Author: Brooks Blevins
Publisher: University of Arkansas Press
ISBN: 161075042X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 258
Get Book Here
Book Description
What do Scott Joplin, John Grisham, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Maya Angelou, Brooks Robinson, Helen Gurley Brown, Johnny Cash, Alan Ladd, and Sonny Boy Williamson have in common? They’re all Arkansans. What do hillbillies, rednecks, slow trains, bare feet, moonshine, and double-wides have in common? For many in America these represent Arkansas more than any Arkansas success stories do. In 1931 H. L. Mencken described AR (not AK, folks) as the “apex of moronia.” While, in 1942 a Time magazine article said Arkansas had “developed a mass inferiority complex unique in American history.” Arkansas/Arkansaw is the first book to explain how Arkansas’s image began and how the popular culture stereotypes have been perpetuated and altered through succeeding generations. Brooks Blevins argues that the image has not always been a bad one. He discusses travel accounts, literature, radio programs, movies, and television shows that give a very positive image of the Natural State. From territorial accounts of the Creole inhabitants of the Mississippi River Valley to national derision of the state’s triple-wide governor’s mansion to Li’l Abner, the Beverly Hillbillies, and Slingblade, Blevins leads readers on an entertaining and insightful tour through more than two centuries of the idea of Arkansas. One discovers along the way how one state becomes simultaneously a punch line and a source of admiration for progressives and social critics alike. Winner, 2011 Ragsdale Award
Author: Steven Teske
Publisher: Butler Center Books
ISBN: 1935106473
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 185
Get Book Here
Book Description
A man squanders his family fortune until he is penniless, loses every time he runs for public office, and yet is so admired by the people of Arkansas that the General Assembly names a county in his honor. A renowned writer makes her home in the basement of a museum until she is sued by some of the most prominent women of the state regarding the use of the rooms upstairs. A brilliant inventor who nearly built the first airplane is also vilified for his eccentricity and possible madness. Author Steven Teske rummages through Arkansas’s colorful past to find--and "unvarnish"--some of the state’s most controversial and fascinating figures. The nine people featured in this collection are not the most celebrated products of Arkansas. More than half of them were not even born in Arkansas, although all of them lived in Arkansas and contributed to its history and culture. But each of them has achieved a certain stature in local folklore, if not in the story of the state as a whole.
Author: Raymond Arsenault
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 360
Get Book Here
Book Description
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Agriculture
Languages : en
Pages : 170
Get Book Here
Book Description
Author: Arkansas Library Commission
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Arkansas
Languages : en
Pages : 244
Get Book Here
Book Description
Author: James Raymond Masterson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : American wit and humor
Languages : en
Pages : 472
Get Book Here
Book Description
Author: Jennette Reid Tandy
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 206
Get Book Here
Book Description
Author: Jim P. Matthews
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Arkansas
Languages : en
Pages : 36
Get Book Here
Book Description
Author: Thomas Payne Thompson
Publisher: New Orleans : Press of Perry & Buckley Company
ISBN:
Category : America
Languages : en
Pages : 228
Get Book Here
Book Description
Author: Corvus Brachyrhynchos
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 0595521770
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 74
Get Book Here
Book Description
During the Hellenistic period you couldn't swing a dead cat three feet in any direction without hitting a verbose, toga-wearing, wine-swilling philosopher in the back of the head. However, since that golden era of logical thought, philosophizing has been in a state of decline. The sole purpose of this book is to take Americans back to a sweeter time when philosophical questions were not only politely asked, they were damn well answered! Why do scientists love monkeys? How can we make fortune cookies better? Does Oprah need shock collars for her guests? What is a love chicken? Why buy your kids from Wal-Mart? Why do vampires hate lamb with mint jelly? What is hu-falf? Why serve death row inmates take-out from Outback Steakhouse? When is it acceptable to dress a dictator in a bull suit? Why do we need to save the beautiful ski people of Aspen? This book addresses the questions that Americans never imagined they'd ever have to ask, much less answer. The text, written entirely by a crow, breaks down the philosophical underpinnings behind American culture and elucidates life in an entertaining, unusual, easy-to-understand way that explains the phenomena and evolution of American philosophy.
