Watts, Steven

From very early on in his career, John F. Kennedy?s allure was more akin to a movie star than a presidential candidate. Why were Americans so attracted to Kennedy in the late 1950s and early 1960s?his glamorous image, good looks, cool style, tough-minded rhetoric, and sex appeal? As Steve Watts argues, JFK was tailor made for the cultural atmosphere of his time. He benefited from a crisis of manhood that had welled up in postwar America when men had become ensnared by bureaucracy, softened by suburban comfort, and emasculated by a generation of newly-aggressive women. Kennedy appeared to revive the modern American man as youthful and vigorous, masculine and athletic, and a sexual conquistador. His cultural crusade involved other prominent figures, including Frank Sinatra, Norman Mailer, Ian Fleming, Hugh Hefner, Ben Bradlee, Kirk Douglas, and Tony Curtis, who collectively symbolized masculine regeneration.

Profiles the life of commonsense philosopher and author of the positive thinking movement Dale Carnegie.

Presents a biography of Henry Ford that examines his childhood and early work on automobiles, his development of the Model T and Model A, establishment of the first assembly line, and his controversial personal and private life.

Presents a biography of Henry Ford examining his childhood and early work on automobiles, his development of the Model T and Model A, establishment of the first assembly line, as well as his sometimes controversial personal and private life.

Biography of American animator Walt Disney the creator of Mickey Mouse, looking at his use of television, film, and theme parks to reflect his ideas about middle-class values and life in small town America.