9780393082579-0393082571-Beale Street Dynasty: Sex, Song, and the Struggle for the Soul of Memphis

Beale Street Dynasty: Sex, Song, and the Struggle for the Soul of Memphis

ISBN-13: 9780393082579
ISBN-10: 0393082571
Edition: First Edition
Author: Preston Lauterbach
Publication date: 2015
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Format: Hardcover 368 pages
FREE US shipping

Book details

ISBN-13: 9780393082579
ISBN-10: 0393082571
Edition: First Edition
Author: Preston Lauterbach
Publication date: 2015
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Format: Hardcover 368 pages

Summary

Beale Street Dynasty: Sex, Song, and the Struggle for the Soul of Memphis (ISBN-13: 9780393082579 and ISBN-10: 0393082571), written by authors Preston Lauterbach, was published by W. W. Norton & Company in 2015. With an overall rating of 4.5 stars, it's a notable title among other books. You can easily purchase or rent Beale Street Dynasty: Sex, Song, and the Struggle for the Soul of Memphis (Hardcover) from BooksRun, along with many other new and used books and textbooks. And, if you're looking to sell your copy, our current buyback offer is $0.38.

Description

The vivid history of Beale Street―a lost world of swaggering musicians, glamorous madams, and ruthless politicians―and the battle for the soul of Memphis.

Following the Civil War, Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee, thrived as a cauldron of sex and song, violence and passion. But out of this turmoil emerged a center of black progress, optimism, and cultural ferment. Preston Lauterbach tells this vivid, fascinating story through the multigenerational saga of a family whose ambition, race pride, and moral complexity indelibly shaped the city that would loom so large in American life.

Robert Church, who would become “the South’s first black millionaire,” was a mulatto slave owned by his white father. Having survived a deadly race riot in 1866, Church constructed an empire of vice in the booming river town. He made a fortune with saloons, gambling, and―shockingly―white prostitution. But he also nurtured the militant journalism of Ida B. Wells and helped revolutionize American music through the work of composer W.C. Handy, the man who claimed to have invented the blues.

In the face of Jim Crow, the Church fortune helped fashion the most powerful black political organization of the early twentieth century. Robert and his son, Bob Jr., bought and sold property, founded a bank, and created a park and auditorium for their people finer than the places whites had forbidden them to attend.

However, the Church family operated through a tense arrangement with the Democrat machine run by the notorious E. H. “Boss” Crump, who stole elections and controlled city hall. The battle between this black dynasty and the white political machine would define the future of Memphis.

Brilliantly researched and swiftly plotted, Beale Street Dynasty offers a captivating account of one of America’s iconic cities―by one of our most talented narrative historians.

8 pages of illustrations
Rate this book Rate this book

We would LOVE it if you could help us and other readers by reviewing the book