Close
  • Register
  • Log in
Stardist
Close
  • Home
  • Products
    • Back
    • New Titles
    • Upcoming
    • High Discount
      • Back
      • Arts and Culture
      • CD/DVD
      • Children and Teenagers
        • Back
        • Fiction
      • Coloring Books
      • Divination Tools
      • Economics and Business
      • Encyclopedias and Reference
      • Environment
      • View All
    • Books
      • Back
      • Arts and Culture
      • Children and Teenagers
        • Back
        • Fiction
      • Economics and Business
      • Encyclopedias and Reference
      • Environment
      • Fiction
        • Back
        • Crime and Thriller
        • Fantasy
        • Historical
        • Romance
        • Science fiction
      • Food, Drink and Cookery
        • Back
        • Diets and Wholefood cookery
        • Vegetarian and Vegan cookery
      • Graphic and Comic books
      • View All
    • Other
      • Back
      • Calendars
        • Back
        • Calendars 2025
          • Back
          • Mind-Body-Spirit
      • CD/DVD
      • Coloring Books
      • New Age
        • Back
        • Divination Tools
        • Tarot Books
        • Tarot, Oracle and Affirmation cards
          • Back
          • Tarot
      • Notebooks
      • Puzzles & Games
        • Back
        • Puzzles
  • Publishers
    • Back
    • Abrams & Chronicle Books
    • Dingbats*Notebooks LTD
    • HarperCollins US
    • Hay House UK Ltd
    • Llewellyn
    • Lo Scarabeo
    • Penguin Random House USA
    • Red Wheel Weiser
    • Schiffer Publishing Ltd
    • US Games Systems, Inc.
    • View More...
  • Quick Order
  • Contact us
Menu
  • Home
  • Products
    • Back
    • New Titles
    • Upcoming
    • High Discount
      • Back
      • Arts and Culture
      • CD/DVD
      • Children and Teenagers
        • Back
        • Fiction
      • Coloring Books
      • Divination Tools
      • Economics and Business
      • Encyclopedias and Reference
      • Environment
      • View All
    • Books
      • Back
      • Arts and Culture
      • Children and Teenagers
        • Back
        • Fiction
      • Economics and Business
      • Encyclopedias and Reference
      • Environment
      • Fiction
        • Back
        • Crime and Thriller
        • Fantasy
        • Historical
        • Romance
        • Science fiction
      • Food, Drink and Cookery
        • Back
        • Diets and Wholefood cookery
        • Vegetarian and Vegan cookery
      • Graphic and Comic books
      • View All
    • Other
      • Back
      • Calendars
        • Back
        • Calendars 2025
          • Back
          • Mind-Body-Spirit
      • CD/DVD
      • Coloring Books
      • New Age
        • Back
        • Divination Tools
        • Tarot Books
        • Tarot, Oracle and Affirmation cards
          • Back
          • Tarot
      • Notebooks
      • Puzzles & Games
        • Back
        • Puzzles
  • Publishers
    • Back
    • Abrams & Chronicle Books
    • Dingbats*Notebooks LTD
    • HarperCollins US
    • Hay House UK Ltd
    • Llewellyn
    • Lo Scarabeo
    • Penguin Random House USA
    • Red Wheel Weiser
    • Schiffer Publishing Ltd
    • US Games Systems, Inc.
    • View More...
  • Quick Order
  • Contact us
Close
Menu
Personal menu
Stardist
Search
  • Home /
  • Books /
  • History and Archaeology /
  • The Playbook

The Playbook

Picture of The Playbook

The Playbook

Author: Shapiro, James

RRP: $30.00 ≈ €26.45
Wholesale:

Please Log in to view the price

Availability: 10 in stock
Publisher: Penguin Random House USA
ISBN: 9780593490204
A brilliant and daring account of a culture war over the place of theater in American democracy in the 1930s, one that anticipates our current divide, by the acclaimed Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro

From 1935 to 1939, the Federal Theatre Project staged over a thousand productions in 29 states that were seen by thirty million (or nearly one in four) Americans, two thirds of whom had never seen a play before. At its helm was an unassuming theater professor, Hallie Flanagan. It employed, at its peak, over twelve thousand struggling artists, some of whom, like Orson Welles and Arthur Miller, would soon be famous, but most of whom were just ordinary people eager to work again at their craft. It was the product of a moment when the arts, no less than industry and agriculture, were thought to be vital to the health of the republic, bringing Shakespeare to the public, alongside modern plays that confronted the pressing issues of the day—from slum housing and public health to racism and the rising threat of fascism. 

The Playbook takes us through some of its most remarkable productions, including a groundbreaking Black production of Macbeth in Harlem and an adaptation of Sinclair Lewis’s anti-fascist novel It Can’t Happen Here that opened simultaneously in 18 cities, underscoring the Federal Theatre’s incredible range and vitality. But this once thriving Works Progress Administration relief program did not survive and has left little trace. For the Federal Theatre was the first New Deal project to be attacked and ended on the grounds that it promoted “un-American” activity, sowing the seeds not only for the McCarthyism of the 1950s but also for our own era of merciless polarization. It was targeted by the first House un-American Affairs Committee, and its demise was a turning point in American cultural life—for, as Shapiro brilliantly argues, “the health of democracy and theater, twin born in ancient Greece, have always been mutually dependent.”

A defining legacy of this culture war was how the strategies used to undermine and ultimately destroy the Federal Theatre were assembled by a charismatic and cunning congressman from East Texas, the now largely forgotten Martin Dies, who in doing so pioneered the right-wing political playbook now so prevalent that it seems eternal.
Product details
Attribute name Attribute value
Author Shapiro, James
Dimensions 158 x 235 x 30 mm
Imprint Penguin Press
ISBN 9780593490204
Language English
Media type Hardback
Original title The Playbook
Page count 384
Product no 9780593490204
Publish date 2024-05-28
Publisher Penguin Random House US
RRP List price 30.00 USD
Weight 590 g

Footer Stardist Info

Stardist

  • 30 years in the business
  • 15000+ products in stock
  • Fast delivery
  • Secure payments
Information
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy notice
  • About us
Quick Links
  • New products
  • My account
  • Contact us
Customer Service
  • Footer Customer Service

    Opening Hours:
    Monday-Friday 09:00-16.00 CET

    For non-urgent inquiries please use our contact form.

    Phone: +46 8440 7677
    Email: info@stardist.com

Newsletter Subscribe for weekly offers and new content!
Wait...
Powered by nopCommerce
Designed by Nop-Templates.com
Copyright © 2025 Stardist. All rights reserved.