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Smoketown
Smoketown
The Untold Story of the Other Great Black
Renaissance
by Mark Whitaker
Price: $30.00 (Hardcover)
Published: February 06, 2018
Rating: 0.0/ 5 (0 votes cast)
From the Publisher: The other great Renaissance of black culture,
influence, and glamour burst forth joyfully in what may seem an unlikelyplace—Pittsburgh, PA—from the 1920s through the 1950s. Today black
Pittsburgh is known as the setting for August Wilson’s famed plays about
noble but doomed working-class strivers. But this community once had animpact on American history that rivaled the far larger black worlds ofHarlem and Chicago. It published the most widely read black newspaper inthe country, urging black voters to switch from the Republican to the
Democratic Party and then rallying black support for World War II. It
fielded two of the greatest baseball teams of the Negro Leagues andintroduced Jackie Robinson to the Brooklyn Dodgers. Pittsburgh was thechildhood home of jazz pioneers Billy Strayhorn, Billy Eckstine, Earl Hines,
Mary Lou Williams, and Erroll Garner; Hall of Fame slugger Josh Gibson—
and August Wilson himself. Some of the most glittering figures of the erawere changed forever by the time they spent in the city, from Joe Louisand Satchel Paige to Duke Ellington and Lena Horne. Mark Whitaker’sSmoketown is a captivating portrait of this unsung community and a vital
addition to the story of black America. It depicts how ambitious Southernmigrants were drawn to a steel-making city on a strategic river junction;how they were shaped by its schools and a spirit of commerce with rootsin the Gilded Age; and how their world was eventually destroyed byindustrial decline and urban renewal. Whitaker takes readers on a rousing,
revelatory journey—and offers a timely reminder that Black History is not
all bleak.
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Get This Book
Personalize / Add More ChoicesGo to your preferred retailer, click to choose a format and you' ll be taken directly to their site where
you can get this book.Share This Book
About The Author
Mark Whitaker
Mark Whitaker is the author of the critically
acclaimed memoir, My Long Trip Home , and
Smoketown . The former managing editor of
CNN Worldwide, he was previously the
Washington bureau chief for NBC News and areporter and editor at Newsweek, where he
rose to become the first African-Americanleader of a national newsweekly.
Release Info
List Price: $30.00 (Hardcover)
Published: February 06, 2018
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Pages: 432
ISBN 10: 1501122398
ISBN 13: 9781501122392
What We Say
This very entertaining work of popular history makes a fair case that Pittsburgh equaled New York City's Harlem and Chicago
in terms of importance for the black experience and American history. If nothing else, Pittsburgh certainly punched aboveits weight. That will be no surprise to those who remember it sits at the intersection of three major rivers and its steelmills gave rise to some of the biggest fortunes in America. No wonder Presidents came calling. But the vibrant history of
Pittsburgh's black movers and shakers is still impressive. It launched the mostly widely read black-run newspaper in the
country, a soapbox used to champion such important movements as black support for WW II (hardly a given, once onerealizes the brutal treatment of black veterans who returned home after WW I) and the still-resonating great migration ofblack voters from the Republican to the Democratic Party. Pittsburgh fielded two of the greatest baseball teams in history,
including future Hall of Famers like Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson, pioneered night baseball and much more. It cultivated
major jazz figures like pianists Erroll Garner and Mary Lou Williams, composer Billy Strayhorn and singer Billy Eckstine, whowas the most popular vocalist in the country until a photo showed a white female fan leaning on his shoulder in adoration.I'm just getting started! Pittsburgh was also key in turning boxer Joe Louis into a national hero (even for white people),pushing for the integration of major league baseball and then giving Jackie Robinson the support he needed to succeed. The
city's contributions arguably climax with the rise of America's greatest playwright -- August Wilson. "Smoketown" has a wide-
ranging story to tell and, at times, author Mark Whitaker's chapters feel like stand-alone articles. That's a plus in way --you can read a chapter and then put the book down and come back later without feeling you've lost the thread. It's also aminus, for each story feels a tad isolated from the rest. The result is that "Smoketown" contains a lot of individual tales of
triumph rather than one interwoven story. But people influence each other and eventually it coheres with the sad elegy
provided by Wilson. His masterwork of a ten play cycle set in Pittsburgh's Hill District can stand alongside the greatesttheatrical works in history. And here the funeral for Wilson becomes a funeral for the fading Hill District, black Pittsburghitself and all it accomplished. Like many funerals, it's sad but ultimately joyous since there's so much good to remember. --Michael Giltz
What Others Say
“An expansive, prodigiously researched, and masterfully told history.” (Kirkus Reviews) “The fascinating and
never-before-told story of Pittsburgh’s black renaissance—a vibrant and creative community that produced agreat black newspaper, a great black baseball team, a great black industrial tycoon, a great black painter, agreat black playwright, and some of the greatest black musical talent in America. Thank you, Mark Whitaker.”(Gail Lumet Buckley, author of The Hornes and The Black Calhouns) “Mark Whitaker says his remarkable mid-twentieth century Pittsburgh “was a black version of the story of early twentieth-century Vienna.” Mr. Whitakeris so riveting a storyteller that the reader even wonders if Belle Epoque Vienna had the equivalent of a BillyEckstine, Mary Lou Williams, Billy Strayhorn, Joe Louis, or an August Wilson.” (David Levering Lewis, PulitzerPrize-winning biographer of W.E.B. Du Bois) “Mark Whitaker has given Pittsburgh's wondrously rich black culture
its due at long last. Smoketown is illuminating history and an absolute delight to read.” (David Maraniss, author
of Once in a Great City: A Detroit Story) “Who knew that Pittsburgh had an African American renaissance asvibrant as Harlem's and arguably more consequential? Mark Whitaker knew, and he rescues from unjust obscurityan American episode that continues to reverberate.” (George F. Will, syndicated columnist)
What You Say
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Home
Top Picks: All Books
Smoketown
Smoketown
The Untold Story of the Other Great Black
Renaissance
by Mark Whitaker
Price: $30.00 (Hardcover)
Published: February 06, 2018
Rating: 0.0/ 5 (0 votes cast)
From the Publisher: The other great Renaissance of black culture,
influence, and glamour burst forth joyfully in what may seem an unlikelyplace—Pittsburgh, PA—from the 1920s through the 1950s. Today black
Pittsburgh is known as the setting for August Wilson’s famed plays about
noble but doomed working-class strivers. But this community once had animpact on American history that rivaled the far larger black worlds ofHarlem and Chicago. It published the most widely read black newspaper inthe country, urging black voters to switch from the Republican to the
Democratic Party and then rallying black support for World War II. It
fielded two of the greatest baseball teams of the Negro Leagues andintroduced Jackie Robinson to the Brooklyn Dodgers. Pittsburgh was thechildhood home of jazz pioneers Billy Strayhorn, Billy Eckstine, Earl Hines,
Mary Lou Williams, and Erroll Garner; Hall of Fame slugger Josh Gibson—
and August Wilson himself. Some of the most glittering figures of the erawere changed forever by the time they spent in the city, from Joe Louisand Satchel Paige to Duke Ellington and Lena Horne. Mark Whitaker’sSmoketown is a captivating portrait of this unsung community and a vital
addition to the story of black America. It depicts how ambitious Southernmigrants were drawn to a steel-making city on a strategic river junction;how they were shaped by its schools and a spirit of commerce with rootsin the Gilded Age; and how their world was eventually destroyed byindustrial decline and urban renewal. Whitaker takes readers on a rousing,
revelatory journey—and offers a timely reminder that Black History is not
all bleak.
Rate This Book
Add To Wishlist
|Rate/Review Add To Bookshelf
Get This Book
Personalize / Add More ChoicesGo to your preferred retailer, click to choose a format and you' ll be taken directly to their site where
you can get this book.Share This Book
About The Author
Mark Whitaker
Mark Whitaker is the author of the critically
acclaimed memoir, My Long Trip Home , and
Smoketown . The former managing editor of
CNN Worldwide, he was previously the
Washington bureau chief for NBC News and areporter and editor at Newsweek, where he
rose to become the first African-Americanleader of a national newsweekly.
Release Info
List Price: $30.00 (Hardcover)
Published: February 06, 2018
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Pages: 432
ISBN 10: 1501122398
ISBN 13: 9781501122392
What We Say
This very entertaining work of popular history makes a fair case that Pittsburgh equaled New York City's Harlem and Chicago
in terms of importance for the black experience and American history. If nothing else, Pittsburgh certainly punched aboveits weight. That will be no surprise to those who remember it sits at the intersection of three major rivers and its steelmills gave rise to some of the biggest fortunes in America. No wonder Presidents came calling. But the vibrant history of
Pittsburgh's black movers and shakers is still impressive. It launched the mostly widely read black-run newspaper in the
country, a soapbox used to champion such important movements as black support for WW II (hardly a given, once onerealizes the brutal treatment of black veterans who returned home after WW I) and the still-resonating great migration ofblack voters from the Republican to the Democratic Party. Pittsburgh fielded two of the greatest baseball teams in history,
including future Hall of Famers like Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson, pioneered night baseball and much more. It cultivated
major jazz figures like pianists Erroll Garner and Mary Lou Williams, composer Billy Strayhorn and singer Billy Eckstine, whowas the most popular vocalist in the country until a photo showed a white female fan leaning on his shoulder in adoration.I'm just getting started! Pittsburgh was also key in turning boxer Joe Louis into a national hero (even for white people),pushing for the integration of major league baseball and then giving Jackie Robinson the support he needed to succeed. The
city's contributions arguably climax with the rise of America's greatest playwright -- August Wilson. "Smoketown" has a wide-
ranging story to tell and, at times, author Mark Whitaker's chapters feel like stand-alone articles. That's a plus in way --you can read a chapter and then put the book down and come back later without feeling you've lost the thread. It's also aminus, for each story feels a tad isolated from the rest. The result is that "Smoketown" contains a lot of individual tales of
triumph rather than one interwoven story. But people influence each other and eventually it coheres with the sad elegy
provided by Wilson. His masterwork of a ten play cycle set in Pittsburgh's Hill District can stand alongside the greatesttheatrical works in history. And here the funeral for Wilson becomes a funeral for the fading Hill District, black Pittsburghitself and all it accomplished. Like many funerals, it's sad but ultimately joyous since there's so much good to remember. --Michael Giltz
What Others Say
“An expansive, prodigiously researched, and masterfully told history.” (Kirkus Reviews) “The fascinating and
never-before-told story of Pittsburgh’s black renaissance—a vibrant and creative community that produced agreat black newspaper, a great black baseball team, a great black industrial tycoon, a great black painter, agreat black playwright, and some of the greatest black musical talent in America. Thank you, Mark Whitaker.”(Gail Lumet Buckley, author of The Hornes and The Black Calhouns) “Mark Whitaker says his remarkable mid-twentieth century Pittsburgh “was a black version of the story of early twentieth-century Vienna.” Mr. Whitakeris so riveting a storyteller that the reader even wonders if Belle Epoque Vienna had the equivalent of a BillyEckstine, Mary Lou Williams, Billy Strayhorn, Joe Louis, or an August Wilson.” (David Levering Lewis, PulitzerPrize-winning biographer of W.E.B. Du Bois) “Mark Whitaker has given Pittsburgh's wondrously rich black culture
its due at long last. Smoketown is illuminating history and an absolute delight to read.” (David Maraniss, author
of Once in a Great City: A Detroit Story) “Who knew that Pittsburgh had an African American renaissance asvibrant as Harlem's and arguably more consequential? Mark Whitaker knew, and he rescues from unjust obscurityan American episode that continues to reverberate.” (George F. Will, syndicated columnist)
What You Say
Filter by
No Reviews Found .....
about us |faq|advertise |privacy policy |newsletter |contact us ©2018, BookBuddha LLc. All Rights Reserved.