William J. Weatherby's Books

Behind the Burnt Cork Mask

Early Blackface Minstrelsy and Antebellum American Popular Culture

By: William John Mahar

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Behind the Burnt Cork Mask

Early Blackface Minstrelsy and Antebellum American Popular Culture

By: William John Mahar

The songs, dances, jokes, parodies, spoofs, and skits of blackface groups such as the Virginia Minstrels and Buckley's Serenaders became wildly popular in antebellum America. Behind the Burnt Cork Mask not only explores the racist practices of these entertainers but considers their performances as troubled representations of ethnicity, class, gender, and culture in the nineteenth century. William J. Mahar's unprecedented archival study of playbills, newspapers, sketches, monologues, and music engages new sources previously not considered in twentieth-century scholarship. More than any other study of its kind, Behind the Burnt Cork Mask investigates the relationships between blackface comedy and other Western genres and traditions; between the music of minstrel shows and its European sources; and between "popular" and "elite" constructions of culture. By locating minstrel performances within their complex sites of production, Mahar offers a significant reassessment of the historiography of the field. Behind the Burnt Cork Mask promises to redefine the study of blackface minstrelsy, charting new directions for future inquiries by scholars in American studies, popular culture, and musicology.

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Page Count

476

Publisher

University of Illinois Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0252066960

ISBN 13

9780252066962

Workers on Arrival

Black Labor in the Making of America

By: Joe William Trotter

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Workers on Arrival

Black Labor in the Making of America

By: Joe William Trotter

An eloquent and essential correction to contemporary discussions of the American working class."—The Nation From the ongoing issues of poverty, health, housing, and employment to the recent upsurge of lethal police-community relations, the black working class stands at the center of perceptions of social and racial conflict today. Journalists and public policy analysts often discuss the black poor as “consumers” rather than “producers,” as “takers” rather than “givers,” and as “liabilities” instead of “assets.” In his engrossing history, Workers on Arrival, Joe William Trotter, Jr., refutes these perceptions by charting the black working class’s vast contributions to the making of America. Covering the last four hundred years since Africans were first brought to Virginia in 1619, Trotter traces the complicated journey of black workers from the transatlantic slave trade to the demise of the industrial order in the twenty-first century. At the center of this compelling, fast-paced narrative are the actual experiences of these African American men and women. A dynamic and vital history of remarkable contributions despite repeated setbacks, Workers on Arrival expands our understanding of America’s economic and industrial growth, its cities, ideas, and institutions, and the real challenges confronting black urban communities today.

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Page Count

322

Publisher

University of California Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0520377516

ISBN 13

9780520377516

Recorded Music in American Life

The Phonograph and Popular Memory, 1890-1945

By: William Howland Kenney

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Recorded Music in American Life

The Phonograph and Popular Memory, 1890-1945

By: William Howland Kenney

Now comes an in-depth cultural history of the phonograph in the United States from 1890 to 1945. William Howland Kenney offers a full account of what he calls "the 78 r.p.m. era"--The formative early decades in which the giants of the record industry reigned supreme in the absence of radio, to the postwar proliferation of independent labels, disk jockeys, and changes in popular taste and opinion.

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Page Count

292

Publisher

Oxford University Press, USA

Published Date

ISBN 10

0195171772

ISBN 13

9780195171778

Building the Black City

The Transformation of American Life

By: Joe William Trotter

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Building the Black City

The Transformation of American Life

By: Joe William Trotter

Building the Black City shows how African Americans built and rebuilt thriving cities for themselves, even as their unpaid and underpaid labor enriched the nation's economic, political, and cultural elites. Covering an incredible range of cities from the North to the South, the East to the West, Joe William Trotter, Jr., traces the growth of Black cities and political power from the preindustrial era to the present. Trotter defines the Black city as a complicated socioeconomic, spiritual, political, and spatial process, unfolding time and again as Black communities carved out urban space against the violent backdrop of recurring assaults on their civil and human rights-including the right to the city. As we illuminate the destructive depths of racial capitalism and how Black people have shaped American culture, politics, and democracy, Building the Black City reminds us that the case for reparations must also include a profound appreciation for the creativity and productivity of African Americans on their own behalf"--

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Page Count

303

Publisher

Univ of California Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0520344413

ISBN 13

9780520344419

Chariots of Fire

A True Story

By: William J. Weatherby

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Chariots of Fire

A True Story

By: William J. Weatherby

The story of two men--Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell who run in the 1924 Olympics to prove something to the world.

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Page Count

180

Publisher

Dell Publishing Company

Published Date

ISBN 10

0440011493

ISBN 13

9780440011491

Book's by William J. Weatherby

Behind the Burnt Cork Mask

Behind the Burnt Cork Mask

Workers on Arrival

Workers on Arrival

Recorded Music in American Life

Recorded Music in American Life

Building the Black City

Building the Black City

Chariots of Fire

Chariots of Fire

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