The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America
Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America, The
Author: David Hajdu
In the years between the end of World War II and the mid-1950s, American popular culture was first created in the pulpy, boldly illustrated pages of comic books. But no sooner had comics emerged than they were beaten down by mass bonfires, and congressional hearings. This book describes the rise, fall, and rise again of comics.
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PRODUCT INFORMATION
Summary
In the years between the end of World War II and the mid-1950s, American popular culture was first created in the pulpy, boldly illustrated pages of comic books. But no sooner had comics emerged than they were beaten down by mass bonfires, and congressional hearings. This book describes the rise, fall, and rise again of comics.
Description
In the years between the end of World War II and the mid-1950s, American popular culture was first created in the pulpy, boldly illustrated pages of comic books. But no sooner had comics emerged than they were beaten down by mass bonfires, congressional hearings, and a McCarthyish panic over their unmonitored and uncensored content. Esteemed critic David Hajdu vividly evokes the rise, fall, and rise again of comics, in this engrossing history.
Critic Reviews
“To those who think rock 'n' roll created the postwar generation gap, David Hajdu says: Think again. Every page of The Ten-Cent Plague evinces [Hajdu's] zest for the 'aesthetic lawlessness' of comic books and his sympathetic respect for the people who made them. Comic books have grown up, but Hajdu's affectionate portrait of their rowdy adolescence will make readers hope they never lose their impudent edge.”
"* "Marvellous... a staggering well-reported account of the men and women who created the comic book, and the backlash of the 1950's that nearly destroyed it....Hajdu's important book dramatizes an early long forgotten skirmish in the culture wars that half a century later, continue to roil." Jennifer Reese, Entertainment Weekly "To those who think rock 'n' roll created the postwar generation gap, David Hajdu says: Think again. - Wendy Smith, Chicago Tribune"
About the Author
David Hajdu is the author of "Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn" and "Positively 4th Street: The Lives and Times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Farina and Richard Farina," He is the music critic for "The New Republic," and he teaches at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.
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