters</a> provide a fascinating window into how faith and firearms can be central to someone’s cause. Brown was a Christian who believed so strongly in abolishing slavery that he was convinced God had appointed him as his agent of violent judgment. The letters were written just prior to Brown’s execution in 1859, after his failed attempt to spark a slave uprising in Harper’s Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia).</p>
<h2>Why is this course relevant now?</h2>
<p>Americans live in a country where politicians’ platforms often focus on God and guns.</p>
<p>Some are overtly weaving it into their election pitch, such as U.S. Senate candidate <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/mandel-campaigning-pro-god-guns-050100949.html">Josh Mandel</a> of Ohio, who called himself “pro-God, guns and Trump,” while other Republicans such as Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert and Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/christmas-card-guns-lauren-boebert-thomas-massie-start-new-culture-ncna1285709">included guns in Christmas messages</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A crowd holds signs, including one that says, 'God...guns...and guts...lets keep them all.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502503/original/file-20221222-24-d330ay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502503/original/file-20221222-24-d330ay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502503/original/file-20221222-24-d330ay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502503/original/file-20221222-24-d330ay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502503/original/file-20221222-24-d330ay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502503/original/file-20221222-24-d330ay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502503/original/file-20221222-24-d330ay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A crowd outside the Arizona State Capitol in Phoenix in 2013, during a Guns Across America rally.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/GodAndGuns/9c3ba87661c54684aaea8a29da4171d0/photo?Query=guns%20god&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=116&currentItemNo=4">AP Photo/Matt York</a></span>
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<h2>What’s a critical lesson from the course?</h2>
<p>American Christians, including evangelicals, are a diverse lot. The “peace church” tradition – the Mennonites, Amish and Quakers, among others – may not often grab headlines, but complicate the narrative about guns and God in U.S. culture. </p>
<p>Many other types of Christianity <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-01/the-role-of-religion-in-the-gun-control-debate/101114470">do not embrace firearms</a>, either. For example, Pew Research found that only 52% of Black Protestants have fired a gun, compared with <a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2017/july/praise-lord-pass-ammunition-who-loves-god-guns-pew.html">a 72% average among all Americans</a>.</p>
<p>Yet from the time of the Puritans onward, many Christians <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691181592/as-a-city-on-a-hill">have viewed America as a divinely inspired nation</a> – an idea that often served to sanction violence, whether in a war for Indigenous lands, defending slavery or leading a revolt.</p>
<h2>What will the course prepare students to do?</h2>
<p>Hopefully this course will equip students to coherently answer the question of why American religious culture is so intertwined with gun culture – especially if the subject comes up at Thanksgiving dinner. </p>
<p>More seriously, the better that people in America understand how their predecessors viewed firearms, the more robust and productive debates will be over their place <a href="https://gunsandsocietycenter.com/">in American society today</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194614/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joseph P. Slaughter does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Support for strong gun ownership rights is often associated with conservative Christian views, but religion and self-defense have a much longer history in the United States.Joseph P. Slaughter, Assistant Professor of the Practice in Religion and History and Associate Director of the Center for the Study of Guns and Society, Wesleyan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1948072022-12-02T13:41:14Z2022-12-02T13:41:14ZStudent ‘slave auctions’ illustrate the existence of a hidden culture of domination and subjugation in US schools<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498310/original/file-20221130-24-r2i64x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1264%2C28%2C2768%2C2753&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A depiction of an auction where an enslaved person is sold.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/rendering-depicting-slave-auction-royalty-free-image/92846577?phrase=%20slave%20auction&adppopup=true">Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In an otherwise normal football season, two California high schools abruptly canceled the remainder of their games for the same reason. Players on both teams participated in troublesome acts of racism.</p>
<p>In October 2022, <a href="https://www.kcra.com/article/racism-sexism-bullying-amador-football-team-chat/42011156">Amador High School in Sutter Creek</a> ended its season after school officials learned that several players joined a Snapchat called <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-10-07/racist-chat-thread-high-school-football-season-canceled">“Kill the Blacks.”</a> </p>
<p>In nearby Yuba City, members of the River Valley High School football team produced and filmed a modern day <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/mock-e2-80-98slave-auction-e2-80-99-prompts-high-school-to-forfeit-football-season/ar-AA12xR0n">slave auction</a>. </p>
<p>In the film, three teammates – all young Black men – were offered for sale. </p>
<p>“They needed another person to be in the video, and being the only Black person left in the locker room, they all turned to me,” <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/high-school-football-players-paying-113102940.html">one of the Black students said</a>. “I made it clear I didn’t want to do it and tried to leave, but wasn’t able to.”</p>
<p>Clad in their underwear and with their eyes downcast, the three were paraded through the locker room and put on an auction block. At least one of the Black teens had a belt representing a noose looped around his neck.</p>
<p>Their white and Latinx teammates feverishly bid on them. Even through the lens of the video camera, the “mock” enslavers’ excitement and frenzy were palpable. </p>
<p>Many are upset with the Black youth for participating in their own degradation. I understand that. But as I outline in my recent book, “<a href="https://ugapress.org/book/9780820362359/bodies-out-of-place/">Bodies Out of Place: Theorizing Anti-blackness in U.S. Society</a>,
I also understand that "public degradation ceremonies are meant to debase and dissuade Blacks from walking in their full humanity, as full citizens.”</p>
<p>Less than 2% percent of the students at River Valley High – <a href="https://lasentinel.net/high-school-students-taught-a-lesson-for-holding-mock-slave-auction.html">31 out of the total 1,801</a> – identify as Black.</p>
<p>These numbers render Black students both extremely visible and invisible at the same time. </p>
<p>In my view, the slave auction operated as a perverse public performance used not only to reinforce the Black students’ inferior status in their own minds, but also to signal the same to those watching. </p>
<h2>What lies underneath the mockery</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.bu.edu/teaching-writing/resources/teaching-the-hidden-curriculum/">A Boston University teaching guide</a> defines the “hidden curriculum” as an amorphous collection of implicit cultural messages of the dominant culture. These unwritten rules reinforce an often unspoken social order in which people of color are subordinate. </p>
<p>The hidden curriculum refers not only to unwritten rules, but also “unspoken expectations” that serve as “unofficial norms, behaviors and values.” These norms become institutionalized. As <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/soin.12174">sociologists Glenn Bracey II and Wendy Leo Moore write</a>, “Although the norms are white, they are rarely marked as such.” </p>
<p>Mock slave auctions are not rare occurrences. </p>
<p>In May 2022, white middle school students at Chatham School District in North Carolina held one <a href="https://www.complex.com/life/superintendent-apologizes-white-students-pretended-sell-black-classmates-mock-slave-auction">by staging the sale of their Black classmates</a>. </p>
<p>One of the parents, Ashley Palmer, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ashley.palmer4706/posts/10223127942720077">posted on Facebook</a> that her son had been “sold” by his classmates.</p>
<p>“His friend ‘went for $350’ and another student was the Slavemaster because he ‘knew how to handle them,’” Palmer wrote. “We even have a video of students harmonizing the N word. Since when were children so blatantly racist?” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Large black letters appear on a white sheet of paper announcing the sale of a Negroes." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498306/original/file-20221130-20-zn9ris.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498306/original/file-20221130-20-zn9ris.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498306/original/file-20221130-20-zn9ris.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498306/original/file-20221130-20-zn9ris.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498306/original/file-20221130-20-zn9ris.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=636&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498306/original/file-20221130-20-zn9ris.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=636&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498306/original/file-20221130-20-zn9ris.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=636&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A flyer detailing an auction of enslaved people in 1859.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/flyer-announcing-a-slave-sale-united-states-news-photo/535783805?phrase=slave%20auction&adppopup=true">Photo12/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In another incident, students at Newberg High School in Oregon participated in a yearlong virtual slave auction called “Slave Trade” that was uncovered by their parents in 2021. On the chat, they <a href="https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/nerberg-high-school-virtual-slave-trade/283-56462efe-4f35-47b1-a4ee-6670b2754dec">targeted Black students</a> and used homophobic and racist slurs while joking about how much they would pay for their Black classmates. </p>
<p>These patterns continued in 2021 when <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/23/us/aledo-texas-students-racist-snapchat-group-chat-trnd/index.html">students in Texas</a> created a social media group called “N***** Auction” and pretended to auction off their Black peers. </p>
<p>Not all of the auctions are held on virtual platforms.</p>
<p>In 2016 in Barrington, Illinois, for instance, a “mock slave auction” was staged by Barrington High School students in order to create what they described as <a href="https://abc7chicago.com/mock-slave-auction-racism-school-spirit-barrington-high/1223540/">“school spirit”</a> during an event meant to <a href="https://abc7chicago.com/illnois-junior-classical-convention-barrington-high-school-kenwood-academy-racism/1223278/">bring students from Chicago and the suburbs together</a>.</p>
<h2>Why it all matters</h2>
<p>Group performances not only serve as a bonding experience among members, but they also reinforce an imaginary social hierarchy that harks back to the <a href="https://www.ferris.edu/HTMLS/news/jimcrow/what.htm">days of Jim Crow</a> at the turn of the 20th century and legal racial segregation. </p>
<p>These performances convey a message about a sense of belonging. Without using the specific words, the acts suggest to Black students in stark images that their status is marginal at best. </p>
<p>It is important to connect the past and present, as Yuba City Unified School District Superintendent Doreen Osumi did in a statement <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/02/us/california-high-school-football-slave-auction-reaj/">obtained by CNN</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A black-and-white sketch depicts Black men and women standing on platforms as white men walk pass them." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498304/original/file-20221130-9976-8w1kao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498304/original/file-20221130-9976-8w1kao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498304/original/file-20221130-9976-8w1kao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498304/original/file-20221130-9976-8w1kao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498304/original/file-20221130-9976-8w1kao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498304/original/file-20221130-9976-8w1kao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498304/original/file-20221130-9976-8w1kao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A slave auction in New Orleans is the subject of this sketch.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-atlantic-slave-trade-or-transatlantic-slave-trade-took-news-photo/1354482312?phrase=slave%20auction&adppopup=true">Pictures From History/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>“Reenacting a slave sale as a prank tells us that we have a great deal of work to do with our students so they can distinguish between intent and impact,” Osumi wrote. “They may have thought this skit was funny, but it is not; it is unacceptable and requires us to look honestly and deeply at issues of systemic racism.”</p>
<p>For their part in the mock slave auction, the <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mock-slave-auction-video-yuba-city-california-high-school-football-players/">Black students</a> at River Valley High School issued apologies. </p>
<p>Each received a three-day school suspension – a punishment that proved harsher than that issued to some of their non-Black counterparts, according to Greater Sacramento NAACP President Betty Williams. Though <a href="https://www.bet.com/article/c0fdlh/black-white-high-school-students-punished-mock-slave-auction">it’s unclear what the punishments</a> were for white students, Williams said they “were not equitable in their distribution.” </p>
<p>I understand Williams’ frustration. In my mind, it could be argued that the onlookers were no more culpable than the hundreds and sometimes thousands of whites who packed picnic baskets and gathered after church to watch a Black person get lynched. </p>
<p>“I am hurt that the school moved so quickly to punish us instead of taking their time to understand the situation better,” said <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/sacramento/news/river-valley-high-slave-auction-apology/">one of the Black students</a>.</p>
<p>“But looking back I wish I had done more to stop it,” the student wrote. “When the video was made I was not feeling good about it and I froze. I wanted to get it over with so I could get to practice.” </p>
<p>While it remains unclear why the team thought holding a mock slave auction was a good idea, one thing is clear: The harm caused by their actions continues to reverberate. </p>
<p><em>This article was updated to correct the fraction of Black students at River Valley High School.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194807/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Barbara Harris Combs does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>At a time when politicians across the country are debating how slavery in the US is taught, high school students are participating in mock slave auctions that are having severe consequencesBarbara Harris Combs, Professor and Chair Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, Kennesaw State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1919212022-11-21T13:16:48Z2022-11-21T13:16:48Z18th- and 19th-century Americans of all races, classes and genders looked to the ancient Mediterranean for inspiration<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492894/original/file-20221101-26-7dbbw8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1024%2C651&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In a new land, the ancient past held special meaning.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://bcma.bowdoin.edu/antiquity/objects/1904-15/">'Temple of Aphaea, Aegina' by John Rollin Tilton. Courtesy of Bowdoin College Museum of Art</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The ancient world of the Mediterranean has <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674314269">long permeated American society</a>, in everything from museum collections to <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=3a5PAAAAMAAJ">home furnishings</a>. The design of the nation’s public monuments, buildings and <a href="https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/2550/culture-classicism">universities</a>, as well as its <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/first-principles-thomas-e-ricks?variant=33097718530082">legal system and form of government</a>, show the enduring influence of Mediterranean antiquity on American culture. </p>
<p>Until the late 19th century, <a href="https://bcma.bowdoin.edu/antiquity/objects/portraits-of-greek-and-roman-figures/">Americans encountered the ancient world almost exclusively through reproductions</a> – in books, artwork and even <a href="https://allthingsliberty.com/2013/12/george-washingtons-favorite-play/">popular plays</a>. Very few <a href="https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/10869/being-american-europe-1750-1860">could afford to travel abroad</a> to encounter Mediterranean artifacts firsthand. </p>
<p>Yet despite barriers to access, many Americans forged personal connections with the cultures of the ancient Mediterranean – not only the Greeks and Romans, but also the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/08905490902981879">Egyptians</a> and Israelites. Perhaps the newness of American culture inspired this deep interest in the ancient past. </p>
<p>One of the most fascinating aspects of Mediterranean antiquity’s influence on America, even before it officially became a country, is how it cut across cultural lines of race, class and gender. Far from being the preserve of a privileged few, the art and literature of the ancients was <a href="https://andscape.com/features/classics-is-a-part-of-black-intellectual-history-howard-needs-to-keep-it/">often embraced by Americans of all stripes</a> – including the enslaved <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/phillis-wheatley">Black poet Phillis Wheatley</a> (circa 1753-1784) and <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/sculptor-edmonia-lewis-shattered-gender-race-expectations-19th-century-america-180972934/">Black and Native American sculptor Edmonia Lewis</a> (1844-1907). But the circumstances of these encounters and the way individual Americans thought about antiquity varied greatly. </p>
<p>I’m an <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Blli_yUAAAAJ&hl=en">art historian specializing in ancient Mediterranean art and culture</a>. I am particularly fascinated by the way Americans, from the earliest days, made creative connections between past and present, despite being separated by thousands of miles and millennia of history. </p>
<p>In researching and selecting works of art for the exhibit “<a href="https://www.bowdoin.edu/art-museum/exhibitions/2022/antiquity-and-america.html">Antiquity and America</a>,” on view at the <a href="https://www.bowdoin.edu/art-museum/">Bowdoin College Museum of Art</a>, I was excited to show an exceptionally diverse range of American encounters with the ancient world, especially in portrait painting.</p>
<h2>Marker of education</h2>
<p>Take, for example, <a href="https://www.library.dartmouth.edu/digital/digital-collections/occom-circle/occom">Samson Occom</a> (1723-1792), a member of the Mohegan nation, Presbyterian minister and one of the first Native Americans <a href="https://collections.dartmouth.edu/occom/html/normalized/768517-normalized.html">to pen an autobiography in English</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491951/original/file-20221026-19-95pfs8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Painting of a Native American man in a drapey shirt and cape looking to the right. Trees and sky are in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491951/original/file-20221026-19-95pfs8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491951/original/file-20221026-19-95pfs8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=722&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491951/original/file-20221026-19-95pfs8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=722&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491951/original/file-20221026-19-95pfs8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=722&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491951/original/file-20221026-19-95pfs8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=907&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491951/original/file-20221026-19-95pfs8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=907&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491951/original/file-20221026-19-95pfs8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=907&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The portrayal of Samson Occom includes symbols of both the Indigenous identity of the sitter and his connections to Mediterranean antiquity.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://bcma.bowdoin.edu/antiquity/objects/1813-4/">Painted by Nathaniel Smibert. Courtesy of Bowdoin College Museum of Art</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>His unfinished portrait, painted <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Smibert">by Nathaniel Smibert</a> (1735-1756) in the mid-18th century, alluded to Occom’s Indigenous identity in the coloring of his skin and the styling of his hair. Simultaneously, it also referenced his training in classical literature and oratory, acquired <a href="https://www.dartmouth.edu/library/rauner/exhibits/matter-absolute-necessity-moors-charity.html">by studying with Eleazar Wheelock</a> (1711-1779), a Connecticut Congregational minister.</p>
<p>Occom’s pose and draped cloak recall those found on ancient statues of Roman senators – a portrait convention familiar in early America <a href="https://bcma.bowdoin.edu/antiquity/objects/portraits-of-greek-and-roman-figures/">from prints circulating at the time</a> – and one that would later become quite popular in American society. </p>
<p>While his learning in Greek and Latin was undoubtedly a source of great pride for Occom – and a way for him to level the playing field with the European colonists – it was used by others to demonstrate the “civilizing” effect of European culture and education in the British Colonies. </p>
<p>In 1776, Eleazar Wheelock sent his former pupil Occom to Great Britain to raise money for a Native American school – funds that were ultimately repurposed for the founding of Dartmouth College. Occom would later charge Wheelock with <a href="https://collections.dartmouth.edu/occom/html/diplomatic/771424-diplomatic.html">using him as a “gazing stock</a>” in Europe while planning all the while to use the funds for the benefit of white settlers. </p>
<h2>Shaping public opinion</h2>
<p>A portrait of Sengbe Pieh, also known as Cinqué, who led the 1839 <a href="https://dh.scu.edu/exhibits/exhibits/show/slave-ships-12h/rebellion">Amistad slave ship revolt</a>, is an example of Black Americans’ <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/african-americans-and-the-classics-9781350107830/">use of the classical world for political purposes</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491953/original/file-20221026-8248-i3sr1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Painting of a black man holding a bamboo staff in a toga-like outfit looking to the left. The background shows a landscape with a cliff, distant mountain, tropical trees and a moody, cloudy sky." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491953/original/file-20221026-8248-i3sr1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491953/original/file-20221026-8248-i3sr1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=727&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491953/original/file-20221026-8248-i3sr1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=727&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491953/original/file-20221026-8248-i3sr1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=727&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491953/original/file-20221026-8248-i3sr1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=913&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491953/original/file-20221026-8248-i3sr1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=913&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491953/original/file-20221026-8248-i3sr1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=913&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Portraying Sengbe Pieh, who led the revolt on the slave ship Amistad, in the pose and garb of an ancient Roman senator was an intentional way to influence public opinion.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://bcma.bowdoin.edu/antiquity/objects/2021-15/">Courtesy of Bowdoin College Museum of Art</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Commissioned by <a href="https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/purvis-robert-1810-1898/">Robert Purvis</a> (1810-1898), a Black Philadelphian and prominent abolitionist, this striking portrait by John Sartain (1808-1897) was intended to shape the popular image of Pieh and his fellow Africans during their <a href="https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/amistad#background">Supreme Court trial for mutiny and murder in 1840-1841</a>.</p>
<p>Pieh’s African identity is made evident not only in the tone of his skin, but in the bamboo staff he holds and the landscape in background depicting his homeland. The white cloak draped over his shoulder would have called to mind the white robes worn by Roman senators and, by extension, the Roman virtues of honor and dignity. </p>
<p>Pieh and his fellow Africans were <a href="https://www.nps.gov/people/sengbe-pieh.htm">ultimately acquitted and returned</a> to the Sierra Leone Colony in 1842. </p>
<h2>Feminist icon</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491958/original/file-20221026-21-e99mc9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Woman posed outdoors in flowing robes holding a lute. In the background are hand written scrolls, the ocean and distant cliffs." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491958/original/file-20221026-21-e99mc9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491958/original/file-20221026-21-e99mc9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491958/original/file-20221026-21-e99mc9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491958/original/file-20221026-21-e99mc9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491958/original/file-20221026-21-e99mc9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=949&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491958/original/file-20221026-21-e99mc9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=949&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491958/original/file-20221026-21-e99mc9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=949&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">At the turn of the 20th century, a portrait of an American woman portrayed as the Greek poet Sappho connected the sitter to themes in the ancient work.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://bcma.bowdoin.edu/antiquity/objects/2000-10/">Painted by Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1899. Courtesy of Bowdoin College Museum of Art</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1940/02/02/92862982.html">Caroline Sanders Truax</a> (1870–1940), one of the first women admitted to the New York state bar, was so enamored by the ancient past she was portrayed as the Greek lyric poet Sappho by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-L%C3%A9on_G%C3%A9r%C3%B4me">painter Jean-Léon Gérôme</a> (1824–1904). </p>
<p>This was a bold choice for a representation of an American woman in 1899. Sappho, whose writing is <a href="https://poets.org/poet/sappho">among the only surviving sources of female authorship from antiquity</a>, was already <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119122661.ch33">an icon of the first-wave feminist movement</a>, and the homoerotic themes of her poetry were well understood. Was the choice the artist’s – or the sitter’s? The most likely answer is it was by mutual agreement, perhaps inspired by Truax’s knowledge of classical language and literature – and her own <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119122661.ch33">interest in composing lyric poetry</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://library.winterthur.org:8001/search/query?term_1=Eva+Purdy+Thomson&theme=winterthur">portrait was a sensation in New York society</a> when it arrived from the artist’s studio in Paris. It was featured in several portrait exhibitions and newspaper articles – and was hung with pride by Truax and her husband in their home. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492895/original/file-20221101-26-omja7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Painting of a man and his daughter walking under an elaborately sculpted Roman arch." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492895/original/file-20221101-26-omja7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492895/original/file-20221101-26-omja7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492895/original/file-20221101-26-omja7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492895/original/file-20221101-26-omja7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492895/original/file-20221101-26-omja7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1137&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492895/original/file-20221101-26-omja7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1137&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492895/original/file-20221101-26-omja7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1137&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) walks with his daughter under the Arch of Titus in Rome, with the famed Colosseum in the background.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://bcma.bowdoin.edu/antiquity/objects/0000-2022-1/">Painted by George Healy. Courtesy of Bowdoin College Museum of Art</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For generations of Americans, the history and literature of Mediterranean antiquity was fertile ground for contemporary comparisons. It was universal enough to be brought into debates about the Constitution and founding principles of democracy, slavery and abolition, and women’s rights and suffrage. It was also of great individual significance for Americans of many different backgrounds – a past they were on intimate terms with, despite the millennia and miles separating the United States from the ancient Mediterranean.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/191921/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sean Burrus previously worked for the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. He received funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. </span></em></p>Americans of all stripes have long embraced the culture of the ancient Mediterranean, using ancient ideals to navigate a new world.Sean P. Burrus, Post-Doctoral Curatorial Fellow, Bowdoin CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1856712022-07-11T12:29:22Z2022-07-11T12:29:22ZMilitant white identity politics on full display in GOP political ads featuring high-powered weapons<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473081/original/file-20220707-9550-qqbtp0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=547%2C159%2C2328%2C1638&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Eric Greitens poses with a high-powered rifle and commandos in a political ad. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZZ2Y6fAq8o">Eric Greitens</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Republican Eric Greitens, a candidate for Missouri’s open U.S. Senate seat, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/06/20/1106228594/a-missouri-senate-candidate-holds-a-shotgun-and-calls-for-rino-hunting-in-a-new-">shocked</a> viewers with a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZZ2Y6fAq8o">new online political ad</a> in June 2022 that encouraged his supporters to go “RINO hunting.”</p>
<p>Appearing with a shotgun and a smirk, Greitens leads the hunt for RINOs, shorthand for the derisive “Republicans In Name Only.” Along with armed soldiers, Greitens is storming a house under the cover of a smoke grenade.</p>
<p>“Join the MAGA crew,” Greitens says in the video. “Get a RINO hunting permit. There’s no bagging limit, no tagging limit and it doesn’t expire until we save our country.” </p>
<p>The ad comes from from a candidate who has repeatedly found himself in controversy, having resigned as Missouri’s governor amid <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/missouri-gov-eric-greitens-resigns-after-graphic-sexual-allegations-627630/">accusations of sexual assault</a> and allegations of <a href="https://theconversation.com/missouris-dark-money-scandal-explained-90427">improper campaign financing</a> that sparked an 18-month investigation that eventually cleared him of any legal wrongdoing. </p>
<p>The political ad was also launched – and quickly <a href="https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article262699527.html">removed – from Facebook and flagged by Twitter</a> at a time when the nation is still coming to terms with the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56004916">insurrection at the U.S. Capitol</a> and reeling from mass shootings in <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/06/02/1102612939/tulsa-gunmans-doctor-among-those-killed-in-the-mass-shooting">Tulsa, Oklahoma</a>, <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/series/uvalde-texas-school-shooting/">Uvalde, Texas</a>, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/02/us/buffalo-mass-shooting-suspect-indictment/index.html">Buffalo, New York</a> and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/08/us/highland-park-illinois-shooting-july-fourth-parade-friday/index.html">Highland Park, Illinois</a>. </p>
<p>The ad continues to circulate on YouTube via various news sources.</p>
<p>Greitens’s call to political arms is hardly new. </p>
<p>In his 2016 gubernatorial ads, Greitens appeared <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-VfFi6Z14Q">firing a Gatling-style machine gun</a> into the air and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yf2Gai1uQYM">using an M4 rifle</a> to create an explosion in a field to demonstrate his resistance to the Obama administration. </p>
<p>What Greitens’ ad represents, <a href="https://uark.academia.edu/RyanNevilleShepard/CurriculumVitae">in our view</a>, is the evolution of the use of guns in political ads as a coded appeal for white voters.</p>
<p>While they might have been a bit more ambiguous in the past, candidates are increasingly making these appeals appear more militant in their culture war against ideas and politicians they oppose.</p>
<h2>Guns as a symbol of whiteness</h2>
<p><a href="https://comm.unl.edu/casey-kelly">As communication scholars</a>, we have studied the ways that <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00335630.2021.1903537">white</a> <a href="https://ohiostatepress.org/books/titles/9780814214329.html">masculinity</a> has influenced <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00335630.2019.1698756">contemporary conservative populism</a>. </p>
<p>We have also examined the ways that racial appeals to white voters have evolved under <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10570314.2017.1320809">the GOP’s Southern strategy</a>, the <a href="https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/oso/9780190265960.001.0001/oso-9780190265960">long game</a> that conservatives have played since the 1960s to weaken the Democratic Party in the South by exploiting racial animus. </p>
<p>In some of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/15295036.2020.1813902">our latest work</a>, we have examined the ways that guns have been used in campaign ads to represent white identity politics, or what political scientist <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=uRyGDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR8&dq=white+identity+politics&ots=qKjsXBf51s&sig=vygjiZuXlY8Sf4HjC8D3WrrxjMs#v=onepage&q=white%20identity%20politics&f=false">Ashley Jardina has explained</a> as the way that white racial solidarity and fears of marginalization have manifested in a political movement. </p>
<p>Symbolically, guns in the U.S. have historically been linked to defending the interests of white people. </p>
<p>In her book “<a href="https://www.akpress.org/catalog/product/view/id/3332/s/loaded/category/6/">Loaded: A Disarming History of the Second Amendment</a>,” <a href="https://law.utexas.edu/humanrights/directory/roxanne-dunbar-ortiz/">historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz</a> documents how <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/made-by-history/wp/2018/02/22/what-the-second-amendment-really-meant-to-the-founders/">America’s Founding Fathers</a> originally conceived of the <a href="https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-2/#:%7E:text=A%20well%20regulated%20Militia%2C%20being,Arms%2C%20shall%20not%20be%20infringed">Second Amendment</a> as protection for white frontier militias in their efforts to subdue and exterminate Indigenous people. The Second Amendment was also designed to safeguard Southern slave owners who feared revolts. </p>
<p>As a result, the right to bear arms was never imagined by the founders to be an individual liberty held by Indigenous people and people of color. </p>
<p>As illustrated in Richard Slotkin’s book “<a href="https://www.oupress.com/9780806130316/gunfighter-nation/">Gunfighter Nation: The Myth of the Frontier in Twentieth-Century America</a>,” the popular film and literary genre of the Western glamorized white, hypermasculine cowboys and gunslingers “civilizing” the wild frontier to make it safe for white homesteaders. </p>
<p>Drawing from this lore, contemporary gun culture romanticizes the “good guy with a gun” as the patriotic protector of the peace and a bulwark against government overreach. </p>
<p>Contemporary gun laws reflect a historic racial disparity concerning who is authorized and under what circumstances individuals are allowed to use lethal force.</p>
<p>For example, so-called “<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/26/us/stand-your-ground-law-explainer/index.html">stand your ground” laws</a> have been used historically to justify the killing of Black men, most notably in the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2013/06/05/us/trayvon-martin-shooting-fast-facts/index.html">Trayvon Martin case</a>.</p>
<p>Gun control advocates <a href="https://everytownresearch.org/report/stand-your-ground-laws-are-a-license-to-kill/">Everytown for Gun Safety</a> have found that homicides resulting from white shooters killing Black victims are “deemed justifiable five times more frequently than when the shooter is Black and the victim is white.” </p>
<h2>Militant white identity politics</h2>
<p>Featuring a gun in a political ad has become <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/31/republicans-guns-ads-posts/">an easy way to get attention</a>, but our research has found that its meaning has shifted in recent years. </p>
<p>In a 2010 race for Alabama agriculture commissioner, <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/politicaljunkie/2010/06/02/127366687/dale-peterson-rides-off-sunset">Dale Peterson</a> was featured in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU7fhIO7DG0">an ad</a> holding a gun, wearing a cowboy hat and talking in a deep Southern drawl about the need to challenge the “thugs and criminals” in government. </p>
<p>His style proved entertaining.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A white man wearing a white cowboys has a rifle on his shoulder as he stands near a horse." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473094/original/file-20220707-18-oacgof.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473094/original/file-20220707-18-oacgof.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473094/original/file-20220707-18-oacgof.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473094/original/file-20220707-18-oacgof.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473094/original/file-20220707-18-oacgof.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473094/original/file-20220707-18-oacgof.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473094/original/file-20220707-18-oacgof.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In this 2010 political ad, Dale Peterson of Alabama appeared with a rifle on his shoulder.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU7fhIO7DG0">Dale Peterson</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Though Peterson placed third in his race, political analysts like Time magazine’s Dan Fletcher raved that he created <a href="https://newsfeed.time.com/2010/05/17/dale-peterson-and-the-best-campaign-ad-ever/">one of the best campaign ads ever</a>. </p>
<p>In the same year, <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2010/06/ariz-republican-fires-guns-in-ad-039179">Arizona Republican Pam Gorman</a> ran for U.S. Congress.</p>
<p>She took the use of guns in political ads even further by appearing at a backyard range and firing a machine gun, pistol, AR-15 and a revolver <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqnjzONrPiA">in the same ad</a>. </p>
<p>Though she gained attention for her provocative tactics, Gorman eventually <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/arizona-primary-results-ben-quayle-wins/">lost to Ben Quayle</a>, son of former Vice President Dan Quayle, in a 10-candidate primary. </p>
<p>Aside from the shock value, guns in ads became a symbol of opposition to the Obama administration. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A middle-aged white man sits in the back of a pickup truck with a stack of papers and a high-powered rifle." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472580/original/file-20220705-14-rqqcf3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472580/original/file-20220705-14-rqqcf3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472580/original/file-20220705-14-rqqcf3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472580/original/file-20220705-14-rqqcf3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472580/original/file-20220705-14-rqqcf3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472580/original/file-20220705-14-rqqcf3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472580/original/file-20220705-14-rqqcf3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In this 2014 political ad, Alabama congressional candidate Will Brooke used a high-powered rifle to shoot holes in Obamacare legislation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0I2z9cCC9zs">Will Brooke</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For instance, in 2014, U.S. congressional candidate <a href="https://www.al.com/spotnews/2014/03/in_video_district_6_candidate.html">Will Brooke of Alabama</a> ran an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0I2z9cCC9zs">online ad</a> in a Republican primary showing him loading a copy of the Obamacare legislation into a truck, driving it into the woods and shooting it with a handgun, rifle and assault rifle. </p>
<p>Not done, the remains of the copy were then thrown into a wood chipper. Although Brooke lost the seven-way primary, <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2014/03/will-brooke-alabama-obamacare-105072">his ad received national attention</a>.</p>
<p>The call to defend a conservative way of life got increasingly bizarre – and became a common tactic for GOP candidates. </p>
<p>Well before Greitens, U.S. congressional candidate Kay Daly from North Carolina fired a shotgun at the end of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-Br1GxdGJo">an ad</a> during her unsuccessful campaign in 2015 asking supporters to join her in hunting RINOs. </p>
<p>The ad attacked her primary opponent, incumbent Rep. Renee Elmers, a Republican from North Carolina, for funding Obamacare, “Planned Butcherhood” and protecting rights of “illegal alien child molesters.”</p>
<p>Before he drew the ire of Trump, Brian Kemp <a href="https://www.ajc.com/blog/politics/kemp-first-runoff-jake-and-that-shotgun-make-comeback/bciUA9Lc5duNU5BnNEwePL/">climbed the polls</a> in Georgia’s race for governor in 2018 with an ad titled “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ABRz_epvic">Jake</a>” in which he interviewed his daughter’s boyfriend. </p>
<p>Holding a shotgun in his lap as he sat in a chair, Kemp portrayed himself as a conservative outsider ready to take a “chainsaw to government regulations” and demanding respect as his family’s patriarch.</p>
<p>The ads of the most recent cycle build on this development of the gun as a symbol of white resistance. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A white woman is wearing dark sunglasses and carrying a high-powered rifle." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472601/original/file-20220705-26-eb5rzo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472601/original/file-20220705-26-eb5rzo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472601/original/file-20220705-26-eb5rzo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472601/original/file-20220705-26-eb5rzo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472601/original/file-20220705-26-eb5rzo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472601/original/file-20220705-26-eb5rzo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472601/original/file-20220705-26-eb5rzo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In this 2022 political ad, Marjorie Taylor Greene is wearing dark sunglasses and carrying a high-powered rifle.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhT9Yp1tK1Q">Marjorie Taylor Greene</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Conservative GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, from Georgia, ran an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhT9Yp1tK1Q">ad for a gun giveaway</a> in 2021 that she made in response to what she claimed was Biden’s arming of Islamic terrorists as well as Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s allegedly sneaking the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/21/climate/green-new-deal-questions-answers.html">Green New Deal</a> and other liberal legislation into a budget proposal.</p>
<p>Firing a weapon from a truck, she announced she would “blow away the Democrats’ socialist agenda.”</p>
<h2>The culture wars continue</h2>
<p>Surrounding himself with soldiers, Greitens goes further than those before him in this latest iteration of the Republican use of guns. </p>
<p>But his strategy is not out of the ordinary for a party that has increasingly relied on provocative images of violent resistance to speak to white voters. </p>
<p>Despite the violence of Jan. 6, conservatives are still digging their own trenches.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185671/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>GOP political ads are becoming more extreme in their use of weapons to demonstrate armed resistance against those opposed to their militant views – including other Republicans.Ryan Neville-Shepard, Associate Professor of Communication, University of ArkansasCasey Ryan Kelly, Professor of Communication Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University of Nebraska-LincolnLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1845972022-06-23T11:47:17Z2022-06-23T11:47:17ZLook at 3 enduring stories Americans tell about guns to understand the debate over them<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470346/original/file-20220622-29730-oq3jle.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C3%2C1016%2C702&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A family poses in front of their sod house in Custer County, Neb., in 1887.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/laforge-sod-house-home-south-of-west-union-custer-county-news-photo/514882604?adppopup=true">Bettmann/Bettmann via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The United States has struggled with <a href="https://theconversation.com/did-the-assault-weapons-ban-of-1994-bring-down-mass-shootings-heres-what-the-data-tells-us-184430">a spate of horrific mass shootings</a> – and will now need to grapple with the implications of the Supreme Court <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/20-843_7j80.pdf">striking down</a> New York’s restrictions on carrying concealed firearms, with consequences beyond the state. </p>
<p>After each tragedy with guns, people try to make sense of the violence <a href="https://theconversation.com/blaming-evil-for-mass-violence-isnt-as-simple-as-it-seems-a-philosopher-unpacks-the-paradox-in-using-the-word-184289">by talking</a> about what happened. The discussion usually gravitates toward two familiar poles: gun control on one end, and personal liberty on the other. But despite all the talk, <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-gun-control-laws-dont-pass-congress-despite-majority-public-support-and-repeated-outrage-over-mass-shootings-183896">not much changes</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.libarts.colostate.edu/people/gdickins/">We are scholars of communication</a> <a href="https://communication.missouristate.edu/bo443e.aspx">who study how rhetoric shapes politics and culture</a> – particularly how the stories Americans tell about the country and its past continue to shape the present. The nation’s failure to prevent such frequent mass shootings is, we suggest, partially a product of how American society commemorates and talks about guns.</p>
<h2>Imagining the ‘Wild West’</h2>
<p>An excellent example of how American culture tells the story of guns is <a href="https://centerofthewest.org/explore/firearms/">the Cody Firearms Museum</a> in Wyoming: home to “the most comprehensive collection of American firearms in the world” and subject of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14791420.2011.594068">an academic article</a> we coauthored with colleague <a href="https://www.libarts.colostate.edu/people/eaoki/">Eric Aoki</a> in 2011. We have continued this research as part of a book project.</p>
<p>Featuring more than 7,000 weapons, the museum is part of <a href="https://centerofthewest.org/">the Buffalo Bill Center of the West</a>. The center’s namesake, 19th-century rifleman <a href="https://law.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/burbick.pdf">and showman</a> Buffalo Bill, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10570310500076684">popularized the story of the “Wild West</a>” that is still familiar to Americans today – one where guns were central.</p>
<p>Stories, of course, <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520001923/language-as-symbolic-action">are never neutral</a>. They include and exclude certain details; they highlight some aspects of a thing and downplay others. They distill the great complexity of our world into manageable and memorable bits that guide how we understand it.</p>
<p>An especially important kind of storytelling happens at museums. As historians <a href="https://rrchnm.org/">Roy Rosenzweig</a> and <a href="https://alliance.iu.edu/members/member/1142.html">David Thelen</a> explain, surveys show that <a href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-presence-of-the-past/9780231111485">people trust museums</a> more than family members, eyewitnesses, teachers and history textbooks.</p>
<p>So it matters what U.S. museums have to say about guns. Based on multiple research visits to the Cody Firearms Museum over the past decade, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14791420.2011.594068">we have identified three foundational narratives about guns</a> – stories that we argue get replayed in the present-day rhetoric about firearms.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A display case at the Cody Firearms Museum." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470344/original/file-20220622-39985-k6jyri.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470344/original/file-20220622-39985-k6jyri.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470344/original/file-20220622-39985-k6jyri.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470344/original/file-20220622-39985-k6jyri.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470344/original/file-20220622-39985-k6jyri.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470344/original/file-20220622-39985-k6jyri.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470344/original/file-20220622-39985-k6jyri.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Guns are central to how Americans talk about the ‘Wild West.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of Greg Dickinson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Story 1: Guns are tools</h2>
<p>One of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14791420.2011.594068">the key themes</a> at the Cody Firearms Museum was that guns were central to life on the frontier. Settlers had few possessions, and guns, which were necessary for hunting and fending off dangerous animals, were among the most common household items.</p>
<p>The view of guns as a daily tool remains prevalent today, usually through references to hunting. Emphasizing firearms’ role as a normal necessity to survive – even though so few people in the U.S. live that way today – “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/24589296">domesticates” guns</a>, and many Americans continue to treat even assault rifles as ordinary objects of everyday life.</p>
<p>Consider <a href="https://twitter.com/therecount/status/1532397025156898816">recent comments</a> Colorado Rep. Ken Buck made to the House Judiciary Committee: “In rural Colorado, an AR-15 is a gun of choice for killing raccoons before they get to our chickens. It is a gun of choice for killing a fox. It is a gun that you control predators on your ranch, your farm, your property.”</p>
<p>Such talk domesticates assault rifles, depicting them as ordinary objects. But they are far from ordinary. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11524-017-0205-7">One 2017 study</a> found that assault rifles and other high-capacity semiautomatics “account for 22% to 36% of crime guns, with some estimates upwards of 40% for cases involving serious violence including murders of police.” They are also used in up to 57% of mass murders involving firearms.</p>
<h2>Story 2: Guns are wonders</h2>
<p>A second key theme on display at the museum was that guns are technological marvels. Visitors could learn, often in painstaking detail, about each advancement in loading systems, ammunition cartridges and firing mechanisms. </p>
<p>Displays like these frame guns as inert objects of study and fascination, shifting attention from their function and purpose to their design and development. Moreover, the display of thousands of guns in glass cases, physically separated from human beings, turns them into objects that seem almost worthy of veneration.</p>
<p>The world of gun collecting strongly connects these admired objects to their owner’s identity. Like enthusiasts of any stripe, gun hobbyists view <a href="https://doi.org/10.1525/si.1988.11.2.277">guns as collectibles</a>. According to a <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2017/06/22/americas-complex-relationship-with-guns/">Pew Research Center</a> study, 66% of gun owners own multiple firearms, and 73% say they “could never see themselves not owning a gun.” </p>
<p>In short, guns are central to gun owners’ sense of self, <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2017/06/22/americas-complex-relationship-with-guns/">with half acknowledging that</a> “owning a gun is important to their overall identity.” Because gun hobbyists regard guns as collectibles, they often use rhetoric that treats guns as <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-020-00673-x">inert objects</a> rather than machines engineered for violence.</p>
<p>For many gun owners, gun violence is a problem associated with “bad” actors, not guns. Following <a href="https://theconversation.com/accused-buffalo-mass-shooter-had-threatened-a-shooting-while-in-high-school-could-more-have-been-done-to-avert-the-tragedy-183455">the mass shooting in Buffalo, New York,</a>, podcaster Graham Allen <a href="https://www.tpusa.com/live/guns-dont-kill-people-bad-people-kill-people">wrote</a>: “Firearms are LIFELESS objects, they do not think, they do not feel, and they do not take a life on their own. Therefore you CANNOT hold an inanimate object accountable for the actions of the shooter.”</p>
<h2>Story 3: Guns are quintessentially American</h2>
<p>The third story American culture tells about guns is that they are <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/armed-america-the-remarkable-story-of-how-and-why-guns-became-as-american-as-apple-pie/oclc/71126665">central to what it means to be “American”</a>. They symbolize the myth of rugged individualism on which the country is founded. Guns are also associated with <a href="https://daily.jstor.org/the-myth-of-manifest-destiny/">Manifest Destiny</a>, the belief that white Americans were destined by God to violently “settle” the plains and “civilize” the West, expanding U.S. territory from coast to coast.</p>
<p>Guns served as the primary instrument for Westward expansion and the forced removal of Native Americans. As American studies scholar <a href="https://www.wesleyan.edu/academics/faculty/rslotkin/profile.html">Richard Slotkin</a>’s work explains, many <a href="https://www.oupress.com/9780806130316/">iconic portrayals of the frontier</a> depict white colonizers doing what they believed to be “God’s work” with the help of their guns.</p>
<p>Today, national discourse still frames guns as part of a God-given right to <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-backed-senate-candidate-blake-masters-blames-gun-violence-black-rcna32290">eliminate “threats”</a> in <a href="https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Ted-Cruz-confronted-at-Houston-restaurant-17205943.php">a world full of dangerous people</a>. The National Rifle Association has <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-019-0276-z">used religiously infused language</a> to argue for gun rights, such as its president, Wayne LaPierre, <a href="https://www.christianpost.com/news/nra-president-second-amendment-granted-by-god-americans-birthright.html">saying in 2018 that</a> the right to bear arms is “granted by God to all Americans as our American birthright.” </p>
<p>In these arguments, gun ownership is a way of expressing a deep and <a href="https://www.oupress.com/9780806130316/">long-held American desire</a> to protect oneself, one’s family and one’s property. Crime <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2015.03.029">data</a>, however, suggests that self-defense with guns is rare, used by victims in 1% or fewer of “crimes in which there is personal contact between the perpetrator and victim” or robbery and nonsexual assault. Meanwhile, owning guns increases other dangers like accidental shooting and <a href="https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2020/06/handgun-ownership-associated-with-much-higher-suicide-risk.html">gun-related suicide</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://people.healthsciences.ucla.edu/institution/personnel?personnel_id=75145">Joseph Pierre</a>, a psychiatrist at the University of California, Los Angeles, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-019-0373-z">has written</a> that while fear may be the main cited reason for owning a gun, ownership is also strongly associated with fear of the loss of control. Seventy-four percent of gun owners say the right to own guns is essential to their sense of freedom, <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2017/06/22/americas-complex-relationship-with-guns/">according to a Pew survey</a>.</p>
<h2>From talk to action – or inaction</h2>
<p>How people talk about an object influences how they understand and see it. And once that view hardens into an attitude, it significantly impacts future action.</p>
<p>In the firearms museum, and American culture more broadly, guns are portrayed as utilitarian tools of daily life, venerated objects of technological progress and symbols of what it means to be American.</p>
<p>These stories continue to shape and constrain how America talks and thinks about guns, and help explain why gun policy in the U.S. looks the way it does.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184597/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The ways Americans talk about firearms is full of contradictions, two communication scholars explain – and that powerfully shapes the country’s approach to gun policy.Greg Dickinson, Professor of Rhetoric and Memory, Colorado State UniversityBrian L. Ott, Professor of Communication, Missouri State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1387752020-05-24T12:22:52Z2020-05-24T12:22:52ZWhat Michael Jordan’s documentary ‘The Last Dance’ tells us about beating the coronavirus pandemic<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/337106/original/file-20200522-124818-1wqoaga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C13%2C2995%2C2020&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Netflix documentary ‘The Last Dance’ reveals the hyper-competitiveness of Michael Jordan during the 1990s.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>With professional sports on hold indefinitely during the coronavirus pandemic, audiences worldwide have been riveted by “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8420184/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">The Last Dance</a>,” the 10-episode documentary series on ESPN and Netflix about the Chicago Bulls basketball dynasty of the 1990s. </p>
<p>The central figure in this story is Michael Jordan, universally regarded as the greatest basketball player of all time. What stands out, in particular, is Jordan’s <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/michael-jordans-insane-competitiveness-2014-7?op=1">hyper-competitiveness</a> and burning desire to “win at all costs.” </p>
<p>Whether it’s <a href="https://www.espn.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/61933/landing-a-punch-on-michael-jordan">punching a teammate who stood up to him in the face</a> or mercilessly <a href="https://www.si.com/nba/2020/04/20/michael-jordan-bulls-last-dance-roundtable">ridiculing the general manager</a> of his own team, Jordan’s bullying and intimidation is justified in the documentary because he was “the ultimate winner.” Those who disagree with this approach are “losers,” because this is the “<a href="https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/29159653/michael-jordan-calls-harsh-reputation-price-winning-leadership">price of winning</a>.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336576/original/file-20200520-152315-qjup4v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336576/original/file-20200520-152315-qjup4v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336576/original/file-20200520-152315-qjup4v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336576/original/file-20200520-152315-qjup4v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336576/original/file-20200520-152315-qjup4v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336576/original/file-20200520-152315-qjup4v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336576/original/file-20200520-152315-qjup4v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">One of the most revealing moments in ‘The Last Dance’ concerned an incident at practice when Jordan punched teammate Steve Kerr in the face. Here the two are shown sharing a laugh in 2002 when Jordan was playing with the Washington Wizards and Kerr was with the San Antonio Spurs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Nick Wass)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While Jordan himself never claimed to be a <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nba/column-sorry-michael-jordan-whether-you-wanted-to-be-or-not-you-were-a-role-model-and-the-lessons-still-resonate/ar-BB13yATD">role model</a>, his life and accomplishments are an inspiration to many in the world. As the slogan from Jordan’s <a href="https://news.nike.com/news/jordan-brand-gatorade-collection">famous Gatorade commercials in the 1990s stated, we should all “Be Like Mike.”</a> </p>
<p>But at a time of a global crisis, when collaboration is more important than competition in terms of ending the coronavirus pandemic, is this the time for anyone to “Be Like Mike?”</p>
<h2>A symbol of hyper-competitive American society</h2>
<p>The pathological competitiveness of Jordan mirrors the dominant values of American society, particularly the cut-throat logic of <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100228313">neoliberalism</a>. This dominant political-economic philosophy, with its focus on life as an <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/15/neoliberalism-ideology-problem-george-monbiot">endless competition</a>, is associated with a range of ills, including increasing inequality and the breakdown of state institutions. </p>
<p>Jordan did not come out of a vacuum. He is the <a href="https://www.edgeofsports.com/2020-05-13-1524/index.html">ultimate neoliberal subject</a>, relentlessly defeating his enemies on the court, all the while <a href="https://www.edgeofsports.com/2020-05-06-1522/index.html">promoting his brand</a> and making us happy consumers of his sneakers and numerous other products.</p>
<p>We see the same logic that gave birth to and celebrates Jordan also at work in the higher levels of American government. The United States has a president who during the 2016 campaign bragged about how when he gets elected, Americans will “win” so much that they will be “<a href="https://www.salon.com/2015/09/09/donald_trump_if_elected_well_have_so_much_winning_youll_get_bored_with_winning/">bored of winning</a>.” </p>
<p>During this pandemic, Donald Trump has continued to boast of having death totals that are “<a href="https://theintercept.com/2020/05/02/creative-accounting-trump-tries-cast-americas-death-toll-achievement/">very, very strong</a>,” using mortality rates as a tool for a perverse competition between nations. Even with such high death totals and an out-of-control situation in the United States, Trump continues to both <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/trump-is-the-chinese-governments-most-useful-idiot/608638/">cast blame on China</a> in an effort to help him win the 2020 presidential election and to praise the disastrous American response.</p>
<p>And lest we forget, he reminds us that “<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-members-coronavirus-task-force-press-briefing-2/">while we mourn the tragic loss of life … you can’t mourn it any stronger than we’re mourning it</a>.”</p>
<p>This connection between Jordan and Trump may seem ill-fitting to some: one person clearly displays mastery of his craft; the other is perhaps a genius for gaining media attention, but has also been called <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-trumps-washington/has-trump-reached-the-lying-to-himself-and-believing-it-stage-of-the-coronavirus-pandemic">highly delusional</a>.</p>
<p>Regardless of these differences, there is a common thread of hyper-competitiveness and ruthlessness in wider American society that binds them.</p>
<h2>Collaboration over competition</h2>
<p>To beat the coronavirus pandemic, the traits that Jordan displays and wider American culture celebrates are woefully inadequate at best and harmful at worst. Global collaboration instead of hyper-competition between nations is desperately needed, whether in finding a vaccine, developing treatments and co-ordinating comprehensive worldwide containment strategies. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336577/original/file-20200520-152298-w4q6qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336577/original/file-20200520-152298-w4q6qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336577/original/file-20200520-152298-w4q6qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336577/original/file-20200520-152298-w4q6qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336577/original/file-20200520-152298-w4q6qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336577/original/file-20200520-152298-w4q6qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336577/original/file-20200520-152298-w4q6qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Donald Trump has turned his response to the coronavirus pandemic into a competition against other nations.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>An “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/12/the-race-for-a-vaccine-how-trumps-america-first-approach-slows-the-global-search">America First</a>” approach to a pandemic does not make sense, and in fact can severely hurt the United States.</p>
<p>In a world with so much interconnectivity, global civilization is <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-pandemic-isnt-a-black-swan-but-a-portent-of-a-more-fragile-global-system">uniquely fragile to disruptions</a>. The ongoing threats of climate change and other possible future pandemics only reinforce the need for more collaborative responses to the threats all of humanity faces.</p>
<h2>Rethinking heroism</h2>
<p>A larger issue to consider is how the media creates ultra-competitive alpha male “heroes” straight out of a capitalist blueprint. ESPN and the wider sports media environment benefit greatly from this narrative of individual greatness —whatever the cost may be to others or society. </p>
<p>But the idea of heroism itself within the sports world (and also wider society) is in need of reform. Many wisdom traditions from around the world describe the “<a href="https://internetmonk.com/archive/the-heroic-journey">heroic journey</a>,” a path that is available to all of us. This type of heroism is rooted in growth, becoming humble, developing wisdom and living a life larger than oneself. </p>
<p>We do not have to look far to see so <a href="https://time.com/collection/coronavirus-heroes/">many models of heroism</a> and selflessness during this fight against COVID-19. But rather than placing so much of the burden of heroism on our front-line workers and health-care professionals, we need to fully own our own heroic journeys in these challenging times. </p>
<p>Maybe then empty “heroes” like Michael Jordan and the toxic culture that he is associated with may not be so appealing after all.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/138775/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ajit Pyati receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. </span></em></p>The hyper-competitiveness of Michael Jordan may work on the basketball court, but the win-at-all-cost American culture that Jordan represents is not what’s needed to end the coronavirus pandemic.Ajit Pyati, Associate Professor of Information and Media Studies, Western UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1249632019-10-25T18:17:33Z2019-10-25T18:17:33ZDavid Lynch’s chillingly prescient vision of modern America<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298588/original/file-20191024-170499-sdpzg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Kyle MacLachlan as Jeffrey Beaumont in David Lynch's cult classic film 'Blue Velvet.'</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://filmschoolrejects.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/blue-velvet-jeffrey-closet.jpg">De Laurentiis Entertainment Group</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>“There’s a sort of evil out there,” says Sheriff Truman in an episode of David Lynch’s iconic TV series, “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098936/">Twin Peaks</a>.” </p>
<p>That line gets to the heart of Lynch’s work, which reflects the dark, ominous, often bizarre underbelly of American culture – one increasingly out of the shadows today. </p>
<p>As someone who teaches <a href="http://www.filmnoirfoundation.org/filmnoir.html">film noir</a>, I often think about the ways American cinema serves as a mirror to society. </p>
<p>David Lynch is a master at this, so I was pleased to learn that he received an <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-news/david-lynch-honorary-oscar-award-843961/">Academy Award for his lifetime service to film</a> on Oct. 27. </p>
<p>Many of Lynch’s films, like 1986’s “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090756/">Blue Velvet</a>” and 1997’s “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116922/?ref_=nv_sr_1?ref_=nv_sr_1">Lost Highway</a>,” can be unsparing and graphic, with imagery that’s been described as <a href="https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/blue-velvet-1986">extreme</a> and “<a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-reviews/lost-highway-2-249731/">all chaos</a>” upon their release.</p>
<p>But beyond these bewildering effects, Lynch was onto something. </p>
<p>His images of corruption, violence and toxic masculinity ring all too familiar in America today. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298769/original/file-20191025-173579-118lvts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298769/original/file-20191025-173579-118lvts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=794&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298769/original/file-20191025-173579-118lvts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=794&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298769/original/file-20191025-173579-118lvts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=794&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298769/original/file-20191025-173579-118lvts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=997&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298769/original/file-20191025-173579-118lvts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=997&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298769/original/file-20191025-173579-118lvts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=997&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">David Lynch in a 1990 photograph.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Associated-Press-Domestic-News-United-States-PE-/08be2625fbe6da11af9f0014c2589dfb/2/0">AP Photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Take “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090756/">Blue Velvet</a>.” The film focuses on a naive college student, Jeffrey Beaumont, whose idyllic life in a suburb filled with white picket fences is turned inside out when he finds a human ear on the side of a road. This grisly discovery pulls him into the orbit of a violent criminal, Frank Booth, and an alluring lounge singer named Dorothy Vallens, whom Booth sadistically torments while holding her child and husband – whose ear, it turns out, was the one Beaumont had found – hostage. </p>
<p>Beaumont nonetheless finds himself perversely attracted to Vallens and descends deeper into the shadowy world lurking beneath his hometown – a world of smoke-filled bars and drug dens frequented by Booth and an array of freakish characters including pimps, addicts and a corrupt cop.</p>
<p>Booth’s haunting line, “Now it’s dark,” serves as an appropriate refrain. </p>
<p>The corruption, perversion and violence shown in “Blue Velvet” are indeed extreme. But the acts Booth perpetrates also recall the stories of sexual abuse that have emerged from organizations like the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/13/us/catholic-bishops-abuse.html">Catholic Church</a> and at universities such as <a href="https://www.npr.org/2011/11/08/142111804/penn-state-abuse-scandal-a-guide-and-timeline">Penn State</a> and <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/feds-hit-michigan-state-hit-record-4-5-million-fine-n1050096">Michigan State</a>. </p>
<p>As more and more of these crimes come to light, they become less an anomaly and more a warning of something deeply ingrained in our culture. </p>
<p>These evils are sensational and appalling, and there’s an impulse to perceive them as existing outside of our realities, by people who aren’t like us. What “Twin Peaks” and “Blue Velvet” do so effectively is tell viewers that those other worlds where venality and cruelty reside can be found just around the corner, in places that we might see but tend to ignore. </p>
<p>And then there are the uncanny and eerie worlds depicted in “Lost Highway” and “Mulholland Drive,” whose characters seem to live in parallel realities governed by good and evil.</p>
<p>“<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116922/?ref_=nv_sr_1?ref_=nv_sr_1">Lost Highway</a>” begins with a man named Fred Madison being convicted of killing his wife. He claims, however, to have no memory of the crime. Exploring the theme of alternate worlds, Lynch then thrusts Madison into an illusory realm inhabited by killers, drug dealers and pornographers by merging his identity into that of another character named Pete Dayton. In doing so, Lynch combines the worlds of “normality” and corruption into one.</p>
<p>In the 1990s, artists like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5R682M3ZEyk">Marilyn Manson</a>, who has a minor role in the final chaotic scenes of “Lost Highway,” also confronted audiences with imagery of decadence, corruption and social decay. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1999/04/25/weekinreview/the-nation-the-stresses-of-youth-the-strains-of-its-music.html">The backlash</a> Manson and his peers received was fierce.</p>
<p>But these dark themes have since been personified in rich and powerful men like <a href="https://pagesix.com/2016/12/04/the-downfall-of-lindsay-lohans-nightlife-mogul-ex-boyfriend/">Vikram Chatwal</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-betrayal-of-bill-cosby-eric-schneiderman-and-other-influential-men-is-deeper-than-you-think-96247">Bill Cosby</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/jeffrey-epsteins-arrest-is-the-tip-of-the-iceberg-human-trafficking-is-the-worlds-fastest-growing-crime-120225">Jeffrey Epstein</a>, who, for years, skated along the surface of high society while their perversions were hidden from the public.</p>
<p>In his 2001 film, “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0166924/">Mulholland Drive</a>,” Lynch turns his attention to Hollywood and the rot that seems baked into its very nature.</p>
<p>A wide-eyed and innocent aspiring actress named Betty Elms arrives in Los Angeles with visions of stardom. Her struggle to achieve success – one that ends in depression and death – is certainly tragic. But it’s also not very surprising given that she was trying to make it in a corrupt system that all too often bestows its rewards on the undeserving or those who are willing to compromise their morals. </p>
<p>As with so many others who go to Hollywood with big dreams only to find that fame is beyond their reach, Elms is unprepared for an industry so consumed with exploitation and corruption. Her fate mimics that of the women who, desperate for stardom, ended up falling into the trap set by <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-41594672">Harvey Weinstein</a>.</p>
<p>So it seems fitting that as David Lynch receives his Academy Award, America continues to hurtle towards an ever darker future. Perhaps it’s one foretold by a present in which <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/146937/sexual-harassment-shapes-politics-washington">politicians can turn a deaf ear to acts of sexual assault</a>, while tolerating the vilification of victims – <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-lawyer-nothing-can-be-done-if-president-shoots-someone-on-fifth-avenue">or even brag that they can get away with murder</a>. </p>
<p>Lynch’s body of work implies that the cruelty of such people isn’t really what we should fear most. It is, instead, those who laugh, cheer or simply turn away – responses that enable and empower such behaviors, while giving them an acceptable place in the world. </p>
<p>When they were first released, Lynch’s films may well have appeared as funhouse mirror reflections of society. </p>
<p>Not so anymore.</p>
<p>[ <em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/124963/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Billy J. Stratton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The famous director is receiving an honorary Oscar, and the timing couldn’t be more appropriate.Billy J. Stratton, Professor of American Literature and Culture; Native American Studies, University of DenverLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1218602019-08-26T13:40:27Z2019-08-26T13:40:27ZCan sun umbrellas ever become fashionable again in America?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289269/original/file-20190823-170935-1l36tq4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In Asia, umbrellas are commonly used as a form of sun protection.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Hong-Kong-Extradition-Law/36f5f8262ce543ae9a1ff799c2a027c7/52/0">AP Photo/Kin Cheung</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many of us apply sunscreen when we go to the beach. But walking outside under the fierce summer sun – even if it’s to run a quick errand – can be taxing: We sweat, we get exhausted, we burn and we expose ourselves to dangerous UV rays. </p>
<p>In Asian countries, many people have a convenient tool at their disposal: They’ll often use umbrellas to shield them from the sun’s powerful rays. </p>
<p>In the U.S., even though most people own an umbrella to keep them dry when it’s raining, almost no one uses one for sun protection. Yet at one time, trendsetting American women did use umbrellas for sun protection. </p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=eQ7n2egAAAAJ&hl=en">As a historian of technology</a>, I’m interested in why some technologies are readily accepted by some groups but not by others. Unlike an expensive technology that may be very challenging to learn how to use – such as a car with a manual transmission – the umbrella is cheap, readily accessible and easy to use. </p>
<p>So why did the sun umbrella fall out of favor in the U.S.? And can Americans – women and men – ever be convinced to carry an umbrella when it’s hot and sunny, not just when it’s wet?</p>
<h2>From status symbol to tool of the masses</h2>
<p>The umbrella <a href="http://www.fashionintime.org/history-parasols-umbrellas">was actually invented to protect people from the sun</a>.</p>
<p>The origin of the word “parasol” comes from the French “para,” for “stop,” and “sol,” for sun. And “umbrella” originates from the Latin “umbra,” which means “shade” or “shadow.”</p>
<p>Thousands of years ago, servants in Mesopotamia, Egypt, China and India wielded large umbrellas to shade rulers from the sun. Umbrellas made for individual use didn’t appear in Europe <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1981/05/06/garden/umbrellas-drenched-in-history.html">until the late 17th and early 18th centuries</a>, and they were deployed to ward off both the sun and the rain. Fashionable, wealthy women primarily used them, a reflection of the umbrella’s high cost and the status it denoted. </p>
<p>By the 1850s, the introduction of folding metal ribs and lighter materials, like silk, reduced the weight and cost of the umbrella, transforming it into an essential component of the wardrobes of middle-class and upper-class women.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288932/original/file-20190821-170935-1jxiteb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288932/original/file-20190821-170935-1jxiteb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288932/original/file-20190821-170935-1jxiteb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288932/original/file-20190821-170935-1jxiteb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288932/original/file-20190821-170935-1jxiteb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=631&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288932/original/file-20190821-170935-1jxiteb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=631&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288932/original/file-20190821-170935-1jxiteb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=631&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Colin Campbell Cooper’s 1918 painting ‘Summer.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Colin_Campbell_Cooper,_Summer.jpg">The Athenaeum</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Like other technologies, ranging from radios to thermos bottles, <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062456328/empire-of-things/">20th-century mass production</a> turned umbrellas from a status symbol for the wealthy into a tool for the masses.</p>
<p>When it comes to protection from the sun, umbrellas <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/everything-you-always-wanted-to-know-about-umbrellas-but-were-afraid-to-ask/2017/11/20/6fd32c3e-ca44-11e7-b0cf-7689a9f2d84e_story.html">have been long used by women far more than men</a>. In 19th-century Western cultures – much like in Asia today – <a href="https://www.learnskin.com/articles/cultural-definition-of-beauty-golden-tan-or-pale-skin">pale skin was perceived as a sign of beauty</a>. It signaled that a woman was wealthy enough that she didn’t have to work outdoors. </p>
<p>The umbrella also came to be associated with feminine fraility, which made umbrellas less attractive to men. <a href="https://www.military.com/daily-news/2019/04/08/should-marines-use-umbrellas-corps-wants-input-uniform-changes.html">The reluctance</a> of the military to authorize their officers and men to use umbrellas is one example of how the umbrella has been gendered.</p>
<p>Yet since the 1960s, the inexpensive umbrella has become a widespread low-cost accessory for Asian women to protect them from the sun. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0781.2010.00513.x">A 2008 survey</a> found 65% of Beijing women used an umbrella to reduce sun exposure, while only 14% of men did – a result found in similar studies. </p>
<p>So why did American women stop using the umbrella for sun protection? </p>
<p>The automobile reduced the need for walking and provided a private shield from the sun for the driver and passengers. Starting in the 1920s, tans <a href="https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2008.144352">started to be seen as a sign of beauty</a> in many Western cultures, while <a href="https://fashionhistory.fitnyc.edu/about-timeline/">changing fashion styles</a> dictated that a “modern” women should shed the parasol as a must-have accessory. </p>
<h2>A sensible skin cancer deterrent?</h2>
<p>While many Asian women might use the umbrella to preserve their fair skin, increasing concerns about skin cancer might serve as an impetus to re-introduce the sun umbrella in Western cultures. </p>
<p>A rise in skin cancer rates – <a href="https://www.skincancer.org/skin-cancer-information/skin-cancer-facts">5 million new cases and 9,000 deaths from melanoma annually in America</a> – has led to <a href="https://www.hhs.gov/surgeongeneral/reports-and-publications/skin-cancer/index.html">a growing emphasis</a> on reducing sun exposure among public health advocates.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, sun umbrellas haven’t received much attention. Even the American Academy of Dermatology suggests umbrellas only for <a href="https://www.aad.org/public/kids/good-skin-knowledge-lesson-plans-and-activities/sun-protection">infants</a>, <a href="https://www.aad.org/media/news-releases/how-to-prevent-skin-problems-while-gardening">gardeners</a> and <a href="https://www.aad.org/media/news-releases/health-alert-dermatologists-warn-farmers-to-pay-special-attention-to-suspicious-moles">tractor drivers</a>. </p>
<p>Yet they’re effective, cheaper and less messy than applying sunscreen. <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamadermatology/fullarticle/1670412">A 2012 study</a> conducted by the Emory Medical School Department of Dermatology found that an umbrella could reduce direct exposure to UV rays by 77% to 99%. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28850147">Total UV exposure</a>, which includes indirect sunlight reflected from the ground, can be much higher, which is why sun umbrella advocates emphasize that it should be used only as an adjunct, not a replacement, <a href="https://www.skincancer.org/skin-cancer-prevention">for other preventive measures</a> like clothing and sunscreen.</p>
<p>But clearly, there’s a big roadblock that’s holding back their widespread adoption – American women either don’t know about sun umbrellas or don’t see them as fashionable. And most men <a href="https://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-fashion/guys-you-can-use-parasol-still-be-manly.html">definitely don’t view them favorably</a>. </p>
<h2>Making umbrellas fashionable again</h2>
<p>How can we make umbrellas fashionable again? </p>
<p>McDonald’s, of all places, could offer some clues. </p>
<p>Eating hamburgers with your hands is not a genetically hardwired activity. <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=7364">Some cultures even frown on eating with your hands in public</a>.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, since the 1960s, McDonald’s has opened over 30,000 stores in more than 100 countries. Now, people around the world eat hamburgers with their hands. McDonald’s pulled this off by intensively promoting its burgers as a visible symbol of modernity and Americanism while also adapting to local cultures. </p>
<p>Menus were expanded to include local cuisine – <a href="https://firstwefeast.com/eat/craziest-international-mcdonalds-menu-items/">think shrimpburgers in Japan and mashed potato beef burgers in China</a>. McDonald’s advertisements featured celebrities and actors <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2005/sep/23/advertising.internationalnews">happily eating hamburgers with their hands</a>. Nervous neophytes easily learned how to hold a hamburger without feeling like a ignorant, second-class citizen. </p>
<p>Making sun umbrellas fashionable might require a similar campaign, one that involves the medical community, fashion designers, umbrella manufacturers, umbrellas sellers and media influencers.</p>
<p>Just as the MTV show “Sixteen and Pregnant” <a href="https://fortune.com/2016/04/07/16-and-pregnant-decline-pregnancy/">helped reduce teenage pregnancy in the United States</a>, so too could television and social media promote <a href="https://nymag.com/strategist/article/best-parasols-for-sun-protection.html">celebrities and influencers using sun umbrellas</a>.</p>
<p>This is not wishful thinking. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/phpp.12123">In a one survey</a> of women conducted from 2011 to 2012, 80% of nonusers indicated that a doctor’s recommendation would make them consider using a sun umbrella. Seventy-one percent thought seeing more people using a sun umbrella would encourage them to actually use one. In the study, participants who viewed photographs of famous women using umbrellas for sun protection thought that they were more socially acceptable.</p>
<p>The women surveyed were young: 31 was the mean age. Their main reasons for using a sun umbrella were to avoid wrinkles, protect their skin and, last, minimize the risk of skin cancer. The main reasons for not using a sun umbrella were the understandable desire to keep their hands free, the inconvenience of using one, and, significantly, not having thought about it before.</p>
<p>As for me, a 63-year-old male living in sunny Texas whose parents had skin cancer, I’ll keep embarrassing my kids by wearing my wide-brimmed dorky dad hat, slathering on the sun screen, donning long-sleeve shirts – and unfurling my portable umbrella when strolling under the sun. </p>
<p>[ <em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121860/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathan Coopersmith does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In Asian countries, many people wield umbrellas to protect them from the sun. American women used to as well – but then stopped.Jonathan Coopersmith, Professor of History, Texas A&M UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1215572019-08-07T06:00:28Z2019-08-07T06:00:28ZThe most influential American author of her generation, Toni Morrison’s writing was radically ambiguous<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287138/original/file-20190807-84205-1lq8saf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Toni Morrison photographed in 2010: in both her fiction and non-fiction, she sought to expose the 'national amnesia' underlying often unconscious forms of racism.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ian Langsdon/EPA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Toni Morrison, who has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/06/books/toni-morrison-dead.html">died aged 88</a>, was the most influential and studied American author of her generation. Born as Chloe Wofford in Ohio in 1931, she graduated in 1953 with a B.A. in English from Howard University, a historically black college located in Washington DC. She then completed an M.A. at <a href="https://www.cornell.edu/">Cornell</a> on the work of Virginia Woolf and William Faulkner, before beginning an academic teaching career.</p>
<p>She married Harold Morrison, a Jamaican architect, in 1958, but after their divorce in 1964 Morrison started working as an editor for Random House in New York. It was here that she began writing fiction, publishing her first novel, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11337.The_Bluest_Eye">The Bluest Eye</a>, in 1970. It was her third novel published in 1977, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11334.Song_of_Solomon">Song of Solomon</a>, that was her breakthrough work, winning the National Critics’ Book Circle Award.</p>
<p>Her most famous novel, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11333.Beloved">Beloved</a> followed in 1987. It was a fictionalised account of the 19th-century slave Margaret Garner, who killed her own daughter to save her from slavery. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287141/original/file-20190807-84195-jaksi2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287141/original/file-20190807-84195-jaksi2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287141/original/file-20190807-84195-jaksi2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=966&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287141/original/file-20190807-84195-jaksi2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=966&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287141/original/file-20190807-84195-jaksi2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=966&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287141/original/file-20190807-84195-jaksi2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1214&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287141/original/file-20190807-84195-jaksi2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1214&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287141/original/file-20190807-84195-jaksi2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1214&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>Morrison became a well-known figure within the worlds of American academia, publishing and cultural life. In 1990, she gave the Massey lectures at Harvard dealing with the invisibility of the African American presence in American literature. These influential essays were later published as <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37405.Playing_in_the_Dark">Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination</a>. </p>
<p>The following year Morrison won the Nobel Prize for Literature. She also held a Chair in the Humanities at Princeton from 1989 until her retirement in 2006 and continued to publish important novels during the latter part of her career. </p>
<p>In her Massey lectures, Morrison spoke of her ambition </p>
<blockquote>
<p>to draw a map, so to speak, of a critical geography and use that map to open up as much space for discovery, intellectual adventure, and close exploration as did the original charting of the New World.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Both her creative and her critical work are designed to remap the contours of American literature and culture. She aims to highlight what was omitted in the conventional forms of liberalism that governed institutional life in America during the second half of the 20th century. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287142/original/file-20190807-84225-pruttb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287142/original/file-20190807-84225-pruttb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287142/original/file-20190807-84225-pruttb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=891&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287142/original/file-20190807-84225-pruttb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=891&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287142/original/file-20190807-84225-pruttb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=891&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287142/original/file-20190807-84225-pruttb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1119&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287142/original/file-20190807-84225-pruttb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1119&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287142/original/file-20190807-84225-pruttb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1119&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>Her 1993 novel <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37398.Jazz">Jazz</a>, for example, involves a self-conscious revision of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s mythological “Jazz Age.” For Fitzgerald himself, this Jazz Age was centred almost exclusively around white culture. By setting her work in Harlem during the same era, Morrison executes in fictional form the remapping project that she outlined in her Harvard lectures.</p>
<h2>‘The national amnesia’</h2>
<p>Arguing that “the time for undiscriminating racial unity has passed,” Morrison sought, in both her fiction and non-fiction, to expose the “national amnesia” underlying often unconscious forms of racism. </p>
<p>Given such a remarkable career trajectory, it would seem Morrison’s literary reputation at the time of her death could hardly have been higher. Nevertheless, there is a significant gap between Morrison’s status as an Establishment figure and the radical ambiguities of her fiction. The latter, more elusive quality might well sustain her literary reputation more compellingly over time. </p>
<p>In Beloved, Morrison develops a conception of “rememory” (the character Sethe explains in the book this is the act of remembering a memory). Many of her fictions feature ways in which old ghosts haunt contemporary scenes. </p>
<p>The rhetorical reversals that are a common feature of Beloved reflect a condition where past and present, slavery and freedom, are all mixed up together. Indeed, the best of Morrison’s fiction is powerful precisely because it flirts with a pathological quality that avoids one-dimensional, political formulations.</p>
<p>In Tar Baby (1981), the reader is told how the black heroine’s “legs burned with the memory of tar,” despite her degree in art history from the Sorbonne. In Jazz, the heroine finds herself compelled to go back to a department store and “slap the face of a white salesgirl” who had snubbed her, despite recognising this to be self-destructive gesture. </p>
<h2>Fatalistic cycles</h2>
<p>Morrison, who studied classical literature at university, was influenced intellectually by the fatalistic cycles that permeate ancient Greek theatre. Something of this darker mood enters into her own fiction. </p>
<p>This is why Morrison’s novels are more unsettling than was her public persona. Unlike many of her intellectual contemporaries, she retained a traditional faith in aesthetic quality and the literary canon, defending fiction as offering “a more intimate version of history”. </p>
<p>She endorsed Barack Obama as presidential candidate in 2008 by commending his “creative imagination, which coupled with brilliance equals wisdom.” </p>
<p>Yet such polite terms as “creative imagination” find themselves contradicted by the cycles inherent in Morrison’s own imaginative universe. In Sula, for instance, the institution of a “National Suicide Day” epitomizes the kind of in-turned violence typical of her sombre fiction. </p>
<p>Morrison’s art resists classification. This quality of aesthetic elusiveness and ambiguity will make her more disconcerting representations of the psychology of power resonate with future generations of readers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121557/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Giles receives funding from Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>In her creative and critical work, Toni Morrison sought to remap the contours of American literature and culture.Paul Giles, Professor, Challis Chair of English, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1114042019-02-14T11:48:31Z2019-02-14T11:48:31ZWhy blackface?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258819/original/file-20190213-181615-1nozf9e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">1899 lithograph of white minstrel performer Carroll Johnson depicted in blackface, right.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2014637066/">Library of Congress</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Blackface is part of American culture’s DNA.</p>
<p>But America has forgotten that.</p>
<p>For almost two weeks, conflict has raged over the use of <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/2/6/18213902/ralph-northam-resign-justin-fairfax-mark-herring-blackface-virginia-governor">blackface by two current Virginia politicians</a> when they were younger. The revelations have threatened the men’s jobs and their standing in the community. </p>
<p>The use of blackface is now politically and culturally radioactive. Yet there was a time when it wasn’t.</p>
<p>I <a href="https://www.uml.edu/fahss/american-studies/faculty/millner-michael.aspx">teach the history of blackface</a> in the United States. Like much of America, my undergraduate students suffer from a kind of historical amnesia about its role in American culture. They know little about its long history, and they haven’t considered its prevalence and significance in everyday American life. </p>
<p>Most of all, they’ve never asked themselves, “Why blackface?”</p>
<h2>Cultural persistence</h2>
<p>The <a href="http://utc.iath.virginia.edu/minstrel/mihp.html">blackface minstrel show</a> was a form of burlesque theater that emerged in the 19th-century U.S. in which white men painted their faces black in order to mock people of African descent.</p>
<p>It held sway as one of the <a href="https://www.pitt.edu/%7Eamerimus/Minstrelsy.htm">most popular forms of entertainment</a> in the 19th century. In the early 20th century, <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520213807/blackface-white-noise">Hollywood studios used the popularity of blackface</a> to draw a mass audience to the new medium of film. </p>
<p>After World War II, even as the civil rights movement emerged, blackface remained a staple of <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/birth-of-an-industry">cartoons</a>, <a href="https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/33493592">community theater</a>, <a href="https://www.ferris.edu/HTMLS/news/jimcrow/antiblack/">toys, household decorations and corporate branding</a>. </p>
<p>American music — from the <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/irving-berlin-9780195071887?q=Irving%20Berlin%20songs%20from%20the%20melting%20pot&lang=en&cc=us">Great American Songbook of 1930s and ‘40s</a> to <a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674416598">rock ‘n’ roll in the 1950s and ‘60s</a> — finds its roots in the minstrel shows of the 19th century.</p>
<p>With the recent blackface <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47193273">scandals</a> in Virginia, we’ve also come to reckon with blackface’s importance to what it meant to be a young white man in the South in the 1980s.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258816/original/file-20190213-181604-15g4ita.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258816/original/file-20190213-181604-15g4ita.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258816/original/file-20190213-181604-15g4ita.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258816/original/file-20190213-181604-15g4ita.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258816/original/file-20190213-181604-15g4ita.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258816/original/file-20190213-181604-15g4ita.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258816/original/file-20190213-181604-15g4ita.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258816/original/file-20190213-181604-15g4ita.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sheet music from 1899.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47df-eca5-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99">New York Public Library</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Prejudice and profit</h2>
<p>Blackface has always been flat-out racist. </p>
<p>Since its emergence in the 1830s in the taverns and on the theater stages of New York and other northern cities – <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/25087995?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">it originated in the North</a>, not the slave South – blackface has involved the vicious ridiculing of people of African descent. </p>
<p>White men blacked up by smearing burnt cork on their faces. They exaggerated their red lips and wore outlandish costumes, portraying character types like the raggedly slave, dubbed <a href="http://exhibits.lib.usf.edu/exhibits/show/minstrelsy/jimcrow-to-jolson/jump-jim-crow/">Jim Crow</a>, or the ostentatious but simpleminded dandy, <a href="https://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C22&q=zip+coon&btnG=&httpsredir=1&article=2315&context=sheetmusic">Zip Coon</a>. </p>
<p>Minstrel shows consisted of jokes and clowning skits. The blackface characters mispronounced words and acted like bumpkins. They sang songs, sometimes sentimental and sometimes randy. In the minstrel show, white men from behind the black mask forged some of America’s most racist stereotypes. </p>
<p>And, it’s worth emphasizing, they made a good living at it. Blackface turned prejudice into profit. </p>
<p>Perhaps blackface’s profitable prejudice answers the question about why America so often returned to it in the 19th and early 20th centuries. </p>
<p>Blackface offered the perfect entertainment for a slave nation and then, after the Civil War, a society built on racial segregation. </p>
<h2>Cauldron of contradictions</h2>
<p>But a number of scholars over the last few decades have proposed that there’s a great deal more to blackface than racist caricature.</p>
<p>For instance, historians have examined the ways immigrants put on the black mask as part of a process of becoming American. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.versobooks.com/books/255-the-wages-of-whiteness">Irish immigrants in the 1830s and 1840s</a> and then <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520213807/blackface-white-noise">Jewish immigrants in the early 20th century</a> dominated blackface performance. In part it allowed them entry into the entertainment industry and American popular consciousness.
In <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0018037/">“The Jazz Singer” (1927)</a>, Al Jolson’s character, the son of a Jewish cantor, blacks up to become a star. </p>
<p>But new immigrants also attempted to <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2080798?casa_token=OEW1hfiPStIAAAAA:d46DsD0jxANvEc1NTEbKjqnM3J22vyPeZ_77XLeWUz-vhLPuh_IdgQoyfQ4sCOACGb0Wey10TOHCy7MQHLzDLJtaovl2km4v0BV0NuBwPm9S9qrDJdly&seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">established their social position in American society</a> by distinguishing themselves from the lowest rung on the social latter through a blackface burlesquing of African-Americans. </p>
<p>Ralph Ellison, the author of the mid-century novel of African-American experience, “<a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/256/25629/invisible-man/9780241970560.html">Invisible Man</a>,” wrote brilliantly about blackface. </p>
<p>Ellison saw America as a cauldron of contradictions. It preached equality but practiced slavery and discrimination. It valued liberty and the recognition of all people’s humanity, while treating many of its citizens like things and animals. </p>
<p>For Ellison, blackface was America’s way of living with such contradictions. <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/46137/the-collected-essays-of-ralph-ellison-by-ralph-ellison/9780812968262/">In a 1958 essay</a>, Ellison asserted that blackface “constituted a ritual of exorcism.” In blackface, the black figure represented the negative aspects of American society - slavery, inequality, immorality, exploitation. These negative aspects were exorcised and disavowed by turning them into a big joke in the blackface show. </p>
<p>This “exorcism” meant that white Americans could consider themselves and their nation as good and decent while still engaging in racist behavior.</p>
<p>Ellison presented blackface not as outside of America’s core values, but as telling “us something of the operations of American values,” as he put it. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Blackface performers Harvey Hindemeyer and Earle Tuckerman, who played ‘Goldy and Dusty’ in this 1940 skit.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Yearning for blackface</h2>
<p>Like Ellison, many of the recent historians of blackface suggest more is at stake than racial animus. The cultural historian Eric Lott goes a step further and argues that blackface is infused with something like love. </p>
<p>In his influential book “<a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/love-and-theft-9780195320558?cc=us&lang=en&">Love and Theft</a>,” Lott sees the donning of the mask as a fetishistic fascination with blackness. </p>
<p>Blackface fascinates white men because it allows them sexual license and access to a purportedly virile, disobedient, yet authentic form of masculinity that rebels against middle-class American life, Lott argues.</p>
<p>But inhabiting blackness, Lott explains, produces great anxiety in those who take up the black mask. The masked men distance themselves from blackness – it’s all a joke in good fun – almost as quickly as they inhabit it because blackness, while deeply desired, is also dangerous to their white privilege. </p>
<p>Lott sees this dynamic as exploitation – the “theft” of his title – but it’s exploitation built on fascination and desire. </p>
<p>Lott’s history focuses on working-class men during the decades before the Civil War, but it’s not a big step from the “love and theft” of antebellum blackface to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpWVkVtMUP8">Mick Jagger cakewalking across the stage like Zip Coon</a> or <a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674001930">suburban white kids spittin’ rhymes</a>.</p>
<h2>‘Masking jokers’</h2>
<p>I suspect something like this “love and theft” dynamic was happening in 1980s Virginia. </p>
<p>In addition to the blackface image <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/05/us/northam-yearbook.html">on Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s medical school yearbook page from 1983</a>, we also find him in two additional photos. </p>
<p>In one he poses next to a muscle car, and in the other he is pictured in a rancher’s 10-gallon hat. In these two images, Northam tries to present a masculine virility. Was that sense of virility quickly slipping away for the soon-to-be pediatrician and future politician? </p>
<p>These are images, too, of a South that was likewise quickly disappearing in the 1980s. <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1017/S0022381600053470">This South was as much a New South</a> of suburbs, international corporations and newly established immigrant communities as it was the old Dixie of 10-gallon-hat ranchers and of moonshiners who used souped-up stock cars to deliver their goods. </p>
<p>Blackface in the 1980s was perhaps a way for white Southerners to get back some of the old Southern spunk, its sense of virility and masculinity. The KKK figure, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the blackface figure on Northam’s yearbook page, is present to make sure that all know that everyone is really buddies here and this is a joke – which of course it is and it isn’t.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/46137/the-collected-essays-of-ralph-ellison-by-ralph-ellison/9780812968262/">“Change the Joke and Slip the Yoke”</a> is the title of Ralph Ellison’s brilliant essay on blackface from 1958. </p>
<p>But the joke of blackface is still very much with us. We haven’t slipped its yoke.</p>
<p>“America,” Ellison wrote, “is a land of masking jokers.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111404/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Millner does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The public was shocked by the blackface image on Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s yearbook page. But if blackface is now taboo, there was a time when it played a big role in American culture.Michael Millner, Associate Professor of English and American Studies, UMass LowellLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1065632018-11-16T15:26:59Z2018-11-16T15:26:59ZHappy birthday Mickey Mouse – animation’s greatest showman is 90<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245792/original/file-20181115-194506-ztxkdk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Disney Enterprises, Inc.</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho recently criticised his players for not having the courage to take penalty kicks, <a href="https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2018/1029/1007329-jose-mourinho-paul-pogba-penalty-manchester-united/">declaring</a>: “I don’t like Mickey Mouses.” His choice of words made him surely just the latest to misunderstand one of the most significant icons of our times.</p>
<p>The term “Mickey Mouse” is often used as a term of dismissal – for watches, academic courses dealing with the media and popular culture, and other apparently “non-serious” practices. But its continued use actually displays Mickey’s longstanding social influence. </p>
<p>Celebrating his <a href="https://disney.co.uk/mickey-mouse">90th birthday this year</a>, the Disney cartoon character has far outgrown his role as erstwhile straight man to funnier companions such as Goofy, Pluto and Donald Duck. His everyman persona is now linked to a range of complex values in global culture.</p>
<p>Nine decades ago, surely nobody would have imaged when Walt Disney invented Mickey (he was initially named Mortimer Mouse), the mischievous rustic mouse of early black-and-white cartoons such as Steamboat Willie and Plane Crazy, that he would become such a powerful brand. </p>
<p>Easily identified by nothing more than a white glove or those famous ears, he has come to represent the core principles of what it is to be American. He epitomises the ultimate triumph of late industrial capitalism and corporate identity.</p>
<p>Disney’s critical currency was almost untouchable in the 1930s and 1940s, as Mickey was embraced by both the general public and the intellectual cognoscenti. After Walt died in 1966, the “death of the author” only strengthened the long reach of his symbolic son. </p>
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<p>Mickey the wide eyed rodent was never really seen as a mouse. The scientist Stephen Jay Gould suggested he <a href="https://faculty.uca.edu/benw/biol4415/papers/Mickey.pdf">provoked empathy in audiences</a> simply because of his resemblance to a baby or young child. But it was Mickey’s starring role in <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032455/">Fantasia</a> in 1940, as The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, which moved him beyond associations with the Great Depression, and into more progressive times. </p>
<p>Gone was the barnyard imp, replaced by a curious, energised figure literally containing the powerful forces of the universe. After that it was but a small step to world domination. But it was a domination which provoked a mixed response.</p>
<p>Cultural critic <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Mouse_that_Roared.html?id=y4JIvzl547UC">Henry Giroux worried</a> about an end to innocence in the manipulation of the Disney ethos embodied in Mickey. Film writer Douglas Brode later argued that <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Walt-Woodstock-Disney-Created-Counterculture/dp/0292702736">Disney was far more radical</a> than we think, and actually a defining player in 20th-century consciousness.</p>
<p>Disney champion and film-maker Sergei Eisenstein <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Disney-Sergei-Eisenstein/dp/0857424912">saw Mickey’s cartoon form</a> as a liberating force for change, loosening the straitjacket of modern American culture while ironically being one of its defining forms. (Yet Eisenstein took little note of Mickey’s already dominant presence in merchandising. As historian Gary Cross points out, by the 1930s, Mickey’s figure was <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=hKlG6vJYEEUC&pg=PA33&lpg=PA33&dq=blankets,+watches,+toothbrushes,+lampshades,+radios,+breakfast+bowls,+alarm+clocks,+Christmas+tree+lights,+ties+and+clothing+of+all+kinds&source=bl&ots=PTqzEUeDis&sig=b4gxA6KcU87EO5BMDAWsjTc5YmY&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiHsq-80tPeAhUMC8AKHTlxCxYQ6AEwBnoECAsQAQ#v=onepage&q=blankets%2C%20watches%2C%20toothbrushes%2C%20lampshades%2C%20radios%2C%20breakfast%20bowls%2C%20alarm%20clocks%2C%20Christmas%20tree%20lights%2C%20ties%20and%20clothing%20of%20all%20kinds&f=false">already being imprinted</a> on “blankets, watches, toothbrushes, lampshades, radios, breakfast bowls, alarm clocks, Christmas tree lights, ties and clothing of all kinds”.)</p>
<h2>Of mice and men</h2>
<p>The discussion – and Mickey’s cultural dominance – has been widespread. The book <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Read-Donald-Duck-Imperialist/dp/0884770230">How to Read Donald Duck</a>, for example, offers a Marxist perspective on Disney comics, where Mickey is on the front line of American cultural imperialism. </p>
<p>In the art world, Andy Warhol created the <a href="https://www.artsy.net/artwork/andy-warhol-quadrant-mickey-mouse-slash-myths">Mickey Mouse Myths</a> series in the early 1980s, street artist Keith Haring <a href="http://www.haring.com/!/keyword/mickey-mouse">made images of Warhol</a> as the famous rodent. Satirical cartoonist Robert Grossman <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/19/obituaries/robert-grossman-illustrator-with-a-brash-touch-dies-at-78.html">fused Mickey with Ronald Reagan</a> and designer Rick Griffin <a href="https://www.pinterest.com/pin/407857309987853489/">drew him</a> as a protest singer – a sort of Disneyfied Dylan.</p>
<p>Digital artist John Craig “proved” Mickey’s existence <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Mickey-Mouse-Interpret-Favourite/dp/1562827448">through geometry</a>, and graphic designer Seymour Chwast summed up the simplicity of his construction in <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Mickey-Mouse-Interpret-Favourite/dp/1562827448">How to Draw Seven Circles</a>. </p>
<p>At 90 years of age, Mickey – those seven circles – now stands astride popular culture and politics, embodying all its contradictions and ambiguities, pleasures and pains, past and present. He can be hugged in theme parks, enjoyed on screens, and admired for his sheer longevity. </p>
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<p>And while Mickey may represent multiple meanings, notions of nostalgia and utopia remain embodied in his simple form. At one time this might have seemed backward looking and naive – but it has now made him a reassuring presence, as the world seems to slide unerringly into chaos and decline.</p>
<p>Little wonder then, that Mickey’s whistle from <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0019422/">Steamboat Willie</a> in 1928 is now used as a prologue to Disney Pixar Films. As Walt always reminded everyone: “It started with a mouse.” And as yet, much to the relief of those who embrace the House of Mouse (and there are many), there is no ending in sight.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/106563/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Wells does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>We’ve had 90 years of those famous ears.Paul Wells, Director of the Animation Academy, Loughborough UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1021462018-11-15T11:45:06Z2018-11-15T11:45:06ZWhy are some Americans changing their names?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245384/original/file-20181113-194516-ugciht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">For decades, native-born American Jews changed their names to improve their job prospects.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/blue-hello-my-name-tag-1192768264?src=Cf8G7gyS1DirSsR7ws36FQ-1-37">Billion Photos/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 2008, Newsweek published an article on then-presidential candidate Barack Obama titled “<a href="https://www.newsweek.com/when-barry-became-barack-84255">From Barry to Barack</a>.”</p>
<p>The story explained how Obama’s Kenyan father, Barack Obama Sr., chose Barry as a nickname for himself in 1959 in order “to fit in.” But the younger Barack – who had been called Barry since he was a child – chose to revert to his given name, Barack, in 1980 as a college student coming to terms with his identity. </p>
<p>Newsweek’s story reflects a typical view of name changing: Immigrants in an earlier era changed their names to assimilate, while in our contemporary era of ethnic pride, immigrants and their children are more likely to retain or reclaim ethnic names. </p>
<p>However, my research on name changing suggests a more complicated narrative. For the past 10 years, I’ve studied thousands of name-changing petitions deposited at the New York City Civil Court from 1887 through today. </p>
<p>Those petitions suggest that name changing has changed significantly over time: While it was primarily Jews in the early to mid-20th century who altered their names to avoid discrimination, today it’s a more diverse group of people changing their names for a range of reasons, from qualifying for government benefits to keeping their families unified.</p>
<h2>Jews hope to improve their job prospects</h2>
<p>From the 1910s through the 1960s, the overwhelming majority of people petitioning to change their names weren’t immigrants seeking to have their names Americanized. </p>
<p>Instead, they were native-born American Jews who faced significant institutional discrimination. </p>
<p>In the 1910s and 1920s, many employers wouldn’t hire Jews, and universities began establishing quotas on Jewish applicants. One way to tell if someone was Jewish was his or her name, so it made sense that Jews would want to get rid of names that “sounded” Jewish. </p>
<p>As Dora Sarietzky, a stenographer and typist, <a href="https://nyupress.org/books/9781479867202/">explained in her 1937 petition</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“My name proved to be a great handicap in securing a position. … In order to facilitate securing work, I assumed the name Doris Watson.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Since most petitioners were native-born Americans, this wasn’t about fitting in. It was a direct response to racism. </p>
<h2>The changing face of name changing</h2>
<p>While 80 percent of petitioners in 1946 sought to erase their ethnic names and replace them with more generic “American-sounding” ones, <a href="https://nyupress.org/books/9781479867202/">only 25 percent of petitioners in 2002 did the same</a>. Meanwhile, few name changers in the past 50 years have actually made a decision like Barack Obama’s: Only about 5 percent of all name change petitions in 2002 sought a name more ethnically identifiable.</p>
<p>So why, in the 21st century, are people feeling compelled to change their names?</p>
<p>The demographics of name change petitioners today – and the reasons that they give – suggest a complicated story of race, class and culture. </p>
<p>Jewish names disappeared in the petitions over the last two decades of the 20th century. At the same time, the numbers of African-American, Asian and Latino petitioners rose dramatically after 2001. </p>
<p>On the one hand, this reflected the changing demographics of the city. But there was also a marked shift in the class of petitioners. While only 1 percent of petitioners in 1946 lived in a neighborhood with a median income below the poverty line, by 2012, 52 percent of petitioners lived in such a neighborhood. </p>
<h2>Navigating the bureaucracy</h2>
<p>These new petitioners aren’t seeking to improve their educational and job prospects in large numbers, like the Jews of the 1930s and 1940s.</p>
<p>Instead, today’s petitioners seem to be trying to match their names with those of other family members after a divorce, adoption or abandonment. Or they’re looking to fix bureaucratic errors in their records – the misspelled or mistaken names that were long ignored, but have increasingly become major problems in the 21st century.</p>
<p>In the wake of Sept. 11, the nation’s obsession with security translated to <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/trail/etc/fake.html">an increased anxiety surrounding identity documents</a>. This anxiety seems to have particularly burdened the poor, who now need the names on their birth certificates to match drivers’ licenses and other documents in order to get jobs or government benefits.</p>
<p>Roughly 21 percent of petitioners in 2002 sought to correct errors on their vital documents, while in 1942, only about 4 percent of petitions had been submitted to change a mistake on an identification document. </p>
<p>“When I apply for Medicare premium payment program,” <a href="https://nyupress.org/books/9781479867202/">one petitioner explained in 2007</a>, “they denied it because my name doesn’t match my social security card.” </p>
<h2>Why change your name if it won’t help?</h2>
<p>There’s also another key difference between today and the early 20th century: limited upward mobility. </p>
<p>Even though <a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w9873">multiple studies have shown</a> that people with African-American-sounding names are more likely to face job discrimination, poor African Americans in Brooklyn and the Bronx aren’t getting rid of their African-American-sounding names.</p>
<p>Perhaps this is because poor or working class people in 21st-century America <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2017/04/21/science.aan3264.full">have fewer possibilities for upward mobility</a> than there were for Jews in the 1940s working as clerks, salesmen and secretaries. </p>
<p>So even if having an ethnic-sounding name might hinder middle-class African Americans’ ability to find a better job, there’s less of an incentive for poor people of color to change their names.</p>
<h2>Racism against Arab-Americans</h2>
<p>There is one striking exception, and it demonstrates the powerful role discrimination continues to play in American society.</p>
<p>After Sept. 11, there was a surge of petitions from people with Arabic-sounding names. </p>
<p>Their petitions were achingly similar to those of Jews in the 1940s, though many of these newer petitioners were more open about the hatred they faced:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Prevailing attitudes and prejudices against persons of Arabic descendancy have been adversely affected as a direct result of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001,” one petitioner wrote. “Petitioner wishes to change his name to a less demonstratively Muslim/Arabic first name.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>By 2012, however, petitioners with Muslim or Arabic names had stopped changing their names in large numbers. That probably doesn’t have anything to do with a more tolerant society. Instead, in 2009, the New York City Police Department <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nypd-secret-files-muslims-change-names-sound-american-report-article-1.968327">began conducting surveillance</a> into New York’s Muslim and Arab communities using Civil Court name change petitions, sending the message that the act of changing your name might make you as much of a suspect as keeping it. </p>
<p>Although there has been substantial change in the name change petitions over the past 125 years, there’s one lasting lesson: Name changing is not a simple story. It hasn’t moved smoothly from an era in which immigrants simply wanted to fit in, to an era in which diversity is welcome.</p>
<p>Instead, name changing illustrates that racial hatred and suspicion have been a lasting presence in American history, and that intertwined definitions of race and class are hardening – and limiting – the opportunities of people of color.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102146/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kirsten Fermaglich does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The demographics of name change petitioners today – and the reasons that they give – tell a complicated story of race, class and culture.Kirsten Fermaglich, Associate Professor, Michigan State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1039322018-09-28T15:40:59Z2018-09-28T15:40:59ZNetflix’s BoJack Horseman is one of the most complex animated characters ever created<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/238106/original/file-20180926-48647-1x0d93g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Netflix</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For more than 100 years, across the world, in many diverse cultures, animation has featured talking animals. Indeed, the anthropomorphised cat, dog, mouse, ape, duck and rabbit have populated animation in a way that has defined much of its distinctive nature – by using animals to subvert social and cultural norms. </p>
<p>Netflix’s animated comedy-drama <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3398228/">BoJack Horseman</a> is another example of this. But BoJack, played by Will Arnett, is not a horse as playful companion like Maximus in <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0398286/">Tangled</a> or Bullseye in <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114709/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Toy Story</a>. He is not an abused victim like Boxer in <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047834/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Animal Farm</a>, and does not possess the lyrical equine beauty of <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0166813/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron</a>. BoJack is literally a horse-man. </p>
<p>Like Bottom in Shakespeare’s <a href="https://www.rsc.org.uk/a-midsummer-nights-dream/the-plot">A Midsummer Night’s Dream</a>, he seems to have acquired a head that makes him think and feel differently. Not for BoJack the revelry of love, however. His thoughts are dominated by his own mortality, sense of failure, and deep misanthropy. </p>
<p>Few viewers will think of BoJack as a horse. Instead he is the mediator of bleak dysfunction, aided by the absurdist capacity for animation to create aesthetic distractions and to exaggerate comic situations. Just as the old <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Road-Runner">Road Runner cartoons</a> represented meaningless repetition and relentless battles against the world without essential purpose or meaning, Bojack is the existential variant of this concept in the contemporary era. </p>
<p>BoJack’s perpetual hypocrisy, addictions and mistreatment of others may be funny, but they also serve as proof that he cannot change anything – that the world itself keeps repeating endless cycles of seemingly inhuman or inhumane models of existence. </p>
<p>The combination of humankind and animal here echoes past adult-orientated animated series such as <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0348943/">I Am Not An Animal</a>, not just posing broad questions about what it is to be human but also offering challenging insights about humankind’s incapacity to fulfil its own potential. “We’re all terrible, so we’re all OK.”</p>
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<p>From season one, there is Bojack’s own poignant realisation that he may not ever be a “good person”. In season five, we meet Vance Wagner, the vile embodiment of all things wrong with men and patriarchy in the #MeToo era. Across all 61 episodes so far, BoJack Horseman has explored all the ways in which humankind seeks to find its most acceptable moral and ethical identity in the face of its “real world” foibles, failings and feelings. </p>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120382/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Truman Show</a>-styled intervention in Season Five, BoJack is cast in Philbert, a TV detective show that more than resembles his own life. It serves as yet another knowing device that reveals how humankind has become indistinguishable from how it has been mediated – or indeed, how it uses its (social) media. </p>
<h2>We’re all BoJack Horseman</h2>
<p>This began from the show’s inception. A washed-up sitcom star from a 1990s show, “Horsin’ Around”, BoJack eyes a comeback by writing a revealing warts-and-all autobiography. In this alone, Bojack is a coruscating satire of <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1458448/?ref_=nv_sr_2">Mister Ed</a> the primetime American sitcom of the 1960s in which a a talking palamino essentially outskills his human foil, Wilbur, for comic effect. </p>
<p>Bojack is also the mirror image of the children’s animation <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0294143/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Marvin the Tap-Dancing Horse</a>. The Netflix show is parodying the idea of the popular novelty act of distinction, but stressing how such carnival confections are forgotten legacies of the entertainment industry. </p>
<p>Bojack coats all such innocence with deep-rooted cynicism, playing out the view that humans are inherently selfish, revealed by the (bad) things they do, and rendered (self)conscious only by the realisation that they ought to be better. </p>
<p>The writers of BoJack Horseman have a highly sophisticated engagement with the contradictions and ambiguities of humanity. The programme constantly stresses that the material world, for all its challenges and issues, needs to be understood as a resilient search for meaning and effect. </p>
<p>BoJack as a character becomes a site for this discussion. He is also a painful reminder of the old ironic joke about the mistreatment and perpetual misery of a circus elephant. “Run away”, say the elephant’s friends. “What?” he replies, “And miss out on a career in show business?”</p>
<p>All of this makes BoJack one of the most complex animated characters ever created. And the show itself demonstrates that animation – as it has shown in many forms globally in its long history – is a complex art form with serious purpose – even when it’s funny.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/103932/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Wells does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Depression, addiction and misanthropy in cartoon form.Paul Wells, Director of the Animation Academy, Loughborough UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1030282018-09-17T12:53:19Z2018-09-17T12:53:19ZCrime of culture: American Animals and the history of rare book heists<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/236660/original/file-20180917-158219-gol8og.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">STX Entertainment</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>American Animals, a film recounting the true story of a 2004 rare book theft, was recently released in cinemas across the UK. The film is a dramatic retelling of events based on director Bart Layton’s interviews and written correspondence with the convicted book thieves – interactions which began while the thieves were serving seven-year prison sentences following their guilty pleas.</p>
<p>In 2004, four friends in their early 20s – Charles Allen, Eric Borsuk, Warren Lipka, and Spencer Reinhard – attempted to execute an elaborate plan to <a href="https://www.kentucky.com/news/local/crime/article212180224.html">steal more than US$12m</a> worth of textual treasures from Lexington, Kentucky’s <a href="http://libguides.transy.edu/SpecialCollections">Transylvania University (Transy) Special Collections</a>. </p>
<p>After a year in the planning, the heist involved the men disguising themselves as elderly, shooting librarian Betty Jean Gooch with a stun gun and simply shoving valuables into backpacks. When the day came, the men managed to escape with approximately US$750,000 worth of books in their backpacks, including a first edition of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, an illuminated medieval manuscript, and a copy of John James Audubon’s A Synopsis of Birds of North America. </p>
<p>Rushing from Lexington to New York, the men attempted to appraise their loot at Christie’s, but never managed to sell their ill-gotten gains. They returned home with the books and were tracked down by the FBI within a matter of months. The entire ordeal was so poorly organised that <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/magazine/2015/02/transy-book-heist">Vanity Fair</a> deemed it “one part Oceans 11, one part Harold & Kumar”.</p>
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<h2>Light fingers</h2>
<p>But this was by no means the only notable rare book heist in living memory. Earlier in 2018, an audit of the special collections of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh uncovered a series of thefts of rare books and book pages <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/07/26/carnegie-library-heist-the-8-million-alleged-inside-job-that-cannibalized-rare-books-in-pittsburgh/?utm_term=.24748bce7cd8">with a total value of around US$8m</a> over a period of more than 20 years. It turned out that the former manager of the Carnegie Library’s rare book room, Gregory Priore, and bookseller John Schulman had been working together to sell the stolen goods through the rare book trade and auction houses. </p>
<p>The books stolen from Carnegie included Isaac Newton’s Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, a first edition of The Journal of Major George Washington, and a first edition of Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations. Unaware of where these books came from, booksellers from across the globe bought and sold them on to their own private and institutional customers.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/236639/original/file-20180917-158243-1plgvtd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/236639/original/file-20180917-158243-1plgvtd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/236639/original/file-20180917-158243-1plgvtd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236639/original/file-20180917-158243-1plgvtd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236639/original/file-20180917-158243-1plgvtd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236639/original/file-20180917-158243-1plgvtd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236639/original/file-20180917-158243-1plgvtd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236639/original/file-20180917-158243-1plgvtd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Sir Isaac Newton’s own first edition copy of his Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica with his handwritten corrections for the 20th edition.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Andrew Dunn via Wren Library, Trinity College, Cambridge</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>These sales can be difficult to track on such a large scale and, while some works have been recovered (often at the booksellers’ own expense), hundreds of the stolen items remain missing. An up-to-date list of those items believed to have been stolen is provided by <a href="https://www.abaa.org/blog/post/carnegie-library-theft">the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America</a>.</p>
<p>Library thefts are nothing new. Throughout the 1840s, Italian count <a href="http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/history/Biographies/Libri.html">Guglielmo Libri Carucci dalla Sommaja</a> stole approximately 30,000 items in his job as chief inspector of French Libraries (he later made a comfortable living selling this loot in England). </p>
<p>More recently, in 1990, American bibiomaniac Stephen Blumberg <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/27948387">was arrested</a> for stealing more than 20,000 books valued at more than US$5m from more than 200 universities and museums across North America. </p>
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<span class="caption">The Great Library of Alexandria, O. Von Corven, 19th century.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
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<p>He served four years in prison and became known as the “Book Bandit”.</p>
<p>But on a more systemic and institutional level one could go as far back as the ancient Library of Alexandria, which supposedly seized any books found on ships arriving at the port. These books were copied by professional scribes who then deposited the original works into the library and gave the copies to the books’ owners.</p>
<h2>Book ‘em</h2>
<p>While library thefts are commonplace, the release of American Animals and the news of the recent Carnegie Library thefts have made this crime front page news. After all, the sheer value of some of these books makes them a very attractive proposition for thieves. But it’s not always just about money – the young men in American Animals fantasise about getting their hands on culturally revered items, while Guglielmo Libri and Blumberg were bibliomaniacs with a <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/in-excess/201309/hooked-and-booked">recognised condition</a>. And the Library of Alexandria had a larcenous ambition to become a “universal library”, gathering all of the known world’s knowledge under a single roof.</p>
<p>The rare book trade <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/8946143c-4e47-11e4-bfda-00144feab7de">is lucrative</a>, certainly. Individuals and institutions are willing to spend healthy amounts to enhance their collections. But books represent more than just profit. They are cultural artefacts that span space and time to carry the voices of those who have meaningfully contributed to the world’s knowledge. As the primary means of communication for thousands of years, books reflect and perpetuate cultural heritage and – ultimately – help us understand what it means to be human.</p>
<p>Whether someone is stealing books for financial gain, the thrill of the game, or the overwhelming love of these objects, library theft is always underpinned by an understanding of books as valuable cultural artefacts. The young men in the American Animals heists are animals because they tried to plunder these relics of human development.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/103028/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Leah Henrickson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Why do people steal rare books? It’s about more than the money.Leah Henrickson, PhD Candidate, Loughborough UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1016152018-08-15T11:23:21Z2018-08-15T11:23:21ZMadonna: pop’s superlative shapeshifter turns 60 with style<p>One of the first albums I owned was a tape of Madonna’s 1987 remix collection <a href="http://www.madonna-decade.co.uk/you-can-dance.html">You Can Dance</a>. I’m not sure where I got it from – and I’m not sure I even liked it – but the bright red cover and Madonna’s hard, direct stare are etched in my mind’s eye even now, 30 years later. </p>
<p>What I know I <em>did</em> like was her previous studio album, <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/true-blue-255348/">True Blue</a> – and especially the title track, which I played on repeat (of course, in the days before CDs, “repeat” meant endlessly rewinding the tape on my Walkman). But it turned out in years to come that what I was really enjoying about that track was what it was riffing on. She fused the rhythms, melodies and harmonies of 1960s pop with the iconic 1980s drum machine sound to create a soundtrack to the Marilyn Monroe look Madonna sported at the time, a look most visible in the video for Material Girl.</p>
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<p>This is what Madonna is known for – at best she’s an alchemist, repackaging signifiers from the fringes of popular culture, transforming them into nuggets of commercial gold. At worst – if you believe her critics – she arguably treats popular culture like “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2007/jul/06/heymadonnaleavethatbandal">one great big pick'n'mix counter</a>”, taking the bits she likes best and somehow making them her own. All the while, she’s a shape-shifting shaman, mutating her own image to accompany whatever soundtrack she’s peddling – whether it’s the 1960s hippy chick style (Ray of Light), the African-American drag scene (Vogue), S&M iconography (Human Nature) or any of the other dozens of iconic looks she’s sported over a 35-year career.</p>
<p>And, at each turn, she’s needled away at conservative conceptions of identity and “appropriate” behaviour. The black Jesus in the Like a Prayer video was one incident, strapping herself to a crucifix on the Confessions tour was another. She was <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/05/28/madonna-toronto-like-a-virgin-blonde-ambition-arrest_n_7459798.html">threatened with arrest in Toronto</a> in 1990 for simulating masturbation on the Blond Ambition tour <a href="https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6289038/britney-spears-manager-larry-rudolph-on-madonna-vmas-kiss">and kissed</a> both Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera at the MTV Music Awards in 2003.</p>
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<p>But perhaps the most challenging of her metamorphoses is the one she hasn’t been able to orchestrate completely herself, the one that which we can mark every August 16 – her ageing. “Age is just a number,” we might proclaim (louder as each year passes), or “You’re only as old as you feel.” If we do go as far as setting store by a specific number, then let’s not forget that “life begins at 40” – or even, as has been asserted in recent years, that “60 is the new 40” (I turned 40 recently myself, so this is excellent news).</p>
<h2>Age as sexism</h2>
<p>So what does age mean for Madonna, as she turns 60 this week? Even as long ago as 2005’s <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/confessions-on-a-dance-floor-190195/">Confessions on a Dancefloor</a>, at the tender age of 47, she found herself at odds with the standards of the popular music industry – which often have operated at the intersection of ageism and sexism. </p>
<p>The video for the lead single from the album Hung Up saw Madonna writhing around on a dance studio floor in a pink leotard. This quickly turned out to be ripe for parody: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fWYyQcmxgU">pregnant mums</a>, <a href="http://funnyordie.com/m/2ddb">Naomi Grossman</a> and French & Saunders all had a pop. The parodies themselves are obviously not conclusive evidence of misogyny and ageism in the industry, but we should certainly pay them some heed – given that the video was voted the “<a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/music-news/6366152/Madonnas-Hung-Up-least-sexy-music-video-of-all-time.html">least sexy</a>” video of all time in 2009 by music video website Muzu.tv (and reported on with glee by the Daily Telegraph).</p>
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<p>And we should certainly start to get worried when we compare them with <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/3127817/david-hasselhoff-64-goes-topless-and-flashes-his-abs-as-he-films-new-scenes-for-knight-rider-with-fiance-hayley-roberts/">The Sun’s</a> description of a 64-year-old topless David Hasselhoff as “flashing his honed body”. Or how about <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-3134933/Richard-Gere-65-puts-amorous-display-bikini-clad-Spanish-socialite-girlfriend-32-relax-Italian-beach.html">The Daily Mail’s</a> reassurance in 2015 that Richard Gere had “still got it” at 65 as he was spotted sunbathing with his 32-year-old girlfriend. </p>
<p>Popular culture points to these men and so many others like them with admiration, framing the visible signs of their ageing as evidence of sophistication, not degeneration. Nobody’s telling them to “<a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1126410/JAN-MOIR-Oh-come-Madge-Isnt-time-away.html">put it away</a>”, like (oh, so predictably) the Daily Mail did to Madonna nearly ten years ago.</p>
<h2>Age as triumph</h2>
<p>But Madonna remains visibly physical at 60. She emphasises her body instead of hiding it “gracefully” – in outfits like the one she wore at the <a href="https://hollywoodlife.com/2016/05/02/madonna-dress-met-gala-2016-ball-butt-breasts/">Met Gala</a> in 2016, or by spreading her legs for a <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1106024/Put-away-Madonna-Singer-strikes-raunchiest-pose-Louis-Vuitton-ad-campaign.html">Louis Vuitton ad</a> in 2009. She sets out to situate herself in a provocative position in popular culture – as has been her trademark ever since Like a Virgin.</p>
<p>Although the Twitter storms of disgust rage on in response to her persistently unapologetic embodiment, there is in turn a backlash against those storms, with <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/brogan-driscoll/madonna-met-gala_b_9827558.html">The Huffington Post</a> reminding readers that the underlying cause of the discomfort is the lack of potential to commodify the body in question.</p>
<p>Madonna has consistently railed against contemporary taste, battling fiercely on the fronts of race, religion, age, gender and sexuality. In so doing, she paved the way for the likes of Lady Gaga, who will carry the torch as we continue to explore new expressions of identity in all these areas. But Madonna still has the edge, simply because what she’s doing now cannot be done by someone younger.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101615/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Freya Jarman received funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Board from 2000 to 2005 to undertake a PhD in which she worked on Madonna's changing sonic and visual image. </span></em></p>Happy birthday Ms Ciccone – you redefine age.Freya Jarman, Reader in the Department of Music, University of LiverpoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/907312018-02-13T11:44:52Z2018-02-13T11:44:52ZIn the DACA debate, which version of America – nice or nasty – will prevail?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206002/original/file-20180212-58312-ofpe1q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">DACA supporters march to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office to protest after the September 2017 announcement that the program would be suspended with a six-month delay.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Trump-Immigration-Arizona/3da67535ce0c4b49a1e98c76c50e65fa/49/0">AP Photo/Matt York</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Toward the beginning of my new book “<a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674976498">American Niceness: A Cultural History</a>,” I recount Cuban writer José Martí’s 1894 essay “<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=HWdaNYx_OygC&pg=PA329&lpg=PA329&dq=jose+marti+%22the+truth+about+the+united+states%22&source=bl&ots=PLMk40o5rI&sig=V_PqWBHmJ7_FgtfrSRYHUZ0J3Rk&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiNz_jilpLZAhUGQ60KHaWVBAsQ6AEIOzAD#v=onepage&q=jose%20marti%20%22the%20truth%20about%20the%20united%20states%22&f=false">The Truth About the United States</a>.”</p>
<p>In it, he argues that polarities shape all nations, the United States included. There are “generous Saxons” and “generous Latins,” as well as egotistical and cruel ones. Consequently, history is an ongoing duel between generosity and greed, he says. </p>
<p>In his 1869 comic sketch “<a href="https://twain.lib.virginia.edu/wilson/siamese.html">The Personal Habits of the Siamese Twins</a>,” Mark Twain used the metaphor of conjoined twins to describe the duality of the country’s character. One is belligerent, aggressive, and fought for the Confederacy; the other is angelic, amiable, and fought for the Union. </p>
<p>Both writers describe two competing national types: the vulgar American (later known as the “Ugly American”) and what could be described as the “nice American.” Since the early 19th century, the pairing of the nice with the nasty has encapsulated the contradictions at the nation’s core.</p>
<p>Today, the topic that brings this duality into sharp relief is immigration – and especially the polarized national debate on the fate of nearly 800,000 young immigrants in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. </p>
<h2>The Jekyll and Hyde of U.S. immigration policy</h2>
<p>The nice and nasty side of U.S. immigration policy is not only seen in terms of this polarized debate, but also in the split personality of President Trump himself. The same day in September 2017 when he decided to suspend DACA, <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-41170097/trump-i-have-great-love-for-daca-dreamers">he announced</a>, “I have a love for these people.” </p>
<p>Twain’s conjoined twins are an apt metaphor to describe the Jekyll and Hyde history of U.S. immigration policy. </p>
<p>Is the U.S. a nation of immigrants? Or is it a nation that shuts out, expels and criminalizes immigrants through walls, surveillance and deportation? </p>
<p>This tension between hospitality and exclusion has defined the nation from its beginning. The origin of American niceness occurred three months after the Pilgrims arrived in Plymouth, when an Abenaki named Samoset greeted the strangers in English <a href="https://archive.org/details/samosetanappreci00sylviala">by saying</a> “Welcome, Englishmen.” </p>
<p>The desperate Puritans had witnessed nearly half of their group die. Concerned about their own survival and safety, they were anxious to establish friendly relations with the natives, and they showered them with gifts. The Puritans quickly signed a peace treaty with the chief sachem, Massasoit, and the Native Americans taught them how to grow corn and catch eel. </p>
<p>But as the Puritans grew in strength and their settlements expanded, they no longer needed Indian hospitality. They eventually <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Metacom">killed Massasoit’s son Metacom</a> in King Philip’s War, put his head on a spike and took it to Plymouth, where it remained for over 20 years.</p>
<p>This origin story of the nation illustrates the complexity of American niceness, which appears here in two competing forms: Native American hospitality toward the stranger, and the mercenary “niceness” of the Puritan settlers. </p>
<p>The tension between these two opposing forms can be traced etymologically in the word “hospitality,” which derives from the Latin root “hostis” – the same root of the word “hostility.” </p>
<h2>From Indian hospitality to nativist hostility</h2>
<p>This tension between hospitality and hostility surfaced again <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/immigrants-conspiracies-and-secret-society-launched-american-nativism-180961915/">during the first major wave of migration</a> to the United States in the 1830s and 1840s, which consisted primarily of Irish and German immigrants.</p>
<p>Following the Panic of 1837 and a subsequent recession, jobs were scarce. This – combined with anti-Catholic sentiment and fears that Rome would undermine republicanism – resulted in a nativist movement that aimed to curtail suffrage for immigrant men while stopping the “foreign invasion.” </p>
<p>This nativist rage – which blamed Europe for sending their crime-ridden and poor masses to the United States – crystallized into the Know-Nothing Party of the 1850s, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=rhA2cqYGMOAC&pg=PA14&dq=%22Americans+should+rule+America%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwifs6C236DZAhUJ5oMKHUSlDe8Q6AEIMDAC#v=onepage&q=%22Americans%20should%20rule%20America%22&f=false">whose slogan</a> was “Americans should rule America.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206009/original/file-20180212-58352-ys0c1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206009/original/file-20180212-58352-ys0c1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206009/original/file-20180212-58352-ys0c1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206009/original/file-20180212-58352-ys0c1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206009/original/file-20180212-58352-ys0c1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206009/original/file-20180212-58352-ys0c1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206009/original/file-20180212-58352-ys0c1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206009/original/file-20180212-58352-ys0c1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 19th-century flag warns Americans to ‘beware of foreign influence.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.crwflags.com/fotw/images/u/us%7Dnap1.jpg">CRW Flags</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Seeing in nativism’s political rhetoric the same hatred that inspired racism, abolitionists directly challenged the Know-Nothing Party.</p>
<p>An anonymous 1844 article in the anti-slavery newspaper The Pennsylvania Freeman referred to nativism as a “narrow spirit of selfish patriotism” that portrayed foreigners as “intruders.” According to the article’s author, such toxic patriotism would only lead to a situation where hatred would “beget more hatred.” </p>
<p>In 1855, Abraham Lincoln identified the connection between nativism and racism.</p>
<p>“I am not a Know-Nothing,” <a href="http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/speed.htm">he wrote</a> to his close friend Joshua Speed. “That is certain.” Lincoln noted that if the Know-Nothings got control of the government, the Declaration of Independence would read “all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and catholics (sic).” </p>
<h2>The battle over American identity</h2>
<p>In his 1984 book “<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=KmacyPZa5XAC&q=john+higham+send+me+to+these&dq=john+higham+send+me+to+these&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjDndT8nZLZAhUICawKHVObCFYQ6AEIJzAA">Send These to Me</a>,” immigration historian John Higham observed that many of these nativist feelings persisted in 20th-century America. He noted that the only thing that seems to change is the level of emotional intensity. </p>
<p>What struck him was how quickly mild indifference toward immigrants could morph into xenophobic fury. Although Higham’s claim was made nearly 20 years before the 9/11 attacks, it nonetheless describes what happened to Muslims in the U.S. </p>
<p>According to the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/?utm_term=.04bfeafddd01">FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports program</a>, hate crimes against Muslims before 9/11 ranged between 20 and 30 per year. After the 9/11 attacks, the number rose more than tenfold to nearly 500. Since then, hate crimes against Muslims are approximately five times higher than the pre-9/11 rate. </p>
<p>Today, we see both aspects of American character on display in the deserts from California to Texas, where undocumented immigrants risk their lives to cross into the United States. While some Americans fill water stations, others – from <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/17/us-border-patrol-sabotage-aid-migrants-mexico-arizona">ICE agents</a> to armed civilian militias – will empty them.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206008/original/file-20180212-58322-wyua7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206008/original/file-20180212-58322-wyua7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206008/original/file-20180212-58322-wyua7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206008/original/file-20180212-58322-wyua7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206008/original/file-20180212-58322-wyua7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206008/original/file-20180212-58322-wyua7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206008/original/file-20180212-58322-wyua7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A member of Arizona Border Recon, a group of armed volunteers who dedicate themselves to border surveillance, checks a motion-sensing camera he set up along along the U.S.-Mexico border.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/America-Divided-American-Moments-Photo-Gallery/1586e34bd87c411c8de1f3d23effd61d/66/0">AP Photo/Gregory Bull</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Scott Warren, who works with the Tucson-based aid group No More Deaths, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/22/arrest-no-more-deaths-border-patrol-water-sabotage-migrants">was arrested in January</a> and charged with harboring two undocumented migrants in a humanitarian aid outpost, where they were given water and fed. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a15898207/ice-border-patrol-trump/">In a recent article</a>, journalist Charles Pierce wondered, “It’s a felony to leave water for thirsty people? This is not America.” </p>
<p>As Congress debates the future of DACA recipients, the meaning of this word – America – continues to be a point of conflict. </p>
<p>The outcome of this conflict depends on which legacy of American niceness the nation wants to honor. Is it the unconditional and accepting niceness exemplified by Native American hospitality? Or the self-interested niceness of the Puritan Separatists that evolved into nativist exclusion? </p>
<p>At stake is not only the fate of the Dreamers, but also how the country and the rest of the world understands the idea of America.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/90731/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carrie Tirado Bramen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Throughout America’s history, a duality has existed: On one side, there has been the belligerent, aggressive America. On the other, the generous, amiable one.Carrie Tirado Bramen, Associate Professor of English, University at BuffaloLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/835582017-10-16T00:35:24Z2017-10-16T00:35:24ZTo Uber or not? Why car ownership may no longer be a good deal<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187118/original/file-20170921-21016-1k9johr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Younger Americans tend to be comfortable relying on ride services and foregoing car ownership. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/beyonddc/33035757163/in/photolist-4Bco83-BP9tG5-4NLQ46-PtLNqc-yXjU1w-zeWF1a-zfMCDp-rGUDba-SkfTRB-SkfTE4-SkfTzK-sKzey2-XmYFx6-dVFY3-yXkzRb-zfMucK-zfMxJK-zeWCkR-yhUUo5-zeWD4z-yXqLoV-yXk1db-zcCxQY-zfMiXX-yXkSpS-yXkMa3-yXkRDd-zdUmYA-zcCSgq-yXr43B-yXk77f-zeWS7D-yhUZfE-zdUaob-zdU25h-yhUN4w">BeyondDC</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Every day there’s more news about the inevitable arrival of autonomous vehicles. At the same time, more people are using <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2017/06/01/ridesharing-hits-hyper-growth/">ride-hailing and ride-sharing apps</a>, and the percentage of teens <a href="http://www.umich.edu/%7Eumtriswt/PDF/UMTRI-2016-4_Abstract_English.pdf">getting their driver’s license</a> continues to decline. </p>
<p>Given these technologies and <a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-hy-millennials-cars-20161223-story.html">social changes</a>, it’s worth asking: Should Americans stop owning cars? </p>
<p>We’ve conducted an analysis of the all-in cost of car ownership, and we found that mobility services such as ride-hailing and ride-sharing apps – which few people today would consider their main mode of transportation – will likely provide a compelling economic option for a significant portion of Americans. In fact, if the full cost of ownership is accounted for, we found that potentially one-quarter of the entire U.S. driving population might be better off using ride services versus owning a car. </p>
<h2>From dream to brutal reality</h2>
<p>America’s love affair with the car and individual car ownership took off after World War II, aided by inexpensive fuel, a rising consumer class and a vast national network of highways. A new generation of young professionals moved away from the urban core to the suburbs and abandoned mass transit for transportation enabled by personal car ownership.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184832/original/file-20170906-9862-1uln91g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184832/original/file-20170906-9862-1uln91g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184832/original/file-20170906-9862-1uln91g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=2401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184832/original/file-20170906-9862-1uln91g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=2401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184832/original/file-20170906-9862-1uln91g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=2401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184832/original/file-20170906-9862-1uln91g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=3017&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184832/original/file-20170906-9862-1uln91g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=3017&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184832/original/file-20170906-9862-1uln91g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=3017&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">University of Texas at Austin</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>This shift transformed the modern American landscape, triggered a new approach to city planning and enabled urban sprawl. Cities that blossomed before WWII – New York and Boston, for example – already had and continue to use their mass transit systems. By contrast, cities whose growth mostly occurred in a post-war boom like Los Angeles, Atlanta, Houston and Denver were built and effectively designed around car ownership. It’s still typical for an American family to buy a house that has a large garage to store cars.</p>
<p>But for many people, the 1950s concept of driving as an expression of personal liberty has been replaced by the brutal reality that driving is often a tedious chore. With an average price of <a href="https://mediaroom.kbb.com/2017-02-01-New-Car-Transaction-Prices-Remain-High-Up-More-Than-3-Percent-Year-Over-Year-In-January-2017-According-To-Kelley-Blue-Book">US$35,000</a> apiece in the U.S., cars are used about <a href="https://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/subject_areas/national_household_travel_survey/daily_travel.html">4 percent of the time</a>, during which drivers are often subjected to congested traffic. </p>
<p>On its face, spending so much money for an appliance that starts losing value immediately, takes up vast amount of our free time and is rarely used seems ridiculous. Is it time to consider a whole new approach to personal transportation? </p>
<h2>Weighing costs</h2>
<p>To answer this question, we built a comprehensive <a href="http://www.rideordrive.org/calculator">calculator</a> that includes the costs of car ownership and compares it with an alternative of using mobility services, such as ride-hailing and ride-sharing apps, full-time to replace personal car ownership. The results might surprise you. </p>
<p>The costs of traditional car ownership go far beyond the price tag: There is also interest paid on car loans, insurance, taxes, fuel and maintenance. Some expenses are non-obvious, such as parking, property taxes and construction costs for home garages, and the value of our time. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189058/original/file-20171005-9774-cx2qg1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189058/original/file-20171005-9774-cx2qg1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189058/original/file-20171005-9774-cx2qg1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189058/original/file-20171005-9774-cx2qg1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189058/original/file-20171005-9774-cx2qg1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189058/original/file-20171005-9774-cx2qg1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189058/original/file-20171005-9774-cx2qg1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189058/original/file-20171005-9774-cx2qg1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ride-hailing services become more economic when a person’s car is more expensive and the more that person values his or her time (the blue end of the charts). The cost of transportation services now is usually between $1 per mile (on left) and $1.50 per mile (right), but the introduction of autonomous vehicles has the potential to push prices to below $1 per hour. The intersecting lines represent the results for the median price for a new car and median wages reported to the Social Security Administration. The acronym TNC stands for Transportation Network Company.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">F. Todd Davidson and Gordon Tsai</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The value of an individual’s time – that is, the dollars per hour you would assign to the time you spend driving – is one of the most important factors in our calculations. </p>
<p>The average American spends <a href="https://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/subject_areas/national_household_travel_survey/daily_travel.html">335 hours</a> annually behind the wheel driving over <a href="https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ohim/onh00/bar8.htm">13,000 miles</a>. Add in the hours we spend maintaining, cleaning and managing our cars, and it becomes clear that America’s focus on personal car ownership is costing us a significant amount of time, arguably our most precious asset.</p>
<p>How much would you pay to avoid the stress of driving around town? How much would you pay to use that time more efficiently, such as catching up on email, reading a book or taking a nap? What if you could do work-related tasks while riding? Some professions are more suited to using time riding in a productive way: It’s probably easier for a lawyer to clock billable hours while riding to work than a plumber, for example. </p>
<p>When these costs are included, mobility services might be the economically preferable option. To be clear, this analysis is focused on full replacement of personal car ownership in which an individual would shift to using ride services for all trips, rather than purchase a new vehicle.</p>
<p>The decision for owning a vehicle or using mobility services is unique to every individual. If you purchase a highly efficient vehicle for less than $25,000 and drive it more than 15,000 miles per year until it falls apart, then you should definitely own a car if your goal is to save money. </p>
<p>But, if you drive less than 10,000 miles per year, face long waits in traffic, or place a high value on your time that would otherwise be spent driving, our calculations show that mobility services might be the cheaper option. Geography can also play a role – it’s not a coincidence that there have historically been so many taxi cabs in New York City, where the high cost of parking and slow pace of traffic consume time and money. </p>
<h2>Outpricing human drivers</h2>
<p>The rise of autonomous vehicles used for carpooling and ride-sharing services could make mobility services even more compelling, particularly when you consider the economics from the service provider’s perspective. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187121/original/file-20170921-21016-tr9ulj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187121/original/file-20170921-21016-tr9ulj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187121/original/file-20170921-21016-tr9ulj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187121/original/file-20170921-21016-tr9ulj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187121/original/file-20170921-21016-tr9ulj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187121/original/file-20170921-21016-tr9ulj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187121/original/file-20170921-21016-tr9ulj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An autonomous Uber car being tested in Pittsburgh.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Jared Wickerham</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Assume for a moment that you operate a fleet of vehicles that provide mobility services. Let’s also assume you can purchase the vehicles in bulk for $20,000 apiece and that they will operate full-time for five years (the average age of a New York City taxi was <a href="http://www.nyc.gov/html/tlc/downloads/pdf/2016_tlc_factbook.pdf">3.6 years</a> in 2015). The median annual pay for a taxi driver is approximately <a href="https://www.bls.gov/ooh/transportation-and-material-moving/taxi-drivers-and-chauffeurs.htm">$25,000</a>. This means that it will cost you $145,000 to purchase the car and pay a driver over five years of operations (ignoring fuel, maintenance, registration and other miscellaneous operating expenses). </p>
<p>Using common accounting practices, we calculated that if you could buy an autonomous vehicle for less than $114,000, a service provider would be better off never hiring a driver.</p>
<p>For the average customer, a price tag of $114,000 is unimaginably high for a car. But, for a company like Uber that might someday operate a fleet of autonomous vehicles, a price tag north of $100,000 might look like gold when compared with paying drivers, a major contributor to operating cost.</p>
<p>As the price for autonomous vehicles goes down, the cost of delivering ride services goes lower. That means more consumers are more likely to use them, expanding the overall market. </p>
<p>Uber, Alphabet and many of the automotive companies understand this. It’s one of many reasons why there is an epic race to <a href="https://stratechery.com/2014/uber-fights/">capture market share</a> and eventually be the first to deliver <a href="http://www.engineering.com/DesignerEdge/DesignerEdgeArticles/ArticleID/15478/Driverless-Cars--The-Race-to-Level-5-Autonomous-Vehicles.aspx">fully autonomous vehicles</a>.</p>
<p>On the other hand, if the price of autonomous vehicles falls far enough, maybe individuals will buy their own and recapture the time they currently spend driving themselves, obviating some of the value of mobility services. </p>
<h2>Cultural factors</h2>
<p>But, another question remains: Do Americans really want to give up their cars? Even if mobility services with carpooling and automation are a less expensive choice, the service might still not be adopted quickly since people purchase cars for many reasons beyond simply price (for example, they buy cars for convenience, status, fun, identity and so forth). </p>
<p>For many decades, the car has been a critical part of the American culture, often used as a tool to flaunt wealth and showcase the unique personalities of the drivers. Will Americans want to ride in cookie-cutter cars that are part of a larger automated fleet? Will they trade off the idea of car ownership as an extension of identity to gain back some of their free time? </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187115/original/file-20170921-21016-qtomzh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187115/original/file-20170921-21016-qtomzh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187115/original/file-20170921-21016-qtomzh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187115/original/file-20170921-21016-qtomzh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187115/original/file-20170921-21016-qtomzh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187115/original/file-20170921-21016-qtomzh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187115/original/file-20170921-21016-qtomzh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187115/original/file-20170921-21016-qtomzh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The post-war American dream: a home in the suburbs with a car to get you around.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/rich701/28840049596/in/album-72157669180260493/">Richard</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some trends do appear to be working in favor of increased use of mobility services. As the United States, and the world more broadly, continues to adopt ever greater levels of <a href="http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/03/11/digital-life-in-2025/">digital communication</a>, more people will be able to complete work while on the go. And, the movement toward cities during the past decades has resulted in denser urban centers, increasing traffic congestion and making the case for alternatives to traditional car ownership. </p>
<p>Even changes in how different generations consume goods and services might be playing a role. <a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-hy-millennials-cars-20161223-story.html">Millennials have shown tepid interest</a> in following in the footsteps of prior generations when it comes to car ownership. It will be interesting to observe whether Generation Y shows more desire for cars as they begin to enter parenthood and push toward suburbs in pursuit of affordable housing. </p>
<p>How the transition will play out is still unclear. If we were to postulate, it seems the most likely outcome is that the future transportation system will be a mix of personal car ownership and mobility services, using both systems as complementary. If more people use carpooling services in particular, these complementary systems of personal car ownership, mobility services and public transportation might make our roads and cities cleaner, faster and more affordable. </p>
<p>In addition to common mobility services today, Uber and Lyft might soon be joined in force by microtransit operators, like <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/27/fords-chariot-aims-to-fill-nyc-transit-gaps-with-ride-sharing-shuttle-service.html">Ford’s Chariot shuttle service</a>. </p>
<p>As mobility services become more mature, we will likely see new solutions emerge to make it even more convenient to meet specific needs, such as transporting youths, the elderly or <a href="https://theconversation.com/are-self-driving-cars-the-future-of-mobility-for-disabled-people-84037?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter">disabled people</a>, and even assist in <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-09-15/harvey-can-help-houston-rethink-its-car-culture">disaster recovery efforts</a>. The increased level of service could create a virtuous cycle that reinforces the value of mobility services, producing greater adoption, which further lowers costs and leads to even greater adoption. When it’s all said and done, the ease and economic benefits mean that the transition to mobility services might take place faster than we think.</p>
<p><em>Researcher <a href="http://cta.ornl.gov/cta/staff_ZhenhongL.shtml">Zhenhong Lin, Ph.D.,</a> from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory contributed to the research in this article. Gordon Tsai of the University of Texas also contributed.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/83558/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>F. Todd Davidson does not work or consult for any company that would benefit from the content of this article. Todd has received funding from oil and gas companies, the automotive industry, and government research labs to study energy production and consumption in the transportation space. He has received funding from Oak Ridge National Laboratory to study the economics of transportation. Todd abides by the disclosure policies of the University of Texas at Austin and has filed all required financial disclosure forms with the university. Todd has no relevant affiliations beyond his academic positions with the University of Texas at Austin.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael E. Webber receives funding from a variety of sponsors including energy companies, automotive companies, federal agencies, state agencies, local agencies, foundations, environmental groups, and NGOs. A full list of his research sponsors are available at <a href="http://www.webberenergygroup.com">www.webberenergygroup.com</a>. Webber abides by the disclosure policies of the University of Texas at Austin and has filed all required financial disclosure forms with the university. </span></em></p>Using ride-hailing services full-time would mean avoiding the hassles of owning a car. But it could cost less, too – depending on how you value your time otherwise spent behind the wheel.F. Todd Davidson, Research Associate, Energy Institute, The University of Texas at AustinMichael E. Webber, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Deputy Director of the Energy Institute, The University of Texas at AustinLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/824252017-08-15T12:23:26Z2017-08-15T12:23:26ZElvis’s voice: like Mario Lanza singing the blues<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/182077/original/file-20170815-15219-g8geue.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption"></span> </figcaption></figure><p>Much of the mythology that surrounds Elvis Presley, who died 40 years ago, tends to surround his rags to riches story, his film-star looks, his outrageous stage outfits, his marriage to child bride Priscilla and his descent into overindulgence and drug addiction at his Graceland mansion. In death, Elvis has become to millions a kind of cautionary tale of celebrity, sex and scandal that has at times threatened to engulf his legacy. But perhaps the most important part of that legacy is his voice – <a href="https://www.graceland.com/elvis/biography/achievements.aspx">a voice that has sold more than a billion records</a>.</p>
<p>Etched into the grooves of all those records was the sound of an extraordinary singer with a range of <a href="http://www.noiseaddicts.com/2010/09/impressive-vocal-ranges-of-6-rock-singers/">more than two octaves</a>, wonderful control, tone and vibrato and the ability to cross genres effortlessly. Record producer <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Owen_Williams_(record_producer)">John Owen Williams</a> says of Elvis:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>People talk of his range and power, his ability and ease in hitting the high notes. But the real difference between Elvis and other singers was that he could sing majestically in any style, be it rock, country, or R&B – because he had soul. He sang from the heart. And that is what made him the greatest singer in the history of popular music.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Elvis <a href="https://theconversation.com/elvis-tourism-selling-the-king-from-tupelo-boy-to-graceland-icon-82290">grew up in Tupelo</a>, Mississippi, and moved with his family to Memphis, Tennessee, when he was 15. He was immersed in the pop and country music of the time as well as the gospel sounds from his church. Beale Street in Memphis was a centre for blues and R&B so those influences would have also have been a major factor in Elvis’ musical development. As Pricilla <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/archives/news/229757/elvis-loved-bigness-we-had-to-do-this/">was to explain</a> years after his death, young Elvis’ eclectic record collection included: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, gospel and black music. There was rhythm and blues artist Joe Turner, Aretha Franklin, Mahalia Jackson, Chuck Berry, the Righteous Brothers … and even Duke Ellington and Glen Miller.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But it was their shared love of the star American tenor Mario Lanza, she added, “that was really the link between the two of us”. Lanza’s hugely popular “<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/arts/music/30tomm.html">bel canto</a>” classical tenor approach fused with the roots styles surrounding Elvis created the core of his singing style. Opera star Kiri Te Kanawa <a href="https://alainrozan.wordpress.com">told Michael Parkinson</a> that the young Elvis had the greatest voice she had ever heard. The tenor Placido Domingo similarly enthused in an interview in Spanish magazine Hola in 1994: “His was the one voice I wish to have had.” Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel told The New York Times in 2007 that Presley was: “… very classically orientated with his voice and diction and very sincere and wanting to get everything perfect.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/182075/original/file-20170815-17703-1ungw55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/182075/original/file-20170815-17703-1ungw55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/182075/original/file-20170815-17703-1ungw55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/182075/original/file-20170815-17703-1ungw55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/182075/original/file-20170815-17703-1ungw55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=608&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/182075/original/file-20170815-17703-1ungw55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=608&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/182075/original/file-20170815-17703-1ungw55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=608&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Return to sender: Elvis as everyday American hero.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Stamptastic via Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Learning process</h2>
<p>Elvis’ musical career can be divided into four eras: the early years in the 1950s singing rock’n'roll, country and gospel; the transition to pop in 1960; the renaissance years surrounding the 1968 TV Comeback Special and the still glorious melancholy of his final work in the late 1970s. But what was it about his voice that spoke so directly to so many people across this time span? <a href="http://www.thevoicecentre.com">Cathryn Robson</a>, a senior lecturer in voice and music performance at the University of Westminster, said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Elvis was technically fearless and instinctive in his use of technique. In his early material in particular it is as if his voice is finding and creating the lyrics as he is singing them.</p>
</blockquote>
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<p>To really understand Elvis’ sound we have to go back to the recordings. One of the hallmarks of Elvis’ vocal approach is a combination of his large range with the unusual ability to move seamlessly between his tenor and baritone voices. Combined with his range, he has great control over the placement of the voice in the different resonant centres such as the chest, head and the pharynx at the back of the mouth which affects the vocal tone. </p>
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<p>The rock’n'roll classic <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/4gphxUgq0JSFv2BCLhNDiE">Jailhouse Rock</a> from 1957 features a distorted high tenor vocal combined with sloppy lyrical articulation in an explosive performance. The contrast with the pure, clean tone of Elvis’ 1960 rendition of the gospel classic <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/7q44Wj4Y14vVbykA3XrhBb">Milky White Way</a> with its great blend of resonance between the chest and head voices is clearly apparent. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/44AyOl4qVkzS48vBsbNXaC">Can’t Help Falling in Love</a> from 1961, Elvis explores the richness of his baritone range moving to a gorgeous light baritone in the bridge of the song. <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/6LuPNnWpVrGlYr9WKM8s4x">Guitar Man</a> from 1967 – the track that gave the first hint of his mid-60s “comeback” – features a “speak-singing” approach described by Robson as a singer’s “technical holy grail”. </p>
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<p>The 1972 song <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/7zMUCLm1TN9o9JlLISztxO">Burning Love</a>, Elvis’s final hit in his lifetime, features another sound altogether – a tight forceful vocal tone with the voice bursting out of his pharynx over a driving rock track.</p>
<h2>Technical prowess</h2>
<p>Elvis had a brilliant ability to control the attack and ending of each note. If we listen the 1954 Sun Records recording of <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/18LwhRYqFsJjUH3Q4dMIr7">Blue Moon of Kentucky</a> we can hear Elvis using a technique known as “<a href="http://www.voicecouncil.com/master-your-onsets-and-offsets/">glottal onset and offset</a>” – a technique in which the vocal folds in the larynx are closed at the start of a note and closed with extra emphasis at the end of the note – to achieve clarity of attack and an amazing rhythmic bounce in his vocal performance. That ability to drive the rhythm is also present in the 1963 hit <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/5Q7ayTarb9Tpmkik5cVMug">Viva Las Vegas</a> in which Elvis effortlessly accents the melody to give a rhythmic shape to each phrase.</p>
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<p>The 1960 release of <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/1XunTmhOcj3xwh4b8P3isX">It’s Now Or Never</a> marked Elvis’ transition to pop. The song was a reworking with specially commissioned lyrics of <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/6ME1gHdhIq0ma2633mPPXy">O Sole Mio</a>, a signature hit for Mario Lanza. Alongside the operatic “bel canto” approach Elvis sings the song using a technique known as “devoicing” which creates sudden drops in the dynamic of the vocal. This allows Elvis to mark the emotional fragility in the lyric creating as Robson notes “a mix of assertiveness and vulnerability”.</p>
<p>A crucial element in Elvis’ sonic signature was his use of vibrato. The final Battle Hymn of the Republic’ segment of the 1972 recording of <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/28krgBY4VyYEzi2sxioGay">An American Trilogy</a> features the sound of his vocal folds vibrating together in all their glory creating a sound that has been much copied in pop music but never bettered.</p>
<p>Elvis was much more than just a collection of vocal techniques – and as a singer had to overcome the sometimes mediocre material he was saddled with. As his legend fades we will be left with the multiple sounds of his voice: tender, aggressive, loving, uncertain, swaggering, pious and sexual – all delivered with a consummate technical virtuosity that was as much assimilated as studied. </p>
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<p>But enough of these words. Go and listen to the recordings for yourselves – or, as Elvis sang in the 1968 movie Live A Little, Love A Little, let’s have <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/5dtDb3jtO2Ov6ABN0EZrIR">A Little Less Conversation, A Little More Action</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/82425/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adrian York does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Elvis’s impressive vocal range and his technical ability made his voice an instrument that even opera singers have lined up to pay tribute to.Adrian York, Senior Lecturer in Commercial Music Performance, University of WestminsterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/822902017-08-15T10:00:23Z2017-08-15T10:00:23ZElvis tourism: selling ‘the King’ from Tupelo boy to Graceland icon<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181944/original/file-20170814-28423-1a078mv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The ultimate expression of an American rags to riches fable.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Paddy Briggs</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><blockquote>
<p>Elvis’s story is so classically American (poor country boy makes good in the city) that his press agents never bothered to improve on it. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>So said the great chronicler of American popular culture, Greil Marcus, in his classic 1975 study, <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/a-conversation-with-greil-marcus-mystery-train-keeps-rolling-at-40-20151019">Mystery Train</a>. </p>
<p>Elvis Presley was born on January 8, 1935 in a two-room shack in the small town of Tupelo, Mississippi – and died 90 miles away on August 16, 1977 at his Memphis mansion, Graceland. His music was shaped by his upbringing and surroundings – as Marcus observed: “The cultural range of his music … includes not only hits of the day, but also patriotic recitals, pure country gospel and really dirty blues.” He sold an <a href="https://www.graceland.com/">estimated one billion records</a>, more than anyone in record industry history. As <a href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:_EHELViLfkcJ:https://www.elvisinfonet.com/spotlight_elvis_meets_the_beatles.html+&cd=13&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk">John Lennon said</a>: “If there hadn’t been an Elvis, there wouldn’t have been the Beatles.”</p>
<p>Australian academics John Connell and Chris Gibson wrote in their <a href="https://brocku.ca/webfm_send/13296">2003 study of the geography of pop music</a>, that music tourism “relies on evidence of cultural activities, incidents from the past, tangible artefacts that can be photographed”. And it’s a very big business – for example, Elvis tourism is worth an annual US$600m to Memphis’s economy. More than 600,000 people visit Graceland each year – which is second only to the White House as the most visited home in the US.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.sunstudio.com/sessions/">Sun Studio in Memphis</a>, where the young Elvis cut his first commercial record in 1954, attracts 160,000 visitors.</p>
<h2>Memories monetised</h2>
<p>A number of factors drive music tourism. The rising affluence of the key market – baby boomers (people born between 1946 and 1964) – is a key reason as well as faster and cheaper travel and ease of access (Graceland opened in 1982 to the public). But perhaps the biggest driver, according to Connell and Gibson, is the nostalgia that evokes memories of earlier freedom, reminiscences and regret. </p>
<p>But <a href="http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/17538330911013915">my research</a>, and discussions at Elvis Presley Enterprises, suggests 34% of visitors to Graceland are under 30. So why are so many young people – not even born when Elvis died – flocking to these sites? Part of this younger demographic can be explained by parents passing down their musical tastes to their children. The use of Elvis’s songs on film soundtracks and adverts has also helped in the widening of his fan base. This reinvigoration of this visitor base has prompted public investment – in 2015 <a href="http://memphismagazine.com/arts/music-tourism-is-transforming-memphis/">Memphis spent US$43m</a> on the development of Elvis Presley Boulevard.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181938/original/file-20170814-28418-1uv7nxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181938/original/file-20170814-28418-1uv7nxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181938/original/file-20170814-28418-1uv7nxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181938/original/file-20170814-28418-1uv7nxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181938/original/file-20170814-28418-1uv7nxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181938/original/file-20170814-28418-1uv7nxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181938/original/file-20170814-28418-1uv7nxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Cashing in on a famous name.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Thomas R Machnitzki</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>At the heart of music tourism is the level of involvement the tourist has with the musician, sparking interest in providing physical contexts such as where they were born or died or where they recorded or performed their music. Social geographer <a href="https://pure.royalholloway.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/tim-cresswell(7d41a2c8-6df1-413f-9b67-892b73b00697).html">Tim Cresswell</a> <a href="http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1118725441.html">defines place</a> in its simplest form as a “meaningful” location – and music tourism provides an opportunity for fans to “consume” important landmarks or towns either by visiting them or by listening to songs about them. Memphis – with its famous motto: “Home of the Blues, birthplace of Rock'n'Roll” – presses many emotional buttons.</p>
<h2>Paying respect</h2>
<p>The metropolitan area of Memphis has a population of 1.3m people. About 90 miles to the south–east – a three-hour Greyhound bus journey away – is Tupelo, a small country town with a population of just 36,000. Their Elvis tourism model is much different to Memphis. The executive director of the Elvis Presley Birthplace Museum in Tupelo, Dick Guyton, <a href="http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/17538330911013915">summed up its positioning</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Elvis lived here until he was 13 years old, so he was an unknown little boy when he left Tupelo. He became an international entertainer once he got to Memphis. Memphis takes care of the entertainer Elvis, what we portray here is the unknown Elvis, the little boy Elvis. We don’t have any neon, we don’t have any bright lights, we don’t play any loud music. They want to come where Elvis lived as a child and see where he was born. It wouldn’t be right if we had lights all over the house because it wasn’t like that when he lived there.</p>
</blockquote>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181939/original/file-20170814-14751-ud46uj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181939/original/file-20170814-14751-ud46uj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181939/original/file-20170814-14751-ud46uj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181939/original/file-20170814-14751-ud46uj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181939/original/file-20170814-14751-ud46uj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181939/original/file-20170814-14751-ud46uj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181939/original/file-20170814-14751-ud46uj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Humble beginnings: Elvis Presley’s birthplace at Tupelo in Mississippi.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Markuskun via Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The site has his boyhood home, next to a small museum and a chapel playing Elvis’s gospel songs: quiet, tranquil and lovely. On the site there is also the small relocated Assembly of God church where Elvis sang southern gospel as a boy and whose pastor taught him basic guitar chords.</p>
<p>Fans celebrating major anniversaries is a key element of music tourism, part of the process of remembering times past. More than 100,000 visitors are <a href="http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/5657692/thousands-gather-in-memphis-to-honor-elvis-presley-at-graceland-vigil">expected to attend</a> the Elvis Presley week in Memphis on the 40th anniversary of his death. And so the legacy of Elvis lives on and grows.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/82290/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Leaver does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Music tourism is becoming an increasingly big business. As you’d expect, Elvis is at the forefront of that industry.David Leaver, Senior Lecturer, Manchester Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/822912017-08-10T13:07:27Z2017-08-10T13:07:27ZGlen Campbell combined rural grit and urban sheen to straddle American music like a Rhinestone Cowboy<p>The American singer Glen Campbell did not care for musical boundaries. He probably enjoyed hearing The Meters, doyens of New Orleans funk, covering <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fznkErpyLRc">Wichita Lineman</a>, as much as he enjoyed performing a slow, country-tinged version of Foo Fighters’ rock anthem, <a href="https://youtu.be/qVJ2B2itVfU?t=23s">Times Like These</a>. </p>
<p>Because Campbell, who has <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/country/news/glen-campbell-dead-at-81">died at the age of 81</a>, had a particular role in American popular music. Without doubt, he was a mainstream artist – but he eschewed middle-of-the-road status by driving right across it.</p>
<p>The lynchpin of his fame was the straddling of country and pop, notably on his trio of hits with songwriter Jimmy Webb in the late 1960s – By The Time I Get To Phoenix; Galveston, and Wichita Lineman – and, later on, Rhinestone Cowboy. Indeed, his abundant skill as an interpreter led in 1967 (the year of the “Summer of Love”) to <a href="https://www.grammy.com/grammys/awards/10th-annual-grammy-awards">Grammy Awards</a> for vocal performance in both the country and contemporary categories, for Gentle On My Mind and By The Time I Get To Phoenix respectively.</p>
<p>But his appeal as a vocalist belied a far broader hinterland and skill set. Growing up in small town Arkansas, his key influences included the fiery jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt. Campbell was a prodigiously talented and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4PEf7yYCZE">versatile guitarist</a> and after working through country bands and Western Swing – a combination of country and jazz – he moved to Los Angeles in 1960 to become a sought-after session player. </p>
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<p>There he was a member of the “<a href="http://www.wreckingcrewfilm.com/index.php">Wrecking Crew</a>”, a group of musicians who dominated the session scene in the 1960s and early 1970s. Campbell’s work as a guitarist graced the work of Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and The Monkees. He played on The Beach Boys’ seminal Pet Sounds album, and stood in with falsetto vocals for a run-down Brian Wilson when the band toured. </p>
<h2>Cross country</h2>
<p>This blend of rural grit and West Coast production sophistication informed his own hits, allowing for an appeal that traversed country and pop audiences. And although he credited the success of his collaboration with Jimmy Webb to the fact that they had grown up near one another (Webb was from Oklahoma), it also resided in their ability to convey country sentiments beyond that genre.</p>
<p>Campbell’s legacy lies not just in the breadth of his work but in combining different versions of “America” into his songs. Places such as Galveston, in Texas, had not been part of the mythical language of American pop and rock. But he gave them an emotional resonance which added a universal dimension to his music, threading a sense of country traditionalism through a glossier pop product. </p>
<p>He eschewed the “bad boy” public persona of other country stars including Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard in his music. But his personal life was stormy, and riven at times with alcohol and drug dependency. While Cash and others wore their demons on the sleeve as part of their musical identity, Campbell’s version of authenticity resided not in rebel credentials but in a dedication to musical craft, finely honed songs and impeccable delivery – the rhinestones on the cowboy. </p>
<p>It was a professional veneer, alongside his easy-going manner and square-jawed look, which also saw him break into movies, including a role alongside John Wayne in <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065126/">True Grit</a>, and host his own television show. </p>
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<p>This meant there were contractions. Despite charting with Buffy Saint-Marie’s anti-war song Universal Soldier, he decried anyone unwilling to fight for their country as “<a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03007769908591755?journalCode=rpms20">not a real man</a>”. Likewise, Webb and Campbell differed in their view of their hit Galveston, in which the protagonist dreams of his Texas home from the battlefield. Campbell gave it a patriotic sheen, which Webb, its composer, shied away from. </p>
<p>Despite telling Billboard magazine in 1970 that he wasn’t interested in getting “mixed up in politics”, Campbell’s conservative leanings included public statements in support of Ronald Reagan and an appearance at the Republican president’s inauguration. But it rarely seemed a priority for Campbell. The music and entertainment came first.</p>
<h2>True grit</h2>
<p>It was this flexibility – and ultimately his disregard for genre boundaries – that stoked his lasting appeal among subsequent generations of musicians as well as his peers. His 2011 album <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/CDs-Vinyl/Ghost-Canvas-Glen-Campbell/B0057P2Q14">Ghost on the Canvas</a> featured contributions from the likes of Chris Isaak and Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan, and songs by alternative rock writers like The Replacements’ Paul Westerberg and Guided by Voices’ Robert Pollard. </p>
<p>Prioritising the musicality of the song, whatever its origins, allowed Campbell to project a version of America that bridged rural and urban, merging rather than crossing over. In the process, he sidestepped some of the potentially divisive or troubling aspects of his routine as an entertainer to pull his various influences into an aesthetic that drew from staid patriotism through the Great American Songbook and could speak to the cosmopolitan . </p>
<p>The term “middle-of-the-road” can carry pejorative connotations. But there’s scope for individuality and distinctiveness there, too, which Campbell leveraged his consummate musicianship towards. For him, it was less a compromise than a clear path.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/82291/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adam Behr receives funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council</span></em></p>The singer was not ‘middle of the road’. He was a bridge across it.Adam Behr, Lecturer in Popular and Contemporary Music, Newcastle UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/736812017-04-02T19:23:09Z2017-04-02T19:23:09ZGuide to the classics: Neil Gaiman’s American Gods<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161110/original/image-20170316-10911-1d0qtvq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Yggdrasil, the tree that supports the world in Norse myth, can be found in America in Neil Gaiman's mash-up of world religion.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Starz</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Fans of Neil Gaiman are having a bountiful year. In February there was the release of his <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30809689-norse-mythology">retelling of the Norse myths</a>. In March, Dark Horse released the <a href="https://comicsverse.com/american-gods-1-review/">comic book adaptation</a> of his influential 2001 novel <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30165203-american-gods">American Gods</a>. And this month, American Gods comes to the <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1898069/">small screen</a>, released through Starz.</p>
<p>If you like your literary gods multiple and varied, from cultures galore, in a controlled riot of power, fear, wit, and wisdom, then American Gods is for you. </p>
<p>Its premise is one of the book’s many appeals: the United States contains all sorts of ancient gods from abroad, surviving in the myths and stories and imaginations of the immigrants who brought them there. It’s a novel that investigates the American condition through its beliefs, and its contradictions, and offers the idea that gods walk among us (if we only know where to look for them).</p>
<h2>‘All the tradition we can get’</h2>
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<p>In American Gods, a man named Shadow is released from prison when his wife dies in a car accident. As he travels home, he falls in with Mr Wednesday, a mysterious grifter, who offers him a job as a bodyguard. When he accepts the offer, they seal the deal by drinking mead, the honey-wine that is the drink of Norse gods and warriors. “We need all the tradition we can get,” says Wednesday, referring to the seriousness of their deal, but also to the key concept of the novel.</p>
<p>It emerges that Wednesday is really the Norse god, Odin, drawn to the US by Viking voyagers. “Tradition,” in the form of old gods like Odin, is under threat, he tells Shadow. People don’t believe in old gods any more; they’re too busy worshipping new gods, or concepts, like cities and towns, roads and rails, high finance, media, and digital technology. As an “old” god, Wednesday is preparing to do battle with the new ones. A god who is not believed in suffers a particularly final form of death.</p>
<p>With Shadow in tow, Wednesday traverses the US, calling the old gods to action, convincing them to gather and fight enemies like Mr Town and Media.</p>
<p>They call on Czernobog, the Bulgarian god of darkness, who lives in Chicago with the Zorya star sisters of Morning, Evening and Night. And Easter, the German goddess of fertility and rebirth, in whose footsteps flowers bloom, who is living in San Francisco. Mr Jacquel, the Egyptian god Anubis, runs a funeral parlour with his partner Ibis (the god Thoth), in Cairo, Illinois. Mr Nancy, Anansi the African spider-trickster god, and Mad Sweeney, an original Irish leprechaun, appear from time to time, as do many others.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161107/original/image-20170316-10892-13lhj47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161107/original/image-20170316-10892-13lhj47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161107/original/image-20170316-10892-13lhj47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161107/original/image-20170316-10892-13lhj47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161107/original/image-20170316-10892-13lhj47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161107/original/image-20170316-10892-13lhj47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161107/original/image-20170316-10892-13lhj47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161107/original/image-20170316-10892-13lhj47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Wednesday (Ian McShane) and Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle) in the 2017 adaption of American Gods.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Starz</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>From Haitian Voodoo figures to Hungarian Kobbolds this America is inhabited by a panoply of old gods. It’s symbolic of the elaborate tapestry of heritage that makes up a nation that prides itself on its newness, but is uneasily aware of its traditions. As Shadow crosses America, he reflects on these ironies, as well as the local quirks he observes, slotting them into an increasing sense of the nation’s variety and commonalities.</p>
<p>Interspersed throughout American Gods are extracts from a history, ostensibly written by Mr Ibis (the Old Egyptian God, Thoth). These extracts tell how other gods and mythical beings make their way to the US, in the beliefs and stories of different culture. There’s Essie Tregowan, a Cornish con-artist who is transported to America, and who brings with her the piskies of her youth, or Salim, a taxi-driver from Oman who becomes a jinn. Postmodern novels often use approaches like this to broaden the range of reference; these inset stories provide a neat way of exploring different gods and myths as they connect to Gaiman’s America. </p>
<p>While American Gods is a serious reflection on the nature of American culture, its most appealing aspect is the concept that the gods live among Americans, hiding in plain sight. </p>
<p>This is the key to American Gods’ continued popularity, I think: it offers the fantasy, the hope, (or the fear) that our reality is merely one plane of existence, that just out of sight, or in plain sight if we choose to look, is something bigger, something mythical, something more powerful.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161101/original/image-20170316-20774-1qde74x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161101/original/image-20170316-20774-1qde74x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161101/original/image-20170316-20774-1qde74x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161101/original/image-20170316-20774-1qde74x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161101/original/image-20170316-20774-1qde74x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161101/original/image-20170316-20774-1qde74x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161101/original/image-20170316-20774-1qde74x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161101/original/image-20170316-20774-1qde74x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Shadow Moon crosses America, gathering its tapestry of heritage.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Starz</span></span>
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<p>And if you know how to find them, you have the opportunity to collect them, as Wednesday and Shadow do, to gather them together for a final battle, much as one might in an epic game of Dungeons and Dragons, or a supernatural round of <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-pokemon-go-became-an-instant-phenomenon-62412">Pokemon Go</a>.</p>
<h2>I do believe in fairies</h2>
<p>Gaiman is not alone in exploring the power of belief and fantasy to keep the gods alive. It’s a theme that never quite goes away: witness JM Barrie’s comment in <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/26654/26654-h/26654-h.htm">Peter and Wendy</a> (1908):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Every time a child says, ‘I don’t believe in fairies,’ there is a fairy somewhere that falls down dead.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In Michael Ende’s <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27712.The_Neverending_Story">The Neverending Story</a> (1979), eroding belief in fiction is killing an imaginary kingdom called Fantasia, until an ideal child reader can bring it back to life. In contrast are Terry Pratchett’s piling of myth upon myth in the hugely popular <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-beginners-guide-to-terry-pratchetts-discworld-55220">Discworld series</a>, or Rick Riordan’s recasting of the Perseus myth in the <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28187.The_Lightning_Thief">Percy Jackson series</a>. All play in different ways with ideas about mythology, the role of belief, and the endurance of ancient ideas about power and creation.</p>
<p>In American Gods, Gaiman contrasts belief in the old gods with the flattening, meaningless forms of new media and digital technologies. But a lot has changed since June 2001 – not least the continuing evolution of the internet – which has turned into the ideal tool for reinvigorating and investigating them. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161104/original/image-20170316-20784-514etr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161104/original/image-20170316-20784-514etr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161104/original/image-20170316-20784-514etr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161104/original/image-20170316-20784-514etr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161104/original/image-20170316-20784-514etr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161104/original/image-20170316-20784-514etr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161104/original/image-20170316-20784-514etr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161104/original/image-20170316-20784-514etr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A new god, Technical Boy, played by Bruce Langley.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Starz</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>From <a href="http://aom.heavengames.com/">online gaming communities</a>, to <a href="http://mythology.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page">exhaustive wikis</a>, to the project I’m currently involved in, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/OurMythicalChildhood/?hc_location=ufi">Our Mythical Childhood</a>, which gathers and analyses the retellings of classical myth and culture in children’s texts around the world, people interested in mythlore are finding ways to think about myth using technology. </p>
<p>We like observing the gods, exploring their powers, telling their stories in different ways, collecting them, arranging them, playing with them. We seem to like all the tradition we can get, even on the most cutting edge of technological advancement.</p>
<h2>‘Right angles to reality’</h2>
<p>American Gods is a response to the perceived flat soullessness of a tech-heavy, media-heavy, corporatised, citified, sophisticated world. Divorced from the old gods, which symbolise the meaningful association with life and the land, Wednesday wonders what hope is there for society. </p>
<p>And yet, it emerges that Mr Wednesday is as much of a soulless con-artist as any of the new gods he despises, manipulating the battle for his own power. It takes an act of real, primal sacrifice on Shadow’s part to let him to see through the con, and understand that, when it comes down to it, as a human, all you have is yourself:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>You know, I think I would rather be a man than a god. We don’t need anyone to believe in us. We just keep going anyhow. It’s what we do.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Though the advertisements for the upcoming television series exhort viewers to “Believe,” the response might well be: “Believe in what?”</p>
<p>In the novel, it is the land that eclipses gods and men, as Whiskey Jack, the Native American trickster spirit, tells Shadow after the battle is over:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Listen, gods die when they are forgotten. People too. But the land’s still here. The good places, and the bad. The land isn’t going anywhere.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Believe in the land, then. Gaiman’s novel finds its power in the land, in the people’s relation to the land, in the quirky, carnivalesque, homespun totems and places of power he nominates as places to overlay his web of mythicalism. This is the ultimate appeal of American Gods: the idea that all you have to do is find the places of power. </p>
<p>In this novel they are out-of-the-way carnivalesque sites carved into rock-faces, such as Tennessee’s <a href="http://www.seerockcity.com/">Rock City</a> and Illinois’ <a href="http://www.travelwisconsin.com/entertainment-and-attractions/house-on-the-rock-attraction-203820">House on the Rock</a> (both real-life American tourist attractions).</p>
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<span class="caption">Gaiman turns the surreal – and highly popular – House on the Rock attraction into an all-American place of power.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">House on the Rock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To access the mythical plane, go to places like these, and turn at “right angles to reality” (easier said than done, but at least Gaiman gives us the clue). That’s the ultimate point of novels like this, which invest reality with mythology, magic or fantasy: the promise of finding out the true story lying beneath the surface, the secret to the universe. </p>
<p>This book, beyond collecting, analysing, and arranging American gods, is an examination of power – what is real power, and what is not. “Mythologies,” <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24331386-the-view-from-the-cheap-seats">Gaiman said</a>, round about the time he must have been mulling over American Gods, “have always fascinated me. Why we have them. Why we need them. Whether they need us.”</p>
<p>It will be interesting to see what the TV adaptation does with American Gods, whether it takes on this questioning. But the questioning may also have changed. The novel was published in June 2001, and the Western world turned sharply at right angles to itself not long after. </p>
<p>One new element of the adaptation, preview writers have noticed already, is the addition of <a href="http://comicbook.com/2016/12/22/american-gods-first-look-at-corbin-bernsen-as-vulcan/">Vulcan</a>, the Roman God of metallurgy and weaponry. It’s a highly appropriate comment on an America now more than ever in the grip of gun-ownership, and intriguingly it adds a figure from the classical Roman pantheon, missing from the original. Adaptations always move the conversation on a little. Perhaps the gods, too, move with the times.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73681/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth Hale has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 681202.
</span></em></p>American Gods imagines a US where ancient gods exist at “right angles to reality”, asking why we have mythologies and why we need them.Elizabeth Hale, Senior Lecturer in English and Writing (children's literature), University of New EnglandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.