James P. Kraft's Books

Vegas at Odds

Labor Conflict in a Leisure Economy, 1960–1985

By: James P. Kraft

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Vegas at Odds

Labor Conflict in a Leisure Economy, 1960–1985

By: James P. Kraft

American historians and anyone interested in the history of labor or Las Vegas will find this account highly original, insightful, and even-handed.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

304

Publisher

JHU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

080189865X

ISBN 13

9780801898655

Havoc and Reform

Workplace Disasters in Modern America

By: James P. Kraft

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Havoc and Reform

Workplace Disasters in Modern America

By: James P. Kraft

How disasters—that have wrecked work sites throughout American history, in all parts of the nation and all sectors of the economy—have also inspired policy reform. Workplace disasters have wreaked havoc on countless American workers and their families. They have resulted in widespread death and disability as well as the loss of property and savings. These tragic events have also inspired safety reforms that reshaped labor conditions in ways that partially compensated for death, suffering, and social dislocation. In Havoc and Reform, James P. Kraft encourages readers to think about such disastrous events in new ways. Placing the problem of workplace safety in historical context, Kraft focuses on five catastrophes that shocked the nation in the half century after World War II, a time when service-oriented industries became the nation's leading engines of job growth. Looking to growing areas of economic life in the Western Sunbelt, Kraft touches on the 1947 explosion of the Texas City Monsanto Chemical Company plant, the 1956 airliner collision over the Grand Canyon, the hospital collapses following the 1971 San Fernando earthquake, the 1980 fire at the Las Vegas MGM Grand, and the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Building. These incidents destroyed places of employment that seemed safe and affected a relatively wide range of working people, including highly trained, salaried professionals and blue- and white-collar groups. And each took a toll on the general public, increasing fears that anyone could be in danger of being killed or injured and putting pressure on public officials to prevent similar tragedies in the future. As Kraft considers how these tragedies transformed individual lives and specific work environments, he describes how employees, employers, and public leaders reacted to each event. Presented chronologically, his studies offer a unique and sobering outlook on the rise of a now vital and integral part of the national economy. They also underscore the ubiquity and persistence of workplace disasters in American history while building on and challenging literature about the impact of World War II in the American West. Within a broader frame, they speak to the double-edged nature of modern life.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

271

Publisher

JHU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

142144058X

ISBN 13

9781421440583

Stage to Studio

Musicians and the Sound Revolution, 1890-1950

By: James P. Kraft

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Stage to Studio

Musicians and the Sound Revolution, 1890-1950

By: James P. Kraft

Award for Best Research in the Field of Record Labels or Manufacturers from the Association for Recorded Sound CollectionsWinner of the Kenneth W. Baldridge Prize from the Phi Alpha Theta Honor Society, Hawaii Region Between the late nineteenth and mid-twentieth century, technology transformed the entertainment industry as much as it did such heavy industries as coal and steel. Among those most directly affected were musicians, who had to adapt to successive inventions and refinements in audio technology—from wax cylinders and gramophones to radio and sound films. In this groundbreaking study, James P. Kraft explores the intersection of sound technology, corporate power, and artistic labor during this disruptive period. Kraft begins in the late nineteenth century's "golden age" of musicians, when demand for skilled instrumentalists often exceeded supply, analyzing the conflicts in concert halls, nightclubs, recording studios, radio stations, and Hollywood studios as musicians began to compete not only against their local counterparts but also against highly skilled workers in national "entertainment factories." Kraft offers an illuminating case study in the impact of technology on industry and society—and a provocative chapter in the cultural history of America.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

276

Publisher

JHU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1421429160

ISBN 13

9781421429168

Tell Tchaikovsky the News

Rock 'n' Roll, the Labor Question, and the Musicians' Union, 1942-1968

By: Michael James Roberts

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Tell Tchaikovsky the News

Rock 'n' Roll, the Labor Question, and the Musicians' Union, 1942-1968

By: Michael James Roberts

For two decades after rock music emerged in the 1940s, the American Federation of Musicians (AFM), the oldest and largest labor union representing professional musicians in the United States and Canada, refused to recognize rock 'n' roll as legitimate music or its performers as skilled musicians. The AFM never actively organized rock 'n' roll musicians, although recruiting them would have been in the union's economic interest. In Tell Tchaikovsky the News, Michael James Roberts argues that the reasons that the union failed to act in its own interest lay in its culture, in the opinions of its leadership and elite rank-and-file members. Explaining the bias of union members—most of whom were classical or jazz music performers—against rock music and musicians, Roberts addresses issues of race and class, questions of what qualified someone as a skilled or professional musician, and the threat that records, central to rock 'n' roll, posed to AFM members, who had long privileged live performances. Roberts contends that by rejecting rock 'n' rollers for two decades, the once formidable American Federation of Musicians lost their clout within the music industry.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

277

Publisher

Duke University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0822378833

ISBN 13

9780822378839

Theories of the Soundtrack

By: James Buhler

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Theories of the Soundtrack

By: James Buhler

A theory of the soundtrack is concerned with what belongs to the soundtrack, how a soundtrack is effectively organized, how its status in a multimedia object affects the nature of the object, the tools available for its analysis, and the interpretive regime that the theory mandates for determining the meaning, sense, and structure that sound and music bring to film and other audiovisual media. Beyond that, a theory may also delineate the range of possible uses of sound and music, classify the types of relations that films have used for image and sound, identify the central problems, and reflect on and describe effective uses of sound in film. This book summarizes and critiques major theories of the soundtrack from roughly 1929 until today. Rather than providing an exhaustive historical survey, it sketches out the range of theoretical approaches that have been applied to the soundtrack since the commercial introduction of the sound film. The basic theoretical framework of each approach is presented, taking into account the explicit and implicit claims about the soundtrack and its relation to other theories. The organization is both chronological and topical, the former in that the chapters move steadily from early film theory through models of the classical system to more recent critical theories; the latter in that the chapters highlight central issues for each generation: the problem of film itself, then of image and sound, of adequate analytical-descriptive models, and finally of critical-interpretative models.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

337

Published Date

ISBN 10

0199371075

ISBN 13

9780199371075

Havoc and Reform

Workplace Disasters in Modern America

By: James P. Kraft

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Havoc and Reform

Workplace Disasters in Modern America

By: James P. Kraft

Within a broader frame, they speak to the double-edged nature of modern life.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

271

Publisher

JHU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1421440571

ISBN 13

9781421440576

Stage to Studio

Musicians and the Sound Revolution, 1890-1950

By: James P. Kraft

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Stage to Studio

Musicians and the Sound Revolution, 1890-1950

By: James P. Kraft

Thomas Edison's inventions, so successful commercially, altered the lives of all Americans in the twentieth century. Among those persons most directly affected were artists in the entertainment industry. In this groundbreaking study of musicians and the businesses of recording, broadcasting, and film, James P. Kraft shows how musicians adapted - or tried to adapt - to momentous change and the emerging nexus of corporate power, labor-union muscle, and government regulation that came to define the field.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

255

ISBN 10

1421427591

ISBN 13

9781421427591

Vegas at Odds

Labor Conflict in a Leisure Economy, 1960-1985

By: James P. Kraft

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Vegas at Odds

Labor Conflict in a Leisure Economy, 1960-1985

By: James P. Kraft

The stories of the shadowy networks and wealthy people who bankrolled and sustained Las Vegas's continuous reinvention are well documented in works of scholarship, journalism, and popular culture. Yet no one has studied closely and over a long period of time the dynamics of the workforce -- the casino and hotel workers and their relations with the companies they work for and occasionally strike against. James P. Kraft here explores the rise and changing fortunes of organized and unorganized labor as Las Vegas evolved from a small, somewhat seedy desert oasis into the glitzy tourist destination that it is today. Drawing on scores of interviews, personal and published accounts, and public records, Kraft brings to life the largely behind-the-scenes battles over control of Sin City workplaces between 1960 and 1985. He examines successful and failed organizing drives, struggles over pay and equal rights, and worker grievances and arbitration to show how the resort industry's evolution affected hotel and casino workers. From changes in the political and economic climate to large-scale strikes, backroom negotiations, and individual worker-supervisor confrontations, Kraft explains how Vegas's overwhelmingly service-oriented economy works -- and doesn't work -- for the people and companies who cater to the city's pleasure-seeking visitors. American historians and anyone interested in the history of labor or Las Vegas will find this account highly original, insightful, and even-handed.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

302

Publisher

JHU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0801893577

ISBN 13

9780801893575

Book's by James P. Kraft

Vegas at Odds

Vegas at Odds

Havoc and Reform

Havoc and Reform

Stage to Studio

Stage to Studio

Tell Tchaikovsky the News

Tell Tchaikovsky the News

Theories of the Soundtrack

Theories of the Soundtrack

Havoc and Reform

Havoc and Reform

Stage to Studio

Stage to Studio

Vegas at Odds

Vegas at Odds

Username

Password

Username

Password

Password again

Birthday

Email