Barnum

M. R. Werner

Casa editrice: Good Press

Sinossi

M. R. Werner's Barnum is a vivid and intelligent portrait of Phineas Taylor Barnum, the great American impresario whose career helped define nineteenth-century popular entertainment. Blending biography with cultural history, Werner traces Barnum's rise from hustler and showman to museum proprietor, lecturer, and circus magnate, revealing how spectacle, publicity, and commercial instinct shaped his public world. Written in a clear, energetic prose style, the book belongs to the tradition of early modern biographical narrative, yet it also illuminates larger themes in American life: mass culture, celebrity, deception, and democratic appetite for wonder. Werner was a distinguished journalist, historian, and biographer whose work often explored the personalities that fashioned American public culture. His interest in Barnum clearly arose from a broader engagement with the forces that made modern America—advertising, entertainment, self-invention, and entrepreneurial ambition. By approaching Barnum not merely as a colorful eccentric but as a serious historical figure, Werner demonstrates a biographer's sensitivity to character alongside a historian's concern for social context. This is a rewarding book for readers interested in American cultural history, biography, and the origins of modern media. Werner's Barnum offers more than the life of one extraordinary man; it provides a sharply observed study of the values, illusions, and energies of an emerging nation.

Disponibile da: 29/06/2026.

Lunghezza di stampa: 345 pagine.

Altri libri che potrebbero interessarti

Storytelling

Mary Ann Hughes

Storytelling is a memoir looking at the itinerant childhood of a girl born to a Showie and a boxer. This whimsical piece charts the writer's move from infancy in the backyard of a 'fence' in Melbourne, through her early childhood in WA, moving from a roadhouse on the Nullarbor to a Catholic boarding school in a ghost town. Moving to NSW in high school, the writer charts the rise and fall of her parents' many business ventures and later, her time in a malevolent house where her childhood begins to unravel.

Mostra libro

History's Greatest Con Artists...

Atlas History

This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice. What if the most successful criminals in history weren't violent thugs, but charming, well-dressed individuals who convinced their victims to hand over money willingly? Step into the fascinating world of history's most notorious con artists, scammers, and master manipulators who built empires on lies and charm. From Charles Ponzi's legendary scheme that promised impossible returns and destroyed thousands of lives, to countless other brilliant fraudsters who exploited human psychology for massive profit, these true crime stories reveal the dark art of deception. Discover how these master manipulators identified their marks, built unshakeable trust, and executed elaborate schemes that fooled intelligent people for months or even years. Each gripping tale exposes the psychological tactics used to exploit greed, hope, and social proof, showing how communities became unwitting accomplices in their own financial destruction. These aren't just historical curiosities—the same manipulation techniques appear in modern scams, from Bernie Madoff's billion-dollar Ponzi scheme to today's cryptocurrency fraud and online romance scams. Learn the warning signs that could protect you from becoming the next victim. Through detailed investigations and expert analysis, uncover the universal patterns of fraud that transcend time periods and technology. These cautionary tales of white-collar crime demonstrate how charisma and confidence can be more dangerous than any weapon, and why understanding criminal psychology is essential for protecting yourself in our increasingly complex financial world.

Mostra libro

Ted Bundy: The Horrifying Story...

Dawson West

Step into the twisted mind of America’s most infamous serial killer. 
Out of all of the world’s most dangerous serial killers, none are more infamous than Ted Bundy. Known as the charming, charismatic killer who stalked young women to commit his unspeakable crimes, Ted Bundy left a dark shadow on America’s history that has haunted our collective consciousness for generations. 
Delving into the haunting life of this cunning and cold-blooded killer, this eye-opening true crime story exposes his murders in all their gory details. Examining the cruel tricks he’d use to lure in his victims, the investigation that led to his discovery by the police, and the daring jailbreaks that let him slip through the fingers of authorities, inside this true crime novel, you’ll discover a chilling look at the twisted mind and motives of Ted Bundy. 
Perfect for anyone morbidly curious about the evil that lurks just out of sight, as well as fans of true crime books, Ted Bundy: The Horrifying Story of the Charming Serial Killer offers you a gritty, detailed, and unforgettable look at the monster Ted Bundy became.

Mostra libro

Rock 'N' Pole

Aimee Bushong

I got naked so I could produce an album. 
Rock n Pole is the raw, hilarious, and unfiltered memoir of Aimee Bushong—an aspiring rock star who stripped to fund her music career and refused to give up on her dream, no matter how sideways it got. 
By day, she fronted a gritty indie band. By night, she danced under blacklights and hustled lap dances in Denver’s sleaziest clubs—juggling guitar strings and g-strings, heartbreak and hangovers, hope and humiliation. 
Told with biting wit and brutal honesty, this isn’t a story about victimhood. It’s a story about survival, ambition, absurdity—and doing whatever it takes to make art in a world that doesn’t give a f—k. 
If you've ever chased a dream, defied expectations, or lived a double life just to keep the lights on—this audiobook is for you.

Mostra libro

Four French Holidays - Daphne Du...

Anne Hall

Four popular novelists of the same generation each wrote a novel inspired by a holiday that the author spent in France. In the nineteen-fifties, Rumer Godden based The Greengage Summer on her recollections of her family's 1923 battlefield-tour manqué in the Champagne region. Margery Sharp's 1936 holiday in Southern France led to 'Still Waters' and The Nutmeg Tree: both the short story and the novel are set in and around the region of Aix-les-Bains. In 1955, Daphne Du Maurier first visited the department of Sarthe to research French family history; the novel The Scapegoat was the immediate result of the holiday. And in 1966, Stella Gibbons' last trip to the continent took the form of a visit to an old friend in her summer home near Grenoble. The stay is obliquely reflected in The Snow-Woman, in which a similar holiday leads a never-married septuagenarian to experience a renaissance of sorts.

Mostra libro

The Prisoner - Behind Bars in...

Vladimir Pereverzin

'A bleak and vivid account' BBC Radio 4 
‘I am haunted by the feeling that it is not me I’m writing about, but some other man who lived through it all. It is as though I was watching a film about him, reading a book on him. And here is that book’ 
Shocking, but laced with wry humour, Vladimir Pereverzin’s extraordinary story is of an ordinary man whose comfortable life is upended. Refusing to give false testimony against Yukos owner Mikhail Khodorkovsky, he is plunged into lengthy, brutal incarceration in Russia’s nightmarish prisons and penal colonies, including some in which political prisoner Alexei Navalny has been held. 
Vividly told in this skilful translation, Vladimir’s ultimately uplifting memoir was first published in Russian in 2013, but, given new laws enacted in Russia to punish those who oppose its ongoing ‘special operation’ in Ukraine, it is, if anything, even more topical today. 
_ 
‘A very Russian story, and topical for all times . . . it tells you how to become truly free when deprived of liberty’ – Boris Akunin, author of the Erast Fandorin books

Mostra libro