Browns America

Charlie Brown's America tells the story of how and why the lovable kids and an adventurous beagle of Peanuts became the unlikely spokespeople for American life in the last half of the twentieth century.

With Latining America, Claudia Milian proposes that the economies of blackness, brownness, and dark brownness summon a new grammar for Latino/a studies that she names “Latinities.” Milian’s innovative study argues that this ensnared economy of meaning startles the typical reading practices deployed for brown Latino/a embodiment. Latining America keeps company with and challenges existent models of Latinidad, demanding a distinct paradigm that puts into question what is understood as Latino and Latina today. Milian conceptually considers how underexplored “Latin” participants––the southern, the black, the dark brown, the Central American—have ushered in a new world of “Latined” signification from the 1920s to the present. Examining not who but what constitutes the Latino and Latina, Milian’s new critical Latinities disentangle the brown logic that marks “Latino/a” subjects. She expands on and deepens insights in transamerican discourses, narratives of passing, popular culture, and contemporary art. This daring and original project uncovers previously ignored and unremarked upon cultural connections and global crossings whereby African Americans and Latinos traverse and reconfigure their racialized classifications.

Through the Minds, hearts, and voices of some of the best-loved Browns, Alan Natali follows his bestselling Woody's Boys with a sprawling testament to the man, team, and era that made pro football into America's sport. In his second voice biography of iconic American coaches, Natali gives us a portrait of one of the most complex and significant figures in the history of American sport. But Brown's Town is much more than that. Through his own eloquent prose and the detailed voices of nearly two dozen players including Lou Groza, Otto Graham, Dante Lavelli, Gary Collins, Walt Michaels, Dick Schafrath, Milt Plum, Ken Konz, Jim Houston, Jim Ray Smith, Vince Costello, Galen Fiss, John Wooten, Dub Jones, Ross Fichtner, and Paul Wiggin, Natali has also given us a fascinating mosaic of team personalities, the saga of the Cleveland Browns, the evolution of professional football and America at mid-century. His original Browns in the All-American Conference are considered the greatest talent roundup in the history of pro sports. In 1950, in his first NFL game -- when the Browns crushed the defending champions, Philadelphia -- his offense proved itself to be the prototype of the modern pro offense. He was feared, hated and almost universally respected. The divine-right monarch, said defensive end Paul Wiggin, who also said, I think I would have killed for him.

How could a glorious age of American history also give rise to the darkest of literary traditions, one that would inspire Edgar Allan Poe, Stephen King, and many other best-selling American writers?"

It’s difficult to imagine today—when the Super Bowl has virtually become a national holiday and the National Football League is the country’s dominant sports entity—but pro football was once a ramshackle afterthought on the margins of the American sports landscape. In the span of a single generation in postwar America, the game charted an extraordinary rise in popularity, becoming a smartly managed, keenly marketed sports entertainment colossus whose action is ideally suited to television and whose sensibilities perfectly fit the modern age. America’s Game traces pro football’s grand transformation, from the World War II years, when the NFL was fighting for its very existence, to the turbulent 1980s and 1990s, when labor disputes and off-field scandals shook the game to its core, and up to the sport’s present-day preeminence. A thoroughly entertaining account of the entire universe of professional football, from locker room to boardroom, from playing field to press box, this is an essential book for any fan of America’s favorite sport.

A unique new reference work, this encyclopedia presents a social, cultural, and economic history of American sports from hunting, bowling, and skating in the sixteenth century to televised professional sports and the X Games today. Nearly 400 articles examine historical and cultural aspects of leagues, teams, institutions, major competitions, the media and other related industries, as well as legal and social issues, economic factors, ethnic and racial participation, and the growth of institutions and venues. Also included are biographical entries on notable individuals—not just outstanding athletes, but owners and promoters, journalists and broadcasters, and innovators of other kinds—along with in-depth entries on the history of major and minor sports from air racing and archery to wrestling and yachting. A detailed chronology, master bibliography, and directory of institutions, organizations, and governing bodies—plus more than 100 vintage and contemporary photographs—round out the coverage.

The Book of Browns looks at the history of the surname Brown and the people who are fortunate to share the same last name. Many famous people from all walks of life have this common surname but that does not mean they are ordinary.

This is the most comprehensive and up-to-date book on the increasingly important and controversial subject of race relations in Brazil. North American scholars of race relations frequently turn to Brazil for comparisons, since its history has many key similarities to that of the United States. Brazilians have commonly compared themselves with North Americans, and have traditionally argued that race relations in Brazil are far more harmonious because the country encourages race mixture rather than formal or informal segregation. More recently, however, scholars have challenged this national myth, seeking to show that race relations are characterized by exclusion, not inclusion, and that fair-skinned Brazilians continue to be privileged and hold a disproportionate share of wealth and power. In this sociological and demographic study, Edward Telles seeks to understand the reality of race in Brazil and how well it squares with these traditional and revisionist views of race relations. He shows that both schools have it partly right--that there is far more miscegenation in Brazil than in the United States--but that exclusion remains a serious problem. He blends his demographic analysis with ethnographic fieldwork, history, and political theory to try to "understand" the enigma of Brazilian race relations--how inclusiveness can coexist with exclusiveness. The book also seeks to understand some of the political pathologies of buying too readily into unexamined ideas about race relations. In the end, Telles contends, the traditional myth that Brazil had harmonious race relations compared with the United States encouraged the government to do almost nothing to address its shortcomings.

What city broke barriers by welcoming some of the first African American baseball players in addition to the first female owners of both an MLB and NFL team? Where have local colleges dominated a specific sport, winning dozens of national titles over as many years? The answer, of course, lies in St. Louis, a hotbed of professional and amateur sports with a diverse history and an evolving legacy of success. In St. Louis Sports Memories: Forgotten Teams and Moments from America’s Best Sports Town, relive the highlights from the championships to the crossroads of social change that have characterized St. Louis’s sports scene for more than a century. Learn about the tennis legend who found an accepting environment to master his game during the racial turmoil of the 1960s. Make sure you can recite both the four MLB teams and the four NFL teams that have called St. Louis home. Each moment or memory is accompanied by history and anecdotes to form an indelible vignette showcasing some of the most loved as well as the long forgotten stories of the names you know and the ones you should know. Local award-winning author Ed Wheatley brings his die-hard fan perspective to this unique and nostalgic look at St. Louis’s winning record. Root for the home teams and for the bygone heroes in this town that boasts one of the greatest histories in the annals of sports.