{"product_id":"books-the-battle-for-christmas-by-stephen-nissenbaum","title":"The Battle for Christmas","description":"\u003cb\u003ePULITZER PRIZE FINALIST .Drawing on a wealth of research, this\"fascinating\" book (\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review)\u003c\/i\u003e charts the invention of our current Yuletide traditions, from St. Nicholas to the Christmas tree and, perhaps most radically, the practice of giving gifts to children.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Anyone who laments the excesses of Christmas might consider the Puritans of colonial Massachusetts- they simply outlawed the holiday. The Puritans had their reasons, since Christmas was once an occasion for drunkenness and riot, when poor \"wassailersextorted food and drink from the well-to-do. In this intriguing and innovative work of social history, Stephen Nissenbaum rediscovers Christmas's carnival origins and shows how it was transformed, during the nineteenth century, into a festival of domesticity and consumerism.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Bursting with detail, filled with subversive readings of such seasonal classics as \"A Visit from St. Nicholas\"and \u003ci\u003eA Christmas Carol\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Battle for Christmas\u003c\/i\u003e captures the glorious strangeness of the past even as it helps us better understand our present.","brand":"World of Books ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53673723134225,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780679740384.jpg?v=1781527972","url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/products\/books-the-battle-for-christmas-by-stephen-nissenbaum","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}