Overview

When The Beatles arrived in postwar America, Beatlemania swept the nation as hysterical girls flocked to the band and young men grew out their hair. In this book Andrew Hunt explores this wildly enthusiastic fandom from the bottom-up. Showcasing oral histories, fan magazines, club newsletters, newspapers and personal memoirs, he uncovers The Beatles' fan culture from the perspective of Beatlemaniacs, Beatlephobes and ordinary Americans to understand the impact it had on society at large. Offering a cultural history from below, Beatlemania in America highlights previously neglected voices of fans, critics, parents, teachers and politicians. It contextualises the Beatles fandom against a wider, global perspective of changing cultures and shows how this band was part of a wider shift of social change. It delves into who Beatles fans were and shows how their collective voice gave them power. Exploring themes of gender and race in this turbulent and tumultuous era of American history, it highlights the social issues and debates provoked by this subculture which foreshadowed the arrival of an increasingly polarized society.

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9781350291560

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A fascinating account of the youth craze known as Beatlemania. While explaining the screaming crowds that the Beatles garnered as they toured the U.S., Hunt documents important themes, like how the civil rights movement related to the craze and how merchandising and commodification of the band mattered as much as the music itself. Fans did what they wanted to squeeze meaning out of it all. And before reading this book, I had never heard of anti-Beatles clubs! And just how polarized American audiences were. Just something more to add to an already fascinating treatment of Beatlemania. * Kevin Mattson Connor, Study Professor of Contemporary History, Ohio University, USA *

Author Information

Andrew Hunt is Professor of History at University of Waterloo, Canada, where he teaches a course on The Beatles and the Sixties. He is the author of numerous books including The 1980s: A Social History, and We Being Bombing in Five Minutes: Late Cold War Culture in the Age of Reagan.

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