An editor for The Washington Post's Style section offers a look back on the Miss America pageant as it approaches its 100th anniversary, spotlighting how it has survived decades of social and cultural change and redefined itself alongside evolving ideas of feminism.
A Washington Post style editor’s fascinating and irresistible look back on the Miss America pageant as it approaches its 100th anniversary. The sash. The tears. The glittering crown. And of course, that soaring song. For all its pomp and kitsch, the Miss America pageant is indelibly written into the American story of the past century. From its giddy origins as a summer’s-end tourist draw in Prohibition-era Atlantic City, it blossomed into a televised extravaganza that drew tens of millions of viewers in its heyday and was once considered the highest honor that a young woman could achieve. For two years, Washington Post reporter and editor Amy Argetsinger visited pageants and interviewed former winners and contestants to unveil the hidden world of this iconic institution. There She Was spotlights how the pageant survived decades of social and cultural change, collided with a women’s liberation movement that sought to abolish it, and redefined itself alongside evolving ideas about feminism. For its superstars—Phyllis George, Vanessa Williams, Gretchen Carlson—and for those who never became household names, Miss America was a platform for women to exercise their ambitions and learn brutal lessons about the culture of fame. Spirited and revelatory, There She Was charts the evolution of the American woman, from the Miss America catapulted into advocacy after she was exposed as a survivor of domestic violence to the one who used her crown to launch a congressional campaign; from a 1930s winner who ran away on the night of her crowning to a present-day rock guitarist carving out her place in this world. Argetsinger dissects the scandals and financial turmoil that have repeatedly threatened to kill the pageant—and highlights the unexpected sisterhood of Miss Americas fighting to keep it alive.
Powerful conservative media personality Glenn Beck came to lead his own multimillion-dollar media empire. Hosting programs on CNN and Fox News from 2006 to 2011, Beck later started his own television channel, TheBlaze TV. Subscriptions for the channel exceeded 300,000 in its first year of operation, earning Beck forty million dollars according to the Wall Street Journal. A prodigious author, Beck has topped the New York Times Best Seller List four times. This compelling volume offers a balanced view of this? ?often controversial figure in right-wing politics. Chapters discuss Beck's obscure childhood, his start in television and creating an on-air persona, and his ability to build a media empire.
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