When a master forger and his brother get lost in the corporate bloat of a major toy company, they quickly realize that incredible amounts of money could be made through patent manipulation and fake identities. After betting a million dollars for the 1985 Chicago Bears to take it all, he transforms his winnings exponentially through the stock market, becoming a multi-billionaire. After the McCaskey’s put their team up for sale, Max bids, they accept, and the new owner takes drastic measures in order to both bring a Lombardi trophy back to Chicago and purposefully steer his favorite sport in a much better direction than where it is currently heading.
The lives of a teenager, a schizophrenic, and career criminal all intervene in this action adventure novel set in the late 20th century. Enlisted in the U.S. Army, a man is stationed on watch duty for a top-secret facility; once discharged, he searches down south for a fellow soldier who went AWOL, where he begins to question his reality as his schizophrenia intensifies. After reuniting with a family member, he returns home, only to have his life spin out of control through crime and drug use in his never-ending search for a man who may or may not even exist.
In 1940 and 1941 a group of ruthless gangsters from Brooklyn’s Brownsville neighborhood became the focus of media frenzy when they—dubbed “Murder Inc.,” by New York World-Telegram reporter Harry Feeney—were tried for murder. It is estimated that collectively they killed hundreds of people during a reign of terror that lasted from 1931 to 1940. As the trial played out to a packed courtroom, shocked spectators gasped at the outrageous revelations made by gang leader Abe “Kid Twist” Reles and his pack of criminal accomplices. News of the trial proliferated throughout the country; at times it received more newspaper coverage than the unabated war being waged overseas. The heinous crimes attributed to Murder, Inc., included not only murder and torture but also auto theft, burglary, assaults, robberies, fencing stolen goods, distribution of illegal drugs, and just about any “illegal activity from which a revenue could be derived.” When the trial finally came to a stunning unresolved conclusion in November 1941, newspapers generated record headlines. Once the trial was over, tales of the Murder, Inc., gang became legendary, spawning countless books and memoirs and providing inspiration for the Hollywood gangster-movie genre. These men were fearsome brutes with an astonishing ability to wield power. People were fascinated by the “gangster” figure, which had become a symbol for moral evil and contempt and whose popularity showed no signs of abating. As both a study in criminal behavior and a cultural fascination that continues to permeate modern society, the reverberations of “Murder, Inc.” are profound, including references in contemporary mass media. The Murder, Inc., story is as much a tale of morality as it is a gangster history, and Murder, Inc., and the Moral Life by Robert Whalen meshes both topics clearly and meticulously, relating the gangster phenomenon to modern moral theory. Each chapter covers an aspect of the Murder, Inc., case and reflects on its ethical elements and consequences. Whalen delves into the background of the criminals involved, their motives, and the violent death that surrounded them; New York City’s immigrant gang culture and its role as “Gangster City”; fiery politicians Fiorello La Guardia and Thomas E. Dewey and the choices they made to clean up the city; and the role of the gangster in popular culture and how it relates to “real life.” Whalen puts a fresh spin on the two topics, providing a vivid narrative with both historical and moral perspective.
A new look at a beloved classic film that explores the philosophical dynamics of Casablanca Celebrating its eightieth anniversary this year, Casablanca remains one of the world’s most enduringly favorite movies. It won three Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. It is still commonly quoted: “We’ll always have Paris” and “Here’s looking at you, kid” And who can forget, “You must remember this...a kiss is just a kiss.” Yet no one expected much to come of this little film, certainly not its blockbuster stars or even the studio producing it. So how did this hastily cranked-out 1940s film, despite its many limitations, become one of the greatest films ever made? How is it that year after year, decade after decade, it continues to appear in the lists of the greatest movies ever produced? And why do audiences still weep when Rick and Ilsa part? The answer, according to Casablanca’s Conscience, is to paraphrase Rick, “It’s true.” Much has already been written about the film and the career-defining performances of Bogart and Bergman. Casablanca is an epic tale of love, betrayal, and sacrifice set against the backdrop of World War II. Yet decades later, it continues to capture the imagination of filmgoers. In Casablanca’s Conscience, author Robert Weldon Whalen explains why it still resonates so deeply. Applying a new lens to an old classic, Whalen focuses on the film’s timeless themes—Exile, Purgatory, Irony, Love, Resistance, and Memory. He then engages the fictional characters—Rick, Ilsa, and the others—against the philosophical and theological discourse of their real contemporaries, Hannah Arendt, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Albert Camus. The relationships between fictional and historical persons illuminate both the film’s era as well as perennial human concerns. Both the film and the work of the philosophers explore dimensions of the human experience, which, while extreme, are familiar to everyone. It’s the themes that resonate with the viewer, that have sustained it as an evergreen classic all these years.
James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938) exemplified the ideal of the American public intellectual as a writer, educator, songwriter, diplomat, key figure of the Harlem Renaissance, and first African American executive of the NAACP. Originally published anonymously in 1912, Johnson’s novel The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man is considered one of the foundational works of twentieth-century African American literature, and its themes and forms have been taken up by other writers, from Ralph Ellison to Teju Cole. Johnson’s novel provocatively engages with political and cultural strains still prevalent in American discourse today, and it remains in print over a century after its initial publication. New Perspectives contains fresh essays that analyze the book’s reverberations, the contexts within which it was created and received, the aesthetic and intellectual developments of its author, and its continuing influence on American literature and global culture. Contributors: Bruce Barnhart, Lori Brooks, Ben Glaser, Jeff Karem, Daphne Lamothe, Noelle Morrissette, Michael Nowlin, Lawrence J. Oliver, Diana Paulin, Amritjit Singh, Robert B. Stepto
Students of modernism, the arts, and European cultural history will find that Sacred Spring offers an intriguing perspective on their subjects. The book will also appeal to readers interested in the intersection of culture and faith, in the connection between the arts and the sacred."--BOOK JACKET.
The southern textile strikes of 1929-1931 were ferocious struggles--thousands of millhands went on strike, the National Guard was deployed, several people were killed and hundreds injured and jailed. The southern press, and for a time the national press, covered the story in enormous detail. In recounting developments, southern reporters and editors found themselves swept up on a painful and sweeping re-examination and reconstruction of southern institutions and values. Whalen explores the largely unknown world of southern journalism and investigates the ways in which the upheaval in textiles triggered profound soul-searching among southerners. The southern textile strikes of 1929-1931 were ferocious struggles--thousands of millhands went on strike, the National Guard was deployed, several people were killed and hundreds injured and jailed. The southern press, and for a time the national press, covered the story in enormous detail. In recounting developments, southern reporters and editors found themselves swept up on a painful and sweeping re-examination and reconstruction of southern institutions and values. Whalen explores the largely unknown world of southern journalism and investigates the ways in which the upheaval in textiles triggered profound soul-searching among southerners. The worlds of labor, journalism, and the American South collide in this study. That collision, Whalen claims, is the prelude to the stunning social, economic, and cultural transformation of the American South which occurred in the last half of the twentieth century. The textile strikes shocked the mind of the South, a fact that can readily be seen in hometown papers, as reporters and editors ran the gamut from denial and scheming to hoping and dreaming--sometimes even bravely confronting the truth. The reevaluation of southern manners and mores that would culminate in the Civil Rights struggles of the 1950s and 1960s can be dated back to this period of turmoil.
For Hank Weldon, life has gone straight downhill. With the death of his wife and child, he turns to liquor to soothe his sorrow. Now he must pay the price as he is dismissed from the New York City Police Department. He takes on a new life as a private detective, and everything has a mundane routine. All this ends when a Russian gangster asks him to find his missing fiance. In a flash, he finds himself in the middle of a murder mystery in which he becomes the prime suspect.
Breaking up is easy. Anyone can do it. It's what happens next that's hard, as thirty-something slacker, Bill Mason, finds out after he quits both his job and his girlfriend, Georgie, in one impulsive afternoon. As the consequences of his actions catch up with him Bill finds himself caught between manhood and mousedom. Can he answer the big questions? Does he have what it takes to change, to find new love with Amberley, or will he continue to view his life through pizza-tinted glasses? Should he buy a new washing machine, or 500 pairs of cheap underpants? Is it ever OK to use a friend's toothbrush to clean dog do off your shoe? This brilliant debut is the darkly humorous tale of one man's battle to be just that: a man. This is an emotionally sensitive work of bloke-lit at times reminiscent of a Nick Hornby novel, albeit a very Australian one - David Sornig author of Spiel Weldon is a natural storyteller, the kind of guy that you would enjoy listening to at the pub - author of Shakespeare: the Most Famous Man in London
The culture of fin siecle Vienna continues to fascinate and has been examined at length. There are indeed massive studies of Freud, Mahler, Loos, Klimt, and many other notables from that era. But these studies often ignore the religious dimension of Viennese modernist culture, implying -- if not arguing outright -- that "modernism" and "religion" are contrary, even hostile, categories. Taking a different tack, Robert Weldon Whalen in Sacred Spring documents the important thesis that Viennese modernism, far from being secular, was in fact a deeply religious movement. In vivid language Whalen examines this era of "being torn apart and rising again," describing those Viennese who were on the cutting edge of modern art and thought. Though the book focuses on avant-garde art, it also connects materials from journalism, popular culture, and contemporary politics in fascinating ways. Students of modernism, the arts, and European cultural history will find that Sacred Spring offers an intriguing, compelling perspective on their subjects. Featuring a beautifully written narrative, the book will also appeal to readers interested in the intersection of culture and faith, in the connection between the arts and the sacred.
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