A Renegade History of the United States by Thaddeus Russell

A Renegade History of the United States by Thaddeus Russell

Historian Howard Zinn demonstrated that there are compelling, alternative histories that are both scholarly and valuable. Now, Thaddeus Russell provides a challenging new way of reading history that will turn convention on its head and is sure to elicit as much controversy as it does support. Russell shows that drunkards, laggards, prostitutes, and pirates were the real heroes of the American Revolution. Slaves worked less and had more fun than free men. Prostitutes, not feminists, won women's liberation. White people lost their rhythm when they became good Americans. Without organized crime, we might not have Hollywood, Las Vegas, labor unions, legal alcohol, birth control, or gay rights. Zoot-suiters and rock-and-rollers, not Ronald Reagan or the peace movement, brought down the Soviet Union. And Britney Spears will win the war on terror. It was not the elitists who created real revolution in America nor the political radicals whom Zinn credits, but the people on the fringes of society who laid the foundation for change and were responsible for many of the freedoms we cherish today. American history was driven by clashes between those interested in preserving social order and those more interested in pursuing their own desires-the respectable versus the degenerate, the moral versus the immoral, good citizens versus the bad. The more that bad people existed, resisted, and won, the greater was our common good. In A Renegade History of the United States, Russell introduces us to the origins of our nation's identity as we have never known them before.

Thaddeus Russell is an Occidental College professor of history and cultural studies who has formerly taught at Columbia University, Barnard College, Eugene Lang College, and the New School for Social Research. Russell was born and reared in Berkeley, California, and obtained his Ph.D. at Antioch College. Columbia University awarded me a bachelor's degree in history. Out of the Jungle: Jimmy Hoffa and the Remaking of the American Working Class, Russell's debut book, was published by Alfred A. Knopf. Knopf published it in 2001.

He has scholarly essays in American Quarterly and The Columbia History of Post-World War II America, as well as opinion pieces in the Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor, Salon, and Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Russell has also featured on the History Channel and Jon Stewart's Daily Show.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781416576136
ISBN 10	1416576134
Title	A Renegade History of the United States
Author	Thaddeus Russell
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Free Press
Year published	2011-07-05
Number of pages	400
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.