
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
About this book
'
GRIPPING AND FIERCELY URGENT.' - FINTAN O'TOOLE
'FASCINATING, TIMELY, AND DEEPLY RESEARCHED.' -
THE SPECTATOR
'AN ABSORBING, NECESSARY BOOK.' - AYAD AKHTAR
From the 'Winner of Winners' of the Baillie Gifford Prize, a timely and dramatic story of a utopian American experiment, and the self-serving politicians that engineered its downfall.
1935. As part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's progressive New Deal, the Work Progress Administration is created to support unemployed workers, including writers, artists, musicians and actors. The Federal Theatre Project, a major part of that programme, begins to stage critically acclaimed, subsidised and groundbreaking productions across America, including Orson Welles's directorial debut, a landmark modern dance programme and shows that sought to tell the truth about racism, inequality and the dangers of fascism.
1938. An opportunistic Texas congressman, Martin Dies, head of the newly formed House Un-American Activities Committee, successfully targets the Federal Theatre, exploiting rising tensions over communism and creating a new political playbook based on sensationalism, misinformation and fear - a playbook that has proved instrumental in our current culture wars.
From one of the world's great storytellers,
The Playbook is an invigorating re-enactment of a terrifyingly prescient moment in twentieth-century American cultural history.
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Information
Table of contents
- Landing Page
- Title Page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Preface
- Chapter One: Is Marlowe a Communist?
- Chapter Two: The Creation of the Federal Theatre
- Chapter Three: Macbeth: The First Hit
- Chapter Four: It Can’t Happen Here: Going National
- Chapter Five: How Long, Brethren?: Radical Dance
- Chapter Six: One Third of a Nation: Riling Congress
- Chapter Seven: Liberty Deferred: Confronting Racism
- Chapter Eight: The Creation of the Dies Committee
- Chapter Nine: The Dies Committee v. the Federal Theatre
- Chapter Ten: The End of the Federal Theatre
- Epilogue
- Acknowledgments
- Bibliographical Essay
- Index
- About the Author
- Also by James Shapiro
- Copyright