{"product_id":"elvis-presley-a-southern-life-hardcover","title":"Elvis Presley: A Southern Life - Hardcover","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eJoel Williamson\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eElvis Presley: A Southern Life\u003c\/em\u003e, one of the most admired Southern historians of our time takes on one of the greatest cultural icons of all time. The result is a masterpiece: a vivid, gripping biography, set against the rich backdrop of Southern society--indeed, American society--in the second half of the twentieth century. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAuthor of \u003cem\u003eThe Crucible of Race\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eWilliam Faulkner and Southern History\u003c\/em\u003e, Joel Williamson is a renowned historian known for his inimitable and compelling narrative style. In this tour de force biography, he captures the drama of Presley's career set against the popular culture of the post-World War II South. Born in Tupelo, Mississippi, Presley was a contradiction, flamboyant in pegged black pants with pink stripes, yet soft-spoken, respectfully courting a decent girl from church. Then he wandered into Sun Records, and everything changed. \"I was scared stiff,\" Elvis recalled about his first time performing on stage. \"Everyone was hollering and I didn't know what they were hollering at.\" Girls did the hollering--at his snarl and swagger. Williamson calls it \"the revolution of the Elvis girls.\" His fans lived in an intense moment, this generation raised by their mothers while their fathers were away at war, whose lives were transformed by an exodus from the countryside to Southern\u003cbr\u003ecities, a postwar culture of consumption, and a striving for upward mobility. They came of age in the era of the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education ruling, which turned high schools into battlegrounds of race. Explosively, white girls went wild for a white man inspired by and singing black music while \"wiggling\" erotically. Elvis, Williamson argues, gave his female fans an opportunity to break free from straitlaced Southern society and express themselves sexually, if only for a few hours at a time. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eRather than focusing on Elvis's music and the music industry, \u003cem\u003eElvis Presley: A Southern Life\u003c\/em\u003e illuminates the zenith of his career, his period of deepest creativity, which captured a legion of fans and kept them fervently loyal for decades. Williamson shows how Elvis himself changed--and didn't. In the latter part of his career, when he performed regular gigs in Las Vegas and toured second-tier cities, he moved beyond the South to a national audience who had bought his albums and watched his movies. Yet the makeup of his fan base did not substantially change, nor did Elvis himself ever move up the Southern class ladder despite his wealth. Even as he aged and his life was cut short, he maintained his iconic status, becoming arguably larger in death than in life as droves of fans continue to pay homage to him at Graceland. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAppreciative and unsparing, culturally attuned and socially revealing, Williamson's \u003cem\u003eElvis Presley\u003c\/em\u003e will deepen our understanding of the man and his times.\u003cbr\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJoel Williamson\u003c\/strong\u003e, Lineberger Professor Emeritus of the Humanities at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is the author of a number of landmark works on Southern culture, including\u003cem\u003e William Faulkner and Southern History\u003c\/em\u003e (OUP, 1993) and\u003cem\u003e The Crucible of Race: Black-White Relations in the American South since Emancipation\u003c\/em\u003e (OUP, 1984), which won the Francis Parkman Prize, the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, and the Ralph Emerson Award. Both books were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTed Ownby \u003c\/strong\u003eis Professor of History and Southern Studies and Director of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi. He is the author of A\u003cem\u003emerican Dreams in Mississippi: Consumers, Poverty, and Culture, 1830-1998\u003c\/em\u003e, among other books. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDonald L. Shaw\u003c\/strong\u003e, who assisted with the final editing, is Kenan Professor of Journalism and Mass Communication Emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the author and co-author of numerous titles, including\u003cem\u003e The Emergence of American Political Issues: The Agenda Setting Function of the Press\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 410\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1.23 x 9.51 x 6.47 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e November 13, 2014\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45259366826086,"sku":"9780199863174","price":49.63,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0599\/7255\/0758\/files\/TmFvMU1XOHF0K2xqZ1JOVG5TQ3dKQT09.webp?v=1773841833","url":"https:\/\/infinitylightwa.com\/products\/elvis-presley-a-southern-life-hardcover","provider":"Infinity Light","version":"1.0","type":"link"}