Hobbies
Hobbies

Author: Steven M. Gelber

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 1999-06-25

Total Pages: 396

ISBN-13: 9780231504232

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Whether it's needlepoint or woodworking, collecting stamps or dolls, everyone has a hobby, or is told they need one. But why do we fill our leisure time with the activities we do? And what do our hobbies say about our culture? Steven Gelber here traces the history and significance of hobbies from the mid-nineteenth century through the 1950s. Although hobbies are often touted as a break from work, Gelber demonstrates that they reflect and reproduce the values and activities of the workplace by bringing utilitarian rationality into the home, imitating the economic stratification of the marketplace, and reinforcing traditional gender roles. Drawing on a wide array of social and cultural theory, Hobbies fills a critical gap in American cultural history and provides a compelling new perspective on the meaning of leisure.

Stamping American Memory
Stamping American Memory

Author: Sheila Brennan

Publisher: University of Michigan Press

Published: 2018-06-15

Total Pages: 237

ISBN-13: 0472900846

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Winner of the University of Michigan Press / Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Alliance and Collaboratory (HASTAC) Prize for Notable Work in the Digital Humanities In the age of digital communications, it can be difficult to imagine a time when the meaning and imagery of stamps was politically volatile. While millions of Americans collected stamps from the 1880s to the 1940s, Stamping American Memory is the first scholarly examination of stamp collecting culture and how stamps enabled citizens to engage their federal government in conversations about national life in early-twentieth-century America. By examining the civic conversations that emerged around stamp subjects and imagery, this work brings to light the role that these underexamined historical artifacts have played in carrying political messages. Sheila A. Brennan crafts a fresh synthesis that explores how the US postal service shaped Americans’ concepts of national belonging, citizenship, and race through its commemorative stamp program. Designed to be saved as souvenirs, commemoratives circulated widely and stood as miniature memorials to carefully selected snapshots from the American past that also served the political needs of small interest groups. Stamping American Memory brings together the histories of the US postal service and the federal government, collecting, and philately through the lenses of material culture and memory to make a significant contribution to our understanding of this period in American history.

Crap
Crap

Author: Wendy A. Woloson

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2020-10-05

Total Pages: 405

ISBN-13: 022666449X

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Crap. We all have it. Filling drawers. Overflowing bins and baskets. Proudly displayed or stuffed in boxes in basements and garages. Big and small. Metal, fabric, and a whole lot of plastic. So much crap. Abundant cheap stuff is about as American as it gets. And it turns out these seemingly unimportant consumer goods offer unique insights into ourselves—our values and our desires. In Crap: A History of Cheap Stuff in America, Wendy A. Woloson takes seriously the history of objects that are often cynically-made and easy to dismiss: things not made to last; things we don't really need; things we often don't even really want. Woloson does not mock these ordinary, everyday possessions but seeks to understand them as a way to understand aspects of ourselves, socially, culturally, and economically: Why do we—as individuals and as a culture—possess these things? Where do they come from? Why do we want them? And what is the true cost of owning them? Woloson tells the history of crap from the late eighteenth century up through today, exploring its many categories: gadgets, knickknacks, novelty goods, mass-produced collectibles, giftware, variety store merchandise. As Woloson shows, not all crap is crappy in the same way—bric-a-brac is crappy in a different way from, say, advertising giveaways, which are differently crappy from commemorative plates. Taking on the full brilliant and depressing array of crappy material goods, the book explores the overlooked corners of the American market and mindset, revealing the complexity of our relationship with commodity culture over time. By studying crap rather than finely made material objects, Woloson shows us a new way to truly understand ourselves, our national character, and our collective psyche. For all its problems, and despite its disposability, our crap is us.

Miniature Messages
Miniature Messages

Author: Jack Child

Publisher: Duke University Press

Published: 2008-07-21

Total Pages: 286

ISBN-13: 0822389274

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In Miniature Messages, Jack Child analyzes Latin American postage stamps, revealing the messages about history, culture, and politics encoded in their design and disseminated throughout the world. While postage stamps are a sanctioned product of official government agencies, Child argues that they accumulate popular cultural value and take on new meanings as they circulate in the public sphere. As he demonstrates in this richly illustrated study, the postage stamp conveys many of the contestations and triumphs of Latin American history. Child combines history and political science with philatelic research of nearly forty thousand Latin American stamps. He focuses on Argentina and the Southern Cone, highlighting stamps representing the consolidation of the Argentine republic and those produced under its Peronist regime. He compares Chilean stamps issued by the leftist government of Salvador Allende and by Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship. Considering postage stamps produced under other dictatorial regimes, he examines stamps from the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Paraguay. Child studies how international conflicts have been depicted on the stamps of Argentina, Chile, and Peru, and he pays particular attention to the role of South American and British stamps in establishing claims to the Malvinas/Falkland Islands and to Antarctica. He also covers the cultural and political history of stamps in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Grenada, Mexico, Uruguay, Venezuela and elsewhere. In Miniature Messages, Child finds the political history of modern Latin America in its “tiny posters.”

Sherlock Holmes Jazz Age Parodies and Pastiches I: 1920-1924
Sherlock Holmes Jazz Age Parodies and Pastiches I: 1920-1924

Author: Bill Peschel

Publisher: Peschel Press

Published:

Total Pages: 383

ISBN-13:

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Welcome to 223B Baker Street The debut of Sherlock Holmes in the pages of The Strand magazine introduced one of fiction’s most memorable heroes. Arthur Conan Doyle’s spellbinding tales of mystery and detection, along with Holmes’ deep friendship with Doctor Watson, touched the hearts of fans worldwide, and inspired imitations, parodies, songs, art, even erotica, that continues to this very day. “Sherlock Holmes Jazz Age Parodies and Pastiches I: 1920-1924” collects 38 pieces — short stories, poems, and cartoons — all published during this part of Conan Doyle’s literary career. Included are stories by Dashiell Hammett, Arthur Conan Doyle, and James Thurber. Also included are much of the original art and more than 340 footnotes identifying obscure words, historical figures, and events that readers were familiar with at the time. Peschel Press’ 223B Casebook series — named because they’re “next door” to the original stories — is dedicated to publishing fanfiction created by amateur and professional writers during Conan Doyle’s lifetime. A lifelong fan of mysteries, and Sherlock Holmes in particular, Bill Peschel is a former award-winning journalist living in Hershey. He is the annotator of novels by Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers, three books about poisoner William Palmer, and author of “Writers Gone Wild” from Penguin. Other Books by Bill Peschel and Peschel Press THE 223B CASEBOOK SERIES Sherlock Holmes Victorian Parodies and Pastiches: 1888-1899 Sherlock Holmes Edwardian Parodies and Pastiches I: 1900-1904 Sherlock Holmes Edwardian Parodies and Pastiches II: 1905-1909 Sherlock Holmes Great War Parodies and Pastiches I: 1910-1914 Sherlock Holmes Great War Parodies and Pastiches II: 1915-1919 Sherlock Holmes Jazz Age Parodies and Pastiches I: 1920-1924 Sherlock Holmes Jazz Age Parodies and Pastiches II: 1925-1930 The Early Punch Parodies of Sherlock Holmes THE RUGLEY POISONER TRUE CRIME SERIES The Illustrated Life and Career of William Palmer The Times Report of the Trial of William Palmer The Life and Career of Dr. William Palmer of Rugeley THE COMPLETE, ANNOTATED SERIES The Complete, Annotated Secret Adversary By Agatha Christie The Complete, Annotated Mysterious Affair at Styles By Agatha Christie The Complete, Annotated Whose Body? By Dorothy L. Sayers OTHER BOOKS The Casebook of Twain and Holmes Hell's Casino (Amazon Kindle Worlds) Writers Gone Wild

The Nail in the Skull and Other Victorian Urban Legends
The Nail in the Skull and Other Victorian Urban Legends

Author: Simon Young

Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi

Published: 2022-07-15

Total Pages: 270

ISBN-13: 1496839447

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In the last fifty years, folklorists have amassed an extraordinary corpus of contemporary legends including the “Choking Doberman,” the “Eaten Ticket,” and the “Vanishing Hitchhiker.” But what about the urban legends of the past? These legends and tales have rarely been collected, and when they occasionally appear, they do so as ancestors or precursors of the urban legends of today, rather than as stories in their own right. In The Nail in the Skull and Other Victorian Urban Legends, Simon Young fills this gap for British folklore (and for the wider English-speaking world) of the 1800s. Young introduces seventy Victorian urban legends ranging from “Beetle Eyes” to the “Shoplifter’s Dilemma” and from “Hands in the Muff” to the “Suicide Club.” While a handful of these stories are already known, the vast majority have never been identified, and they have certainly never received scholarly treatment. Young begins the volume with a lengthy introduction assessing nineteenth-century media, emphasizing the importance of the written word to the perpetuation and preservation of these myths. He draws on numerous nineteenth-century books, periodicals, and ephemera, including digitized newspaper archives—particularly the British Newspaper Archive, an exciting new hunting ground for folklorists. The Nail in the Skull and Other Victorian Urban Legends will appeal to an academic audience as well as to anyone who is interested in urban legends.

Neither Snow Nor Rain
Neither Snow Nor Rain

Author: Devin Leonard

Publisher: Open Road + Grove/Atlantic

Published: 2016-05-03

Total Pages: 381

ISBN-13: 0802189970

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“[The] book makes you care what happens to its main protagonist, the U.S. Postal Service itself. And, as such, it leaves you at the end in suspense.” —USA Today Founded by Benjamin Franklin, the United States Postal Service was the information network that bound far-flung Americans together, and yet, it is slowly vanishing. Critics say it is slow and archaic. Mail volume is down. The workforce is shrinking. Post offices are closing. In Neither Snow Nor Rain, journalist Devin Leonard tackles the fascinating, centuries-long history of the USPS, from the first letter carriers through Franklin’s days, when postmasters worked out of their homes and post roads cut new paths through the wilderness. Under Andrew Jackson, the post office was molded into a vast patronage machine, and by the 1870s, over seventy percent of federal employees were postal workers. As the country boomed, USPS aggressively developed new technology, from mobile post offices on railroads and airmail service to mechanical sorting machines and optical character readers. Neither Snow Nor Rain is a rich, multifaceted history, full of remarkable characters, from the stamp-collecting FDR, to the revolutionaries who challenged USPS’s monopoly on mail, to the renegade union members who brought the system—and the country—to a halt in the 1970s. “Delectably readable . . . Leonard’s account offers surprises on almost every other page . . . [and] delivers both the triumphs and travails with clarity, wit and heart.” —Chicago Tribune