The Little Girl Who Fought the Great Depression: Shirley Temple and 1930s America
Author(s): John F. Kasson
Amid the deprivation and despair of the Great Depression, Shirley Temple radiated a spirit of optimism and plucky good cheer. Her image appeared in periodicals and advertisements daily; she rivalled Franklin D. Roosevelt and Edward VIII as the most photographed person in the world. For four consecutive years she was the world's box-office champion. John F. Kasson shows how Temple astonished movie veterans, created a new international culture of celebrity and revolutionised the role of children as consumers. Celebrating the prospect of lifting the Depression, tap-dancing across racial boundaries with Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, foiling villains and mending the hearts of the deserving, she personified the hopes and dreams of Americans while working virtually every day of her childhood.
Product Information
Sparkling, beautifully written, nearly impossible to put down. John Kasson moves behind the seemingly effortless smile of Shirley Temple to uncover the child labor it required, and explores the complex emotional work performed by that smile for Americans struggling to survive the Great Depression. A compelling and creative new cultural history of the 1930s. --Karen Halttunen, author of Confidence Men and Painted Women: A Study in Middle-Class Culture, 1830-1870"
John F. Kasson is a professor of history and American studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and the author of Amusing the Million, among many other seminal works of cultural history.
General Fields
- :
- : WW Norton & Co
- : WW Norton & Co
- : 0.666
- : 01 June 2014
- : 235mm X 155mm X 15mm
- : United States
- : 01 June 2014
- : books
Special Fields
- : John F. Kasson
- : Hardback
- : 973.917
- : 384
- : illustrations