{"title":"Thomas B Littlewood","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"henry-horner-and-his-burden-of-tragedy-book-thomas-b-littlewood-9781425984441","title":"Henry Horner and his Burden of Tragedy","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51025518395665,"sku":"NIN9781425984441","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52150356377873,"sku":"NLS9781425984441","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1425984444.jpg?v=1751084394"},{"product_id":"coals-of-fire-book-thomas-b-littlewood-9780809314010","title":"Coals of Fire","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e \u003cdiv\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn 1980 the \u003ci\u003eAlton Telegraph\u003c\/i\u003e of Madison County, Illinois, was mortally wounded by a $9.2 million damage award for a story it did not even print.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn the role of investigative reporter, Littlewood gives deep background on all concerned in the libel suit. He looks at the people, the factions of the town, the county. Reputed to be a plaintiff's paradise, Madison County, he points out, frequently leads the nation in damage awards of $1 million or more.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe case involved an investigation of the rumored Mafia connections of a local savings and loan association and a young builder. At the request of federal investigators, two reporters for the \u003ci\u003eAlton Telegraph\u003c\/i\u003e wrote a confidential memo to representatives of the U.S. Department of Justice reporting their unverified (and unpublished) information. Thus the damage suit. With the jury verdict, the only alternative for the owners of the newspaper was bankruptcy\u003c\/p\u003e \u003c\/div\u003e \u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51822051590417,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":51822052081937,"sku":"NGR9780809314010","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780809314010.jpg?v=1752619320"},{"product_id":"soldiers-back-home-book-thomas-b-littlewood-9780809325870","title":"Soldiers Back Home","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e \u003cdiv\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis first political and social history of the American Legion in Illinois from its formation in 1919 to the onset of World War II focuses on the organization's influence on the two political parties and on public opinion at the state and local levels. Gauging the singular influence of the organization in a particularly turbulent time in Illinois and American history, Thomas B. Littlewood argues that the local orientation of individual posts was probably more important to most Legionnaires than the activities of the organization's national leaders. At the same time, he shows how the conflicts within the Legion mirrored those in the larger society.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eSoldiers Back Home: The American Legion in Illinois, 1919-1939\u003c\/i\u003e traces the origins of the organization nationally and in Illinois, showing it to be the biggest and most politically committed of the several organizations of World War I veterans. First and foremost a fraternal association of men whose military service set them apart, it was also a social mechanism through which veterans contained and redirected their anger and alienation. Littlewood details how the organization developed quickly into a vigorous pressure group working to influence public policy on behalf of veterans and their families. Concentrating at first on the welfare of children who had lost their fathers in the war, the Legion later became involved in a variety of community service activities and served as a political training ground.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWorld War I was the first conflict to be fought by a largely conscripted army. When the soldiers returned from the war, labor unions were pressing hard to organize American workers in rapidly growing concentrations of industry. Business enjoyed generally high esteem, but the ensuing social and economic turbulence led to a shattering of civil order in some parts of Illinois. Prohibition, bootleggers, and organized crime gave way to the crumbling of the economy and the lean, hard years of the Depression. While these events were unfolding in Illinois, rural citizens resisted the rebalancing of power caused by massive migrations of citizens from farm to city by refusing to reapportion legislative districts. \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eOrganized thematically, \u003ci\u003eSoldiers Back Home\u003c\/i\u003e traces the Legion's impact on politics, community life, labor relations, race relations, and the struggle for veterans' benefits in Illinois. Littlewood maintains that the Legion experienced significant divisions along regional lines, especially over the issues of the Ku Klux Klan and labor. Likewise, brutal sectional tensions grew between rural and urban populations. Littlewood looks at the role of the veteran in American politics and society, discussing the careers of famed Illinois leaders such as Scott Lucas, William Dawson, and Everett Dirksen and their involvement with the Legion. He also addresses issues of diversity and division within the organization.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eResisting the polemics of some contemporary interpretations of the American Legion and avoiding the tone of the sanitized official histories of the organization, \u003ci\u003eSoldiers Back Home\u003c\/i\u003e is a major contribution to the history of the interwar years--in Illinois and nationally--that will interest general readers and historians alike. The volume is augmented by thirteen illustrations.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e \u003c\/div\u003e \u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51822071677201,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":51822072037649,"sku":"NGR9780809325870","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53139942179089,"sku":"CIN080932587XVG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780809325870.jpg?v=1786135106"},{"product_id":"calling-elections-book-thomas-b-littlewood-9780268008338","title":"Calling Elections","description":"An examination of the way elections have come to be reported as sporting events, rather than forums for discussion of ideas. The author suggests how the journalism of a campaign discourse could be made more meaningful and compelling .","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53211213201681,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53211213562129,"sku":"CIN0268008337G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780268008338.jpg?v=1772731063"},{"product_id":"calling-elections-book-thomas-b-littlewood-9780268022532","title":"Calling Elections","description":"\u003cp\u003eCalling Elections: The History of Horse-Race Journalism is the lively and important story of the origins and evolution of the \"horserace\" tradition of political journalism in the United States. Thomas B. Littlewood examines how the treatment of elections as sporting events has come to overshadow the reporting of the campaign as a forum for the discussion of ideas. He suggests reasons for the perception of presidential elections as spectator sport: the historical interconnections between gambling, politics, and the press; the infusion of sports language into political rhetoric; the government spoils system that gives individuals and businesses a financial stake in the status of the contest; the methodological development of \"scientific\" polling; the fiercely declared independence of many formerly partisan organizations; the perverse conviction of many journalists in the early 1900s that substantive politics was not interesting to news consumers and that partisan \"speech\" belonged in the paid advertising columns of the newspaper.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eMany influential journalists resisted the growing power of media polls, preferring what some have called their \"instincts and impressions.\" Littlewood contends that Washington journalists are biased by stylistic considerations and in favor of \"a good story.\" Sometimes the \"good story\" will prevail temporarily over contrary numbers in the polls. Without denying the psychological desire of news consumers to know who is winning, Littlewood completes his study by suggesting how the journalism of a campaign discourse can be made more meaningful and compelling.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ePolitical scientists, journalists, sociologists, American Studies scholars, and all those interested in the past, and upcoming, presidential elections will find much to ponder in Calling Elections: The History of Horse Race Journalism.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":53433957515537,"sku":"NGR9780268022532","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53610407002385,"sku":"NLS9780268022532","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780268022532.jpg?v=1791384470"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-thomas-b-littlewood.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}