- Industry: Printing & publishing
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Routledge is a global publisher of academic books, journals and online resources in the humanities and social sciences.
(1920 – 1999) Novelist, seen by many critics as responsible for killing Italian American literature with the publication of The Godfather (1969). New York-born and educated, Puzo published two critically acclaimed, but largely unread novels (The Fortunate Pilgrim 1965; The Dark Arena, 1970), before deciding to write his first pulp novel. The Godfather mixed narratives from Italian American immigration history with invented traditions about the Mafia (e.g. their use of the term “godfather”), many of which were then picked up by members of the mob (especially after the success of the Hollywood movie trilogy for which Puzo’s screenplays earned two Oscars). Following the Godfather series, mob family chronicles became the staple for Italian American novels.
Industry:Culture
(born 1921) Bookchin, an anarchist ecologist, worked through various leftist movements before finding the libertarian viewpoint most useful in critiquing American growth and proposing ecologically sensitive and just alternatives. The synthesis of anarchism and ecology which he has expounded since the 1950s has become known as social ecology; Bookchin founded and ran an institute of that name in Vermont. He argues that decentralization, community and absence of hierarchy are intrinsic to issues of energy management and environmental balance. Throughout his life, Bookchin also has been an activist in social movements and Green issues. Major works include Post-Scarcity Anarchism (1971), The Ecology of Freedom (1982), From Urbanization to Cities (1995) and The Third Revolution (1996).
Industry:Culture
(born 1921) In 1963 Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystique. Interviewing hundreds of American housewives and mothers, Friedan found deep dissatisfaction among many. An instant bestseller, the book sparked the modern feminist movement, premised on the notion that women are equal, socially and politically with men. This movement spawned the National Organization for Wo men (NOW) in 1966, with Friedan as its first president, which aimed to eliminate barriers to full gender equality Though criticized by many as appealing only to middle-class white professional women, Friedan’s Feminine Mystique and NOW were pivotal challenges to a society premised on gender inequality.
Industry:Culture
(born 1921) Republican senior senator of North Carolina, Helms was elected to the US Senate in 1972. A staunch fiscal and social conservative who is considered an extremist by his opponents, Helms opposes abortion, affirmative action and homosexuality but supports school-sponsored prayer. Chairperson of the Foreign Relations Committee, Helms supports efforts to streamline the number of government foreign-policy agencies.
Concerned with humanrights abuses, he called for the revocation of China’s mostfavored-nation status. He serves on the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry and Rules and Administration committees. His seat is up for reelection in 2002.
Industry:Culture
(born 1922) Comedian best known for sketches that defined the humor of television’s golden age.
Creative, satirical and often truly bizarre, Caesar created memorable sketches for the NBC showcase Your Show of Shows (1954–7) in conjunction with Imogene Coca, Carl Reiner and Howard Morris (as well as the writing of Mel Brooks). Caesar appeared later in Caesar’s Hour (1954–7), a few films and other appearances; his influence on television comedy continues to the present.
Industry:Culture
(born 1922) Liberal television writer and producer and political activist. Lear’s shows, sometimes adapted from British models, raised questions of race, class and gender in ways that transformed not only the sitcom, but American conversations that responded to these hit shows. His first hit, All in the Family (CBS, 1971–9), put Carroll O’Connor’s Archie Bunker, a working-class bigot from Queens, squarely at the center yet surrounded by direct challenges from his leftist daughter and son-in-law (played by Rob Reiner), naive questions from his wife Edith and increasingly diverse neighbors. Spin-offs followed, such as Maude (CBS, 1972–8), which introduced controversial discussions of feminism and abortion, although at times undercutting the strident liberalism of its title character, and spun off its own depiction of a black family in the projects, Good Times (CBS, 1972– 9). The Jeffersons (CBS, 1975–85) followed Bunker’s bigoted black neighbor (and critical wife) to a Manhattan penthouse, forcing other issues of class, race and interracial relationships. In Sanford and Son (NBC, 1972–6), Lear adapted the British Steptoe and Son to showcase legendary black comedian Redd Foxx as a crotchety, conniving junk dealer, transmuting some of the stereotypes and tricks that had condemned Amos’n Andy decades earlier. While Lear’s successes seem to capture the American dialogues emerging from the 1960s, by the 1980s he devoted more time to political opposition with his People for the American Way. He has had less success with return bids for television, although his characters and plots live on through constant reruns and mass-mediated “folklore.” GARY McDONOGH CINDY WONG.
Industry:Culture
(born 1922) Writer whose continual mixture of broad American incisive satire and apocalyptic warning has made him a guru to generations of youths since the 1960s. Vonnegut’s novels mingle techniques and voices from memoir, science fiction and journalistic essays in books that range from imaginative universes to dialogues with the reader about the problems of a changing world. Slaughterhouse-5 (1969), which revolves around his own experiences of the bombing of Dresden in the Second World War, exemplifies this mixture. Vonnegut has also considered themes as diverse as religion, the end of the world (Cat’s Cradle, 1963) and politics (Slapstick, 1976).
Industry:Culture
(1922 – 1969) Poet and chronicler of the beat generation, a term whose meaning he defined. Best known for On the Road (1957), a beat pilgrimage across America, he later wrote The Dharma Bums (1958), appealing to Zen Buddhism, and Big Sur (1962). He remains an iconic figure for later generations.
Industry:Culture
(1922 – 1969) Singer and actor. Garland became a “child” sensation with The Wizard of Oz (1939) and her Andy Hardy movies with Mickey Rooney. Her vibrant, expressive voice outlasted her movie career (with notable exceptions like her Oscarnominated role in A Star is Born, 1954), but her off-screen suffering, including failed marriages and struggles with alcohol and drugs, haunted her life and image. Nonetheless, she made comebacks in the 1950s and 1960s before her death from drugs. She also became a gay icon; hence “Judy Garland” park may designate a gay encounter area.
Industry:Culture
(born 1923) (Robert) b. 1936 (Elizabeth) Republican political couple and presidential candidates. “Bob” Dole, after Second World War injuries left him partially disabled, built a career in Kansas in national politics. As senator (1969–96), he twice served as majority leader (1985–7; 1995–6), but his skills in debate and deal-making did not carry him through national primaries against Reagan (1980) and Bush (1988), nor as Republican VP against Carter in 1976 or president against Clinton in 1996. He later became a spokesman for Viagra. His second wife, Elizabeth (m. 1975), a Harvard-trained lawyer from North Carolina, held various offices in Republican administrations, including Secretary of Transportation (1983–7) and Secretary of Labor (1989–90), before taking over the American Red Cross. She left in 1999 for a highly scripted presidential campaign that involved many women, but ultimately lost to George Bush.
Industry:Culture
