Here is an animated and wonderfully engaging work of cultural history that lays out America’s unruly past by describing the ways in which cutting loose has always been, and still is, an essential part of what it means to be an American. From the time the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, Americans have defied their stodgy rules and hierarchies with pranks, dances, stunts, and wild parties, shaping the national character in profound and lasting ways. In the nation’s earlier eras, revelers flouted Puritans, Patriots pranked Redcoats, slaves lampooned masters, and forty-niners bucked the saddles of an increasingly uptight middle class. In the twentieth century, fun-loving Americans celebrated this heritage and pushed it even further: flappers “barney-mugged” in “petting pantries,” Yippies showered the New York Stock Exchange with dollar bills, and B-boys invented hip-hop in a war zone in the Bronx. This is the surprising and revelatory history that John Beckman recounts in American Fun. Tying together captivating stories of Americans’ “pursuit of happiness”—and distinguishing between real, risky fun and the bland amusements that paved the way for Hollywood, Disneyland, and Xbox—Beckman redefines American culture with a delightful and provocative thesis. (With black-and-white illustrations throughout.)

American Fun: Four Centuries of Joyous Revolt

History

Beckman, John

Historical Study & Educational Resources

Pantheon

Americas

Vintage

A sexy, hilarious novel of wayward young expatriates -- and the difference between doing good and feeling good.
In 1990, a young man named Gurney abandons his newborn daughter in an Iowa delivery room and escapes into Krakow, Poland, where it seems as if everyone is hunting for the next new thing. Upon this seductive frontier, Gurney devotes himself to a life of irresponsibility. Already ensconced in Poland is Gurney's cousin Jane, a master manipulator who occupies the center of Krakow's spiderweb of sexual and political intrigue. As Jane and Gurney's relationship swerves thrillingly closer to the incestuous, Gurney crosses paths -- and often swords -- with Krakow's gallery of rogues and innocents. Among them are Wanda, Jane's virginal yet rebellious roommate, who harbors for Gurney a not-so-secret crush; Dick Chestnutt, a sodden American expatriate; Jackie Witherspoon, an ambitious young scholar of uncertain sexuality and allegiance; and Zbigniew Zamoyski, Wanda's father, a former Communist aristocrat who decides that the fun, and Gurney, must be stopped.
Seamlessly juxtaposing totalitarianism and freedom, the political and the personal, John Beckman has created a magical world. Evocative and suberbly crafted, The Winter Zoo marks the debut of a young writer of enormous talent and promise.

The Winter Zoo: A Novel

Literature & Fiction

Contemporary

Henry Holt and Co.

With the summer heat just around the corner, Your Impossible Voice #4 is here to refresh and delight! Our latest issue brings new work from Fulbright Foundation fellow R. Zamora Linmark, National Endowment for the Arts fellow Geraldine Connolly, Norma Farber First Book Award winner Karen An-hwei Lee, Donald Hall Prize winner Kirsten Kaschock, David Bajo, Chris Yamashita, Racquel Goodison, Michael du Plessis, Sven Hansen-Löve, John Beckman, Christopher Kondrich, Sammy Greenspan, Peter Burzynski, Bryce Emley, Monica Macansantos, Sierra-Nicole Qualles. Cover art by Jason Trbovich.

Your Impossible Voice #4: Your Impossible Voice Journal

Linmark, R. Zamora

Kaschock, Kirsten

Bajo, David

Connolly, Geraldine

An-hwei Lee, Karen

Yamashita, Chris

Goodison, Racquel

du Plessis, Michael

Hansen-Löve, Sven

Literary

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

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Books by Beckman, John