Amusing the Million: Coney Island at the Turn of the Century
by John F. Kasson
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Description
Coney Island: the name still resonates with a sense of racy Brooklyn excitement, the echo of beach-front popular entertainment before World War I. Amusing the Million examines the historical context in which Coney Island made its reputation as an amusement park and shows how America's changing social and economic conditions formed the basis of a new mass culture. Exploring it afresh in this way, John Kasson shows Coney Island no longer as the object of nostalgia but as a harbinger of show more modernity - and the many photographs, lithographs, engravings, and other reproductions with which he amplifies his text support this lively thesis. show lessTags
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Interesting history of Coney Island, not much to do with actual amusement park rides etc.
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Author Information
5+ Works 732 Members
John F. Kasson, who teaches history & American studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is the author of "Amusing the Million" (H&W, 1978), "Rudeness & Civility" (H&W, 1990), & "Civilizing the Machine" (H&W, 1999). (Bowker Author Biography)
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Belongs to Publisher Series
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Amusing the Million: Coney Island at the Turn of the Century
- Original publication date
- 1978
- Important places
- Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York, New York, USA
- Important events
- World War I
- Dedication
- For Joy
who helped immeasurably in the writing
and for Peter
who can look at the pictures - First words
- Coney Island: the name still resonates with a sense of excitement, the echo of an earlier age.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)A harbinger of the new mass culture, Coney Island lost its distinctiveness by the very triumph of its values.
- Blurbers
- Cawelti, John G.; Susman, Warren; Nye, Russel B.
- Original language
- English
Classifications
- Genres
- Nonfiction, History, Sociology, Anthropology, General Nonfiction
- DDC/MDS
- 301.2974723 — Society, government, & culture Social sciences, sociology & anthropology Sociology and anthropology Formerly: Culture and cultural processes Ethnography, By Region North America
- LCC
- F129 .C75 .K37 — Local History of the United States, Canada and Latin America United States local history New York
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 273
- Popularity
- 118,314
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.80)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 3
- ASINs
- 2
