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The Modern Christmas In America
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Book Synopsis The Modern Christmas in America by : William Waits
Download or read book The Modern Christmas in America written by William Waits and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 1994-10 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An historical survey of American Christmas that describes how the modern holiday emerged. It traces the evolution from years prior to 1880, when people presented one another simple, handmade presents, through the late 19th century when industrialization inundated the celebration with inexpensive "tawdry" trinkets, to today. Includes photographs of store and product advertising. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Book Synopsis The Modern Christmas in America by : William Waits
Download or read book The Modern Christmas in America written by William Waits and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 1994-10-01 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In days of old, Christmas was defined by the custom of exchanging simple handmade gifts. Today, it has become a multi-billion industry, synonymous with commercialism and consumption. How did this transformation occur? In this incisive and engaging examination of how Christmas has evolved since 1880, Waits chronicles the history of the holiday, from its origin to its current form. The book is illustrated with dozens of historical photographs and will be of interest to cultural and social historians alike. Christmas was a relatively modest occasion in the English- speaking world, celebrated by the exchange of modest handmade gifts, until the Victorians invested the holiday with immense significance as part of a larger effort to celebrate home, family, and a mythic past of well-ordered communities. By the late 19th century, Christmas had become a major American festival. Today, it is a multi-billion dollar industry and easily the most important seasonal event of the year. In this survey of the modern American Christmas, William Waits shows us how this holiday emerged, tracing its evolution from the days prior to 1880 when people presented one another with simple crafted presents to the turn of the century when industrialization brought with it waves of inexpensive, tawdry gimcracks. In the early twentieth century, reform-minded Americans reflecting on the new Christmas prompted a backlash against this cheapening of the Yule tradition, and the Christmas card was born. Henceforth, family members and close friends exchanged useful, costly items, while cards were sent to acquaintances and distant relatives. These reformers also persuaded retail stores to keep their regular hours of business during the holiday, rather than lengthening them, to give trade workers the opportunity to join in the celebration. They also rationalized the collection and distribution of holiday charity, resulting in the Christmas celebration we have today. Waits's book clearly illustrates that the notion that Christmas is uncontrollable is simply untrue. An incisive and engaging history of giftgiving, The Modern Christmas in Americaalso examines the differing traditions of giftgiving to friends, employees, the poor, and among entire communities. Handsomely illustrated with dozens of historical photographs, this book is not only the perfect holiday gift but will also be of interest to any student of American history and culture.
Book Synopsis Christmas in America by : Penne L. Restad
Download or read book Christmas in America written by Penne L. Restad and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1996-12-05 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The manger or Macy's? Americans might well wonder which is the real shrine of Christmas, as they take part each year in a mix of churchgoing, shopping, and family togetherness. But the history of Christmas cannot be summed up so easily as the commercialization of a sacred day. As Penne Restad reveals in this marvelous new book, it has always been an ambiguous meld of sacred thoughts and worldly actions-- as well as a fascinating reflection of our changing society. In Christmas in America, Restad brilliantly captures the rise and transformation of our most universal national holiday. In colonial times, it was celebrated either as an utterly solemn or a wildly social event--if it was celebrated at all. Virginians hunted, danced, and feasted. City dwellers flooded the streets in raucous demonstrations. Puritan New Englanders denounced the whole affair. Restad shows that as times changed, Christmas changed--and grew in popularity. In the early 1800s, New York served as an epicenter of the newly emerging holiday, drawing on its roots as a Dutch colony (St. Nicholas was particularly popular in the Netherlands, even after the Reformation), and aided by such men as Washington Irving. In 1822, another New Yorker named Clement Clarke Moore penned a poem now known as "'Twas the Night Before Christmas," virtually inventing the modern Santa Claus. Well-to-do townspeople displayed a German novelty, the decorated fir tree, in their parlors; an enterprising printer discovered the money to be made from Christmas cards; and a hodgepodge of year-end celebrations began to coalesce around December 25 and the figure of Santa. The homecoming significance of the holiday increased with the Civil War, and by the end of the nineteenth century a full- fledged national holiday had materialized, forged out of borrowed and invented custom alike, and driven by a passion for gift-giving. In the twentieth century, Christmas seeped into every niche of our conscious and unconscious lives to become a festival of epic proportions. Indeed, Restad carries the story through to our own time, unwrapping the messages hidden inside countless movies, books, and television shows, revealing the inescapable presence--and ambiguous meaning--of Christmas in contemporary culture. Filled with colorful detail and shining insight, Christmas in America reveals not only much about the emergence of the holiday, but also what our celebrations tell us about ourselves. From drunken revelry along colonial curbstones to family rituals around the tree, from Thomas Nast drawing the semiofficial portrait of St. Nick to the making of the film Home Alone, Restad's sparkling account offers much to amuse and ponder.
Book Synopsis Midcentury Christmas: Holiday Fads, Fancies, and Fun from 1945 to 1970 by : Sarah Archer
Download or read book Midcentury Christmas: Holiday Fads, Fancies, and Fun from 1945 to 1970 written by Sarah Archer and published by The Countryman Press. This book was released on 2016-10-18 with total page 425 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A celebration of Christmas in the 1950s and '60s Midcentury America was a wonderland of department stores, suburban cul-de-sacs, and Tupperware parties. Every kid on the block had to have the latest cool toy, be it an Easy Bake Oven for pretend baking, a rocket ship for pretend space travel, or a Slinky, just because. At Christmastime, postwar America's dreams and desires were on full display, from shopping mall Santas to shiny aluminum Christmas trees, from the Grinch to Charlie Brown's beloved spindly Christmas tree. Now design maven Sarah Archer tells the story of how Christmastime in America rocketed from the Victorian period into Space Age, thanks to the new technologies and unprecedented prosperity that shaped the era. The book will feature iconic favorites of that time, including: • A visual feast of Christmastime eats and recipes, from magazines and food and appliance makers • Christmas cards from artists and designers of the era, featuring Henry Dreyfuss, Charles & Ray Eames, and Alexander Girard • Vintage how-to templates and instructions for holiday decor from Good Housekeeping and the 1960's craft craze • Advice from Popular Mechanics on how to glamorize your holiday dining table • Decorating advice for your new Aluminum Christmas Tree from ALCOA (the Aluminum Company of America) • The first American-made glass ornaments from Corning Glassworks Midcentury Christmas is sure to be on everyone’s most-wanted lists.
Book Synopsis Merry Christmas! Celebrating AmericaÕs Greatest Holiday by : Karal Ann Marling
Download or read book Merry Christmas! Celebrating AmericaÕs Greatest Holiday written by Karal Ann Marling and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-06-30 with total page 470 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It wouldn't be Christmas without the "things." How they came to mean so much, and to play such a prominent role in America's central holiday, is the tale told in this delightful and edifying book. In a style characteristically engaging and erudite, Karal Ann Marling, one of our most trenchant observers of American culture, describes the outsize spectacle that Christmas has become.
Download or read book Christmas written by Bruce David Forbes and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2007-10-10 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written for everyone who loves and is simultaneously driven crazy by the holiday season, Christmas: A Candid History provides an enlightening, entertaining perspective on how the annual Yuletide celebration got to be what it is today. In a fascinating, concise tour through history, the book tells the story of Christmas—from its pre-Christian roots, through the birth of Jesus, to the holiday's spread across Europe into the Americas and beyond, and to its mind-boggling transformation through modern consumerism. Packed with intriguing stories, based on research into myriad sources, full of insights, the book explores the historical origins of traditions including Santa, the reindeer, gift giving, the Christmas tree, Christmas songs and movies, and more. The book also offers some provocative ideas for reclaiming the joy and meaning of this beloved, yet often frustrating, season amid the pressures of our fast-paced consumer culture. DID YOU KNOW For three centuries Christians did not celebrate Christmas? Puritans in England and New England made Christmas observances illegal? St. Nicholas is an elf in the famous poem "The Night Before Christmas"? President Franklin Roosevelt changed the dateof Thanksgiving in order to lengthen the Christmas shopping season? Coca-Cola helped fashion Santa Claus's look in an advertising campaign?
Book Synopsis Encyclopaedia Britannica by : Hugh Chisholm
Download or read book Encyclopaedia Britannica written by Hugh Chisholm and published by . This book was released on 1910 with total page 1090 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This eleventh edition was developed during the encyclopaedia's transition from a British to an American publication. Some of its articles were written by the best-known scholars of the time and it is considered to be a landmark encyclopaedia for scholarship and literary style.
Book Synopsis Hanukkah in America by : Dianne Ashton
Download or read book Hanukkah in America written by Dianne Ashton and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2018-09-25 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the ways American Jews have reshaped Hanukkah traditions across the country In New Orleans, Hanukkah means decorating your door with a menorah made of hominy grits. Latkes in Texas are seasoned with cilantro and cayenne pepper. Children in Cincinnati sing Hanukkah songs and eat oranges and ice cream. While each tradition springs from its own unique set of cultural references, what ties them together is that they all celebrate a holiday that is different in America than it is any place else. For the past two hundred years, American Jews have been transforming the ancient holiday of Hanukkah from a simple occasion into something grand. Each year, as they retell its story and enact its customs, they bring their ever-changing perspectives and desires to its celebration. Providing an attractive alternative to the Christian dominated December, rabbis and lay people alike have addressed contemporary hopes by fashioning an authentically Jewish festival that blossomed in their American world. The ways in which Hanukkah was reshaped by American Jews reveals the changing goals and values that emerged among different contingents each December as they confronted the reality of living as a religious minority in the United States. Bringing together clergy and laity, artists and businessmen, teachers, parents, and children, Hanukkah has been a dynamic force for both stability and change in American Jewish life. The holiday’s distinctive transformation from a minor festival to a major occasion that looms large in the American Jewish psyche is a marker of American Jewish life. Drawing on a varied archive of songs, plays, liturgy, sermons, and a range of illustrative material, as well as developing portraits of various communities, congregations, and rabbis, Hanukkah in America reveals how an almost forgotten festival became the most visible of American Jewish holidays.
Book Synopsis Christmas on State Street by : Robert P. Ledermann
Download or read book Christmas on State Street written by Robert P. Ledermann and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2002 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book vividly recreates ... a Christmas holiday trip down State Street. You will visit many of the major shops and stores that existed during the 1940's and beyond, viewing old display windows and getting reacquainted with famous Christmas characters ..."--p. [4] of cover.
Book Synopsis A Child's Christmas in Wales by : Dylan Thomas
Download or read book A Child's Christmas in Wales written by Dylan Thomas and published by New Directions Publishing. This book was released on 1995 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Welsh poet recalls the celebration of Christmas in Wales and the feelings it evoked in him as a child.
Book Synopsis America's Favorite Holidays by : Bruce David Forbes
Download or read book America's Favorite Holidays written by Bruce David Forbes and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2015-10-27 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "America's Favorite Holidays explores how five of America's culturally dominant holidays--Christmas, Valentine's Day, Easter, Halloween, and Thanksgiving--came to be what they are today, combinations of seasonal and religious celebrations heavily influenced by modern popular culture. Distilling information from a wide range of sources, Bruce David Forbes reveals the often surprising history behind the traditions of each holiday. The book offers a comprehensive look at the Christian origins of these holidays and also touches on Passover, the religions of ancient Rome, Celtic practices, Mexico's Day of the Dead, and American civil religion. America's Favorite Holidays answers our curiosity about the origins of our holidays and the many ways in which religion and culture mix"--Provided by publisher.
Download or read book Tinsel written by Hank Stuever and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2009-10-14 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A heartfelt, hilarious look at the evolution of a half-trillion-dollar American holiday Hank Stuever turns his unerring eye for the idiosyncrasies of modern life to Frisco, Texas, a suburb at once all-American and completely itself, to tell the story of the nation’s most over-the-top celebration: Christmas. Stuever starts the narrative as so many start the Christmas season: standing in line with the people waiting to purchase flat-screen TVs on Black Friday. From there he follows three of Frisco's true holiday believers as they navigate through the Nativity and all its attendant crises. Tammie Parnell, an eternally optimistic suburban mom, is the proprietor of "Two Elves with a Twist," a company that decorates other people's big houses for Christmas. Jeff and Bridgette Trykoski own that house every town has: the one with the visible-from-space, jaw-dropping Christmas lights. And single mother Carol Cavazos just hopes that the life-affirming moments of Christmas might overcome the struggles of the rest of the year. Stuever's portraits of the happy, mega-churchy, shop-until-you-drop community in Tinsel are revealing and riotously funny, showing how our ancient rituals of celebration have survived—and succumbed to—the test of time.
Book Synopsis Best Modern Christmas Songs by : Hal Leonard Corp.
Download or read book Best Modern Christmas Songs written by Hal Leonard Corp. and published by Hal Leonard. This book was released on 2021-08-01 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: (Piano/Vocal/Guitar Songbook). This collection features over 20 popular modern Christmas songs by today's top artists arranged for piano and voice with guitar chord frames. Includes: Christmas Lights (Coldplay) * Christmas Saves the Year (Twenty One Pilots) * Christmas Tree Farm (Taylor Swift) * Cozy Little Christmas (Katy Perry) * Everyday Is Christmas (Sia) * Glittery (Kacey Musgraves) * Hallelujah (Carrie Underwood & John Legend) * He Shall Reign Forevermore (Chris Tomlin) * I Need You Christmas (Jonas Brothers) * Light of the World (Lauren Daigle) * Mistletoe (Justin Bieber) * Santa Tell Me (Ariana Grande) * Underneath the Tree (Kelly Clarkson) * and more.
Download or read book Christmas written by Judith Flanders and published by Thomas Dunne Books. This book was released on 2017-10-24 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published: Great Britain: Picador, 2017.
Book Synopsis Religion and Popular Culture in America, Third Edition by : Bruce David Forbes
Download or read book Religion and Popular Culture in America, Third Edition written by Bruce David Forbes and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2017-03-01 with total page 459 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The connection between popular culture and religion is an enduring part of American life. With seventy-five percent new content, the third edition of this multifaceted and popular collection has been revised and updated throughout to provide greater religious diversity in its topics and address critical developments in the study of religion and popular culture. Ideal for classroom use, this expanded volume gives increased attention to the implications of digital culture and the increasingly interactive quality of popular culture provides a framework to help students understand and appreciate the work in diverse fields, methods, and perspectives contains an updated introduction, discussion questions, and other instructional tools
Book Synopsis Christmas Past by : Thomas Ruys Smith
Download or read book Christmas Past written by Thomas Ruys Smith and published by LSU Press. This book was released on 2021-09-15 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the modern celebration of Christmas took shape across the nineteenth century, American writers gave it new meaning in the pages of countless books and magazines. Now, for the first time, this rich anthology brings together some of the most significant of those seasonal stories to retell a forgotten tale of Christmases past. From the authors who helped define a national literary culture, to the popular sentimentalists who negotiated Christmas’s position at the center of family life, to the realists who looked to reshape American letters in the wake of the Civil War, and beyond: all varieties of American writers turned to Christmas as an inevitable and potent subject during this deeply formative period in the history of American literature. In Christmas Past, Thomas Ruys Smith brings together a diverse range of voices to showcase the many ways in which Christmas was imagined across the nineteenth century, offering images that echo down to the present. The introduction that frames the anthology provides a new literary history of Christmas, contextualizing the selections and making clear the links both between them and to the wider trajectory of American literature.
Download or read book New Democracy written by William J. Novak and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2022-03-29 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The activist state of the New Deal started forming decades before the FDR administration, demonstrating the deep roots of energetic government in America. In the period between the Civil War and the New Deal, American governance was transformed, with momentous implications for social and economic life. A series of legal reforms gradually brought an end to nineteenth-century traditions of local self-government and associative citizenship, replacing them with positive statecraft: governmental activism intended to change how Americans lived and worked through legislation, regulation, and public administration. The last time American public life had been so thoroughly altered was in the late eighteenth century, at the founding and in the years immediately following. William J. Novak shows how Americans translated new conceptions of citizenship, social welfare, and economic democracy into demands for law and policy that delivered public services and vindicated peopleÕs rights. Over the course of decades, Americans progressively discarded earlier understandings of the reach and responsibilities of government and embraced the idea that legislators and administrators in Washington could tackle economic regulation and social-welfare problems. As citizens witnessed the successes of an energetic, interventionist state, they demanded more of the same, calling on politicians and civil servants to address unfair competition and labor exploitation, form public utilities, and reform police power. Arguing against the myth that America was a weak state until the New Deal, New Democracy traces a steadily aggrandizing authority well before the Roosevelt years. The United States was flexing power domestically and intervening on behalf of redistributive goals for far longer than is commonly recognized, putting the lie to libertarian claims that the New Deal was an aberration in American history.
