American Prophet

The Life and Work of Carey McWilliams
1. Auflage, with a Foreword by Mike Davis Auflage 2019
ISBN: 978-0-520-30429-1
Verlag: University of California Press

Buch, Englisch, 354 Seiten, Trade Paperback, Format (B × H): 154 mm x 228 mm, Gewicht: 525 g

“A fascinating portrait of activism deepened and sustained by Herculean labors of research and investigation.”—The Nation

Historian Kevin Starr described Carey McWilliams as "the finest nonfiction writer on California—ever" and "the state's most astute political observer." But as Peter Richardson argues, McWilliams was also one of the nation's most versatile and productive public intellectuals of his time. 

Richardson's absorbing and elegant biography traces McWilliams's extraordinary life and career. Drawing from a wide range of sources, it explores his childhood on a Colorado cattle ranch, his early literary journalism in Los Angeles, his remarkable legal and political activism, his stint in state government, the explosion of first-rate books between 1939 and 1950, and his editorial leadership at The Nation. Along the way, it also documents McWilliams's influence on a wide range of key figures, including Cesar Chavez, Hunter S. Thompson, Mike Davis, screenwriter Robert Towne, playwright Luis Valdez, and historian Patricia Limerick.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Richardson, Peter

Weitere Mitwirkende

Davis, Mike

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften Medienwissenschaften Mediengeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Amerikanische Geschichte Regionalgeschichte der USA: Einzelne Staaten, Städte
• Sozialwissenschaften Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften Medienwissenschaften Journalismus & Presse
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Ideologien Marxismus, Kommunismus
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtswissenschaft Allgemein Biographien & Autobiographien: Historisch, Politisch, Militärisch

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Foreword by Mike Davis
Preface
Acknowledgments

Chapter 1 COLORADO
The Collapse

Chapter 2 INFINITE REVOLT
Life at the Times  H. L. Mencken  Law & Literature  George Sterling
Provincial Life  Mary Austin  Making the Scene in Los Angeles
Dorothy Hedrick  The Bierce Biography

Chapter 3 THE POLITICAL TURN
The Seeds of Activism  The Great Depression  Louis Adamic & Shadow-
America  The “Anti-Fascist Phase”  Labor Organizing  Factories
in the Field

Chapter 4 PUBLIC SERVICE
The Writer as Bureaucrat  Prelude to an Inquisition  The War and
Japanese Internment  Brothers Under the Skin  Sleepy Lagoon 
The Zoot Suit Riots The Tenney Committee
Once More the Japanese Evacuation

Chapter 5 THE GREAT EXCEPTION
An Island on the Land  The Campaign Continues  Brothers Under the
Skin—The Sequels  The California Culmination  A Savage and
Depressing Year  Witch Hunt  Surveillance & Its Discontents

Chapter 6 THE VILE DECADE
The Nation at War  Leaving Los Angeles  The Cold War Casualties
Defending Civil Liberties  The Fall of McCarthy  Carey McWilliams, Editor
Civil Rights Redux  Curtain Calls in California

Chapter 7 THE AGE OF NIXON
Watching the Republicans  The New Generation  Back at the Ranch
Before the Revolution  The New Left  Vietnam  The New Nixon
Living in the Ruins  Summing Up

Chapter 8 MOVING ON
After the Nation  The Reluctant Hero  Illness
The Education of Carey McWilliams  Back in California

Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Peter Richardson teaches humanities and American studies at San Francisco State University. His books include A Bomb in Every Issue: How the Short, Unruly Life of Ramparts Magazine Changed America and No Simple Highway: A Cultural History of the Grateful Dead.