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Reviews
1. Gumshoe America: Hard-Boiled Crime Fiction and the Rise and Fall of New Deal Liberalism (New Americanists)
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Used Book in Good ConditionDescription
In Gumshoe America Sean McCann offers a bold new account of the hard-boiled crime story and its literary and political significance. Illuminating a previously unnoticed set of concerns at the heart of the fiction, he contends that mid-twentieth-century American crime writers used the genre to confront and wrestle with many of the paradoxes and disappointments of New Deal liberalism. For these authors, the same contradictions inherent in liberal democracy were present within the changing literary marketplace of the mid-twentieth-century United States: the competing claims of the elite versus the popular, the demands of market capitalism versus conceptions of quality, and the individual versus a homogenized society.
Gumshoe America traces the way those problems surfaced in hard-boiled crime
fiction from the1920s through the 1960s. Beginning by using a forum on the KKK in the pulp magazine Black Mask to describe both the economic and political culture of pulp fiction in the early twenties, McCann locates the origins of the hard-boiled crime story in the genres conflict with the racist antiliberalism prominent at the time. Turning his focus to Dashiell Hammetts career, McCann shows how Hammetts writings in the late 1920s and early 1930s moved detective fiction away from its founding fables of social compact to the cultural alienation triggered by a burgeoning administrative state. He then examines how Raymond Chandlers fiction, unlike Hammetts, idealized sentimental fraternity, echoing the communitarian appeals of the late New Deal. Two of the first crime writers to publish original fiction in paperbackJim Thompson and Charles Willefordare examined next in juxtaposition to the popularity enjoyed by their contemporaries Mickey Spillane and Ross Macdonald. The stories of the former two, claims McCann, portray the decline of the New Deal and the emergence of the rights-based liberalism of the postwar years and reveal new attitudes toward government: individual alienation, frustration with bureaucratic institutions, and dissatisfaction with the growing vision of America as a meritocracy. Before concluding, McCann turns to the work of Chester Himes, who, in producing revolutionary hard-boiled novels, used the genre to explore the changing political significance of race that accompanied the rise of the Civil Rights movement in the late 1950s and the 1960s.
Combining a striking reinterpretation of the hard-boiled crime story with a fresh view of the political complications and cultural legacies of the New Deal, Gumshoe America will interest students and fans of the genre, and scholars of American history, culture, and government.
Gumshoe America traces the way those problems surfaced in hard-boiled crime
fiction from the1920s through the 1960s. Beginning by using a forum on the KKK in the pulp magazine Black Mask to describe both the economic and political culture of pulp fiction in the early twenties, McCann locates the origins of the hard-boiled crime story in the genres conflict with the racist antiliberalism prominent at the time. Turning his focus to Dashiell Hammetts career, McCann shows how Hammetts writings in the late 1920s and early 1930s moved detective fiction away from its founding fables of social compact to the cultural alienation triggered by a burgeoning administrative state. He then examines how Raymond Chandlers fiction, unlike Hammetts, idealized sentimental fraternity, echoing the communitarian appeals of the late New Deal. Two of the first crime writers to publish original fiction in paperbackJim Thompson and Charles Willefordare examined next in juxtaposition to the popularity enjoyed by their contemporaries Mickey Spillane and Ross Macdonald. The stories of the former two, claims McCann, portray the decline of the New Deal and the emergence of the rights-based liberalism of the postwar years and reveal new attitudes toward government: individual alienation, frustration with bureaucratic institutions, and dissatisfaction with the growing vision of America as a meritocracy. Before concluding, McCann turns to the work of Chester Himes, who, in producing revolutionary hard-boiled novels, used the genre to explore the changing political significance of race that accompanied the rise of the Civil Rights movement in the late 1950s and the 1960s.
Combining a striking reinterpretation of the hard-boiled crime story with a fresh view of the political complications and cultural legacies of the New Deal, Gumshoe America will interest students and fans of the genre, and scholars of American history, culture, and government.
2. Brown Gumshoes: Detective Fiction and the Search for Chicana/o Identity (History, Culture, And Society Series)
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Winner, Modern Language Association Prize in United States Latina and Latino and Chicana and Chicano Literary and Cultural Studies, 2006
Popular fiction, with its capacity for diversion, can mask important cultural observations within a framework that is often overlooked in the academic world. Works thought to be merely "escapist" can often be more seriously mined for revelations regarding the worlds they portray, especially those of the disenfranchised. As detective fiction has slowly earned critical respect, more authors from minority groups have chosen it as their medium. Chicana/o authors, previously reluctant to write in an underestimated genre that might further marginalize them, have only entered the world of detective fiction in the past two decades.
In this book, the first comprehensive study of Chicano/a detective fiction, Ralph E. Rodriguez examines the recent contributions to the genre by writers such as Rudolfo Anaya, Lucha Corpi, Rolando Hinojosa, Michael Nava, and Manuel Ramos. Their works reveal the struggles of Chicanas/os with feminism, homosexuality, familia, masculinity, mysticism, the nationalist subject, and U.S.-Mexico border relations. He maintains that their novels register crucial new discourses of identity, politics, and cultural citizenship that cannot be understood apart from the historical instability following the demise of the nationalist politics of the Chicana/o movement of the 1960s and 1970s. In contrast to that time, when Chicanas/os sought a unified Chicano identity in order to effect social change, the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s have seen a disengagement from these nationalist politics and a new trend toward a heterogeneous sense of self. The detective novel and its traditional focus on questions of knowledge and identity turned out to be the perfect medium in which to examine this new self.
3. Rip Kirby, Vol. 10: 1970-1973
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Rip Kirby Vol 10Description
The longest-running modern adventure strip celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary in 1971. As Bruce Canwell notes in his introduction to this volume, John Prentice and Fred Dickenson continually varied the contents of their stories, mixing and matching themes, as well as locales. In these thirteen stories, theywere willing to tap into popular topics of the day (1971s The Girl with Something Extra uses extra-sensory perception as a key plot driver), but carefully contrasted those efforts with stories emphasizing family relationships in ways both positive (The Midas Affair) and negative (Murder by Misanthrope). The science fictional Doctor Data and his super-computer were counterbalanced by more light-hearted capers, such as The Parrot Who Sang Like a Canary. Included are more than 800 sequential comics from April 27, 1970 to January 20, 1973 reproduced from the original King Features Syndicate proofs.4. Private Detective: From the Files of the World's Greatest Private Eye
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The TV series "Watching the Detectives" introduced a large audience to William C. Dear, one of the most flamboyant and successful private eyes in the world. The hand-tooled boots and diamond jewellery, the Texas ranch, the cars, the boat, the planes - all these are a world away from the traditional image of the seedy gumshoe in his grubby office with nothing in the filing cabinet but a bottle of bourbon. Bill Dear uses the most modern techniques and the most high-tech equipment in the service of his clients, who hire him for just one reason - because his is the best, and he gets the job done. From the time he joined the Florida Highway Patrol as a skinny kid of 18, his pursuit of the bad guys has been relentless. He has been locked for hours in sweltering car trunks, crawled through rat-infested tunnels in search of missing children, and landed planes in the black of night to uncover buried bodies. He supervised the exhumation of Lee Harvey Oswald in order to disprove a conspiracy theory. Inevitably he has got up the noses of the police, who do not take kindly to having thier blunders exposed. He has had at least one contract out on his life; he has been knifed in the back; he has disguised himself as a doctor to nab a hitman on his hospital bed; he has been left for dead, throat slit from ear to ear and then reappeared for the sequel. "I guess I've been lucky" he says. Bill Dear has racked up more column inches than any other P.I. - and was featured in True Detective five times before he was 22. Now he tells his own story in his own inimitable way, a story as full of drama and incident as any crime novel.5. The Gumshoe and the Shrink: Guenther Reinhardt, Dr. Arnold Hutschnecker, and the Secret History of the 1960 Kennedy/Nixon Election
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The Gumshoe and the Shrink is a tale of political intriguea detective story and medical mystery set against the backdrop of the closest and most storied presidential election in American history. Its the never-before-told account of how the craziest private detective in the country uncovered Richard Nixons most closely guarded secretthat he was seeing a psychotherapistand how that discovery put victory out of Nixons reach in the 1960 election.
At the center of the story is a manic-depressive private eye named Guenther Reinhardt, who in the fall of 1960 set out to destroy Richard Nixon. With Election Day just a few months away, Reinhardt discovered that Nixon was seeing a psychotherapist. And in those days, the only thing worse for a politician than needing to see a shrink was actually seeing one.
Nixons brilliant psychotherapist, Dr. Arnold Hutschnecker, is the other character at the center of this story. Dr. Hutschnecker tried heroically to mold Nixon into the person they both wanted him to bea man of peace. But like the fictional Dr. Frankenstein, his experiment failed terribly and a monster was created instead.
The secret battle for the presidency detailed in The Gumshoe and the Shrink is supported by two key documents that have never been seen before: Guenther Reinhardts 12-page confidential report on the relationship between Nixon and Dr. Hutschnecker, and Dr. Hutschneckers unpublished memoirs detailing his treatment of Richard Nixon. These documents provide many fascinating insights into their forbidden relationshipand into Nixons tortured psychology.
At the center of the story is a manic-depressive private eye named Guenther Reinhardt, who in the fall of 1960 set out to destroy Richard Nixon. With Election Day just a few months away, Reinhardt discovered that Nixon was seeing a psychotherapist. And in those days, the only thing worse for a politician than needing to see a shrink was actually seeing one.
Nixons brilliant psychotherapist, Dr. Arnold Hutschnecker, is the other character at the center of this story. Dr. Hutschnecker tried heroically to mold Nixon into the person they both wanted him to bea man of peace. But like the fictional Dr. Frankenstein, his experiment failed terribly and a monster was created instead.
The secret battle for the presidency detailed in The Gumshoe and the Shrink is supported by two key documents that have never been seen before: Guenther Reinhardts 12-page confidential report on the relationship between Nixon and Dr. Hutschnecker, and Dr. Hutschneckers unpublished memoirs detailing his treatment of Richard Nixon. These documents provide many fascinating insights into their forbidden relationshipand into Nixons tortured psychology.
6. South, America
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South AmericaDescription
On an early Sunday morning walk through the empty streets of the Faubourg Marigny downriver of the French Quarter, maverick journalist and Big Easy transplant Jack Prine discovers the body of a well-dressed black man with a bashed-in skull. Soon Jack is drawn into an emerging web of violence threatening Elle Meridian, the victim's beautiful, complicated sister, burdened with a past she can barely confess.They begin a dangerous, desperate flight through Alabama, the Delta and back to New Orleans searching and evading button men, goons, racists and family secrets. Deadly ties extend to the Dixie Mafia, priceless stolen art and debased Southern aristocracy. A final, violent showdown in the Arts District of New Orleans uncovers one last nightmarish revelation that may bind Elle, Jack and a mob enforcer named Big Red for years to come -- if anyone survives.
"South, America may be set in the Deep South--New Orleans and the Mississippi Delta--but writer Rod Davis takes us into that classic hardboiled territory once claimed by James Cain: a man with a wandering eye drawn to a femme fatale who promises nothing but trouble, then delivers it." -- Christopher Cook, author of Robbers and Screen Door Jesus & Other Stories
"Jack Prine is about as tough and gritty as Mike Hammer, especially when he has a lady to protect; corner him on a deserted back road at night and find out. A story that plays on black and white relationships over the generations, gay sexuality, the mean streets of New Orleans and the remote remnants of towns in the Mississippi Delta, South, America, is an honest, tough book and a riveting read. Rod Davis has given us a rugged and real character. I hope he keeps roaming the South in more episodes to come." -- Tony Dunbar, author of Crooked Man and Tubby Meets Katrina
"This down-and-dirty yarn is a powerful evocation of pre-Katrina New Orleans and as absorbing a tale of love and evil to come out of this old town since Ace Atkins and Tony Dunbar hit the scene a few years back. South, America is a triumph of Southern noir, populated with characters who'll stay with you long after the last page, including sometime PI Jack Prine, Elle, his brainy and brave new love, and an all too-real supporting cast of thugs, low-lifes, and Southern degenerates. You heard it first here: In South, America, Rod Davis is the new mayor of the mean streets!" -- Julie Smith, Edgar Award-winning author of the Skip Langdon and Talba Wallis series.
7. Gumshoe Reflections in a Private Eye
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Philosopher-turned-detective Josiah Thompson tells how his curiosity about the danger and riddle-solving that surrounds detective work led to a career as a private eye in San Francisco and includes details of detective work and philosophical musing on his8. Fear Itself: A Horror Game Powered by the Gumshoe System
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9781908983343Description
Fear Itself plunges ordinary people into a disturbing contemporary world of madness and violence. Players take the roles of regular folks much like themselves, who are inexorably drawn into confrontation with the creatures of the Outer Black, an unearthly realm of alien menace. With or without its distinctive mythology, GMs can use it to replicate the shudders and shocks of the horror genre in both film and literature.9. Gumshoe America: Hard-Boiled Crime Fiction and the Rise and Fall of New Deal Liberalism (New Americanists) by McCann, Sean (2000) Paperback
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New copy. Fast shipping. Will be shipped from US.10. Gumshoe America: Hard-Boiled Crime Fiction and the Rise and Fall of New Deal Liberalism (New Americanists) Paperback December 6, 2000
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New copy. Fast shipping. Will be shipped from US.11. The Third Degree: The Triple Murder That Shook Washington and Changed American Criminal Justice
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If youve ever seen an episode of Law and Order, you can probably recite your Miranda rights by heart. But you likely dont know that these rights had their roots in the case of a young Chinese man accused of murdering three diplomats in WashingtonDC in 1919. A frantic search for clues and dogged interrogations by gumshoes erupted in sensational news and editorial coverage and intensified international pressure on the police to crack the case.
Part murder mystery, part courtroom drama, and part landmark legal case, The Third Degreeis the true story of a young mans abuse by the Washington police and an arduous, seven-year journey through the legal system that drew in Warren G. Harding, William Howard Taft, Oliver Wendell Holmes, John W. Davis, and J. Edgar Hoover. The ordeal culminated in a sweeping Supreme Court ruling penned by Justice Louis Brandeis that set the stage for the Miranda warning many years later. Scott D. Seligman argues that the importance of the case hinges not on the defendants guilt or innocence but on the imperative that a system that presumes one is innocentuntil proven guilty provides protections against coerced confessions.
Today, when the treatment of suspects between arrest and trial remains controversial, when bias against immigrants and minorities in law enforcement continues to deny them their rights, and when protecting individuals from compulsory self-incrimination is still an uphill battle, this century-old legal spellbinder is a cautionary tale that reminds us how we got where we are todayand makes us wonder how far we have yet to go.
Part murder mystery, part courtroom drama, and part landmark legal case, The Third Degreeis the true story of a young mans abuse by the Washington police and an arduous, seven-year journey through the legal system that drew in Warren G. Harding, William Howard Taft, Oliver Wendell Holmes, John W. Davis, and J. Edgar Hoover. The ordeal culminated in a sweeping Supreme Court ruling penned by Justice Louis Brandeis that set the stage for the Miranda warning many years later. Scott D. Seligman argues that the importance of the case hinges not on the defendants guilt or innocence but on the imperative that a system that presumes one is innocentuntil proven guilty provides protections against coerced confessions.
Today, when the treatment of suspects between arrest and trial remains controversial, when bias against immigrants and minorities in law enforcement continues to deny them their rights, and when protecting individuals from compulsory self-incrimination is still an uphill battle, this century-old legal spellbinder is a cautionary tale that reminds us how we got where we are todayand makes us wonder how far we have yet to go.
12. American Detective: Behind the Scenes of Famous Criminal Investigations
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From the Roaring Twenties to the 1970s detectives reigned supreme in police departments across the country. In this tightly woven slice of true crime reportage, Thomas A. Reppetto offers a behind-the-scenes look into some of the most notable investigations to occur during the golden age of the detective in American criminal justice.
From William Burns, who during his heyday was known as Americas Sherlock Holmes, to Thad Brown, who probed the notorious Black Dahlia murder in Los Angeles, to Elliott Ness, who cleaned up the Cleveland police but failed to capture the Mad Butcher who decapitated at least a dozen victims, American Detective offers an indelible portrait of the famous sleuths and investigators who played a major role in cracking some of the most notorious criminal cases in U.S. history. Along the way Reppetto takes us deep inside the detective bureaus that were once the nerve centers behind crime-fighting on the streets of Americas great cities, including the FBI itself, under the direction of Americas top cop, J. Edgar Hoover.
According to Reppetto, detectives were once able watchdogs until their role in policing became diluted by patrol strategies ranging from stop and frisk to community policing. Reppetto argues against these current policing systems and calls for a return to the primacy of the detective in criminal investigations.
From William Burns, who during his heyday was known as Americas Sherlock Holmes, to Thad Brown, who probed the notorious Black Dahlia murder in Los Angeles, to Elliott Ness, who cleaned up the Cleveland police but failed to capture the Mad Butcher who decapitated at least a dozen victims, American Detective offers an indelible portrait of the famous sleuths and investigators who played a major role in cracking some of the most notorious criminal cases in U.S. history. Along the way Reppetto takes us deep inside the detective bureaus that were once the nerve centers behind crime-fighting on the streets of Americas great cities, including the FBI itself, under the direction of Americas top cop, J. Edgar Hoover.
According to Reppetto, detectives were once able watchdogs until their role in policing became diluted by patrol strategies ranging from stop and frisk to community policing. Reppetto argues against these current policing systems and calls for a return to the primacy of the detective in criminal investigations.
13. Lluvia del norte