{"product_id":"the-ten-cent-plague-the-great-comic-book-scare-and-how-it-changed-america","title":"The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eThe story of the rise and fall of those comic books has never been fully told -- until \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eThe Ten-Cent Plague\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e. David Hajdu's remarkable new book vividly opens up the lost world of comic books, its creativity, irreverence, and suspicion of authority.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the years between World War II and the emergence of television as a mass medium, American popular culture as we know it was first created―in the pulpy, boldly illustrated pages of comic books. No sooner had this new culture emerged than it was beaten down by church groups, community bluestockings, and a McCarthyish Congress―only to resurface with a crooked smile on its face in \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eMad\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003emagazine.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen we picture the 1950s, we hear the sound of early rock and roll. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eThe Ten-Cent Plague \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003eshows how -- years before music -- comics brought on a clash between children and their parents, between prewar and postwar standards. Created by outsiders from the tenements, garish, shameless, and often shocking, comics spoke to young people and provided the guardians of mainstream culture with a big target. Parents, teachers, and complicit kids burned comics in public bonfires. Cities passed laws to outlaw comics. Congress took action with televised hearings that nearly destroyed the careers of hundreds of artists and writers.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eThe Ten-Cent Plague\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eradically revises common notions of popular culture, the generation gap, and the divide between \"high\" and \"low\" art. As he did with the lives of Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington (in \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eLush Life\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e) and Bob Dylan and his circle (in \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003ePositively 4th Street\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e), Hajdu brings a place, a time, and a milieu unforgettably back to life.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eby David Hajdu (Author)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePaperback, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MACMILLAN PUBLISHING SERVICES","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47723597365435,"sku":"9780312428235","price":30.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0548\/0444\/7419\/files\/Temp_8bb0cb4c-0a72-407a-a5c9-bb59762a98ab.jpg?v=1776374528","url":"https:\/\/shop.skirball.org\/products\/the-ten-cent-plague-the-great-comic-book-scare-and-how-it-changed-america","provider":"Audrey's Museum Store","version":"1.0","type":"link"}