Poplorica: A Popular History of the Fads, Mavericks, Inventions, and Lore that Shaped Modern America [Hardcover]

Martin J. Smith (Author), Patrick J. Kiger (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 30, 2004

Pop culture meets pop reference in this irreverent tour of twenty unlikely events, innovations, and individuals that forever changed how we live today -- the food we eat, the places we live, the love we make, the fads we follow, the clothes we wear, the products we buy, and much more.

Veteran journalists Martin J. Smith and Patrick J. Kiger make the offbeat their beat, revealing the odd, surprising, and amusing origins of inexplicable cultural phenomena. From slam dunks to rock 'n' roll punks, permanent press to pantyhose, black velvet painting to point-click culture, high-tech diapers to low-brow entertainment -- they cover sports, business, music, media, film, fashion, and science, and explain a lot about why life today is so weird:

• If homeowners hate yardwork, why do most suburban homes have lawns?
• In the best-fed country on earth, how did thin become "in"?
• When did the "convenience" of convenience food become more important than the food?
• Was the sexual revolution really sparked by the disastrous honeymoon of a science geek?
• Why are today's multimillion-dollar design and marketing plans for cars based on the biggest failure in automotive history?
• How did the invention of air conditioning radically rebalance political power and affect the paths of presidents?

The untold, unexpected, sometimes unholy stories are here, providing instant inside knowledge and richly entertaining insights into how and why we live as we do.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Who'd have thought that Willis Carrier's "Apparatus for Treating Air," an early air conditioner patented in 1906, would set the stage for the Republican domination of Washington that started with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 (by allowing for a population shift to the hotter Southern states)? Or that 260 tons of leftover turkey would help usher in a profound change in the way Americans eat and socialize with their families (by stuffing the first TV dinners)? Smith (a Los Angeles Times Magazine editor) and Kiger (a freelancer and regular contributor to Discovery.com) share 20 similarly significant milestones in this "Cliff Notes of contemporary culture" chronicling some overlooked but strangely influential moments in American history. A melange of strange occurrences, the book is brisk and frisky, addressing everything from the extracurricular exploits of sex researcher Alfred Kinsey to the way in which former first lady Betty Ford's public struggle with addiction presaged an era that would finally accept drug and alcohol abuse as a disease and not a moral failing. Though its yuckity-yuck style approaches the cornball at times, the book succeeds in placing into context the chosen developments in a breezy, compulsively readable fashion. Thanks to these two research-happy authors, readers may decide it's okay to restore that velvet Elvis to its honored place above the mantle, where it can enjoy a second life as a treasured piece of ironic Americana. All history should be this much fun.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Smith and Kiger's collection of historical oddments traces the people and fads that have constituted American popular culture over the years. It's the chronicle of the likes of Frank J. Smith, whose The Art of Beautifying Suburban Home Grounds of Small Extent (1870) spawned Americans' fascination with lawn care and, eventually, the omnipresent home-improvement shows that clutter the cableways today. Equally influential in the 1950s was Robert Harrison, whose delightfully sleazy magazine, Confidential, perfected the celebrities-and-scandal formula without which waiting in supermarket checkout lines would be nigh unendurable. And then there's Edgar Leetag, forced to paint on black velvet when his Tahitian art supplier ran out of monk's cloth. Did he or the clerk who suggested the substitution have "an inkling of the twisted aesthetic that ultimately would spring from" the chance transaction? Other wellsprings of the way we live now that Smith and Kiger celebrate include the 1953 invention of panty hose, the sex research of Alfred Kinsey, and (praise God!) Willis Carrier's 1902 invention of air conditioning. Mike Tribby
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Harper; 1 edition (March 30, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060535318
• ISBN-13: 978-0060535315
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,120,613 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Interesting Read, April 19, 2004

By 

Elizabeth Hendry (New Jersey USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Poplorica: A Popular History of the Fads, Mavericks, Inventions, and Lore that Shaped Modern America (Hardcover)

Poplorica is quite an interesting read--the authors have chosen 20 innovative ideas, things or trends and written essays on how this particular thing has drastically changed the face of America, at least in its own little slice of life. All chapters are interesting, some more interesting than others--but that's probably going to depend on the reader's interest anyway. The book delves into assumptions many of us take for granted (and the younger you are, the more of these assumptions you probably do take for granted). For instance, what was music life like before the electric guitar. If it weren't for Les Paul and other innovative musicians, we wouldn't have those fabulous guitar solos we so enjoy now. Why does every suburban house have a lawn? Did you ever stop to think about all of the changes the disposable diaper made possible? This is an entertaining and thought-provoking book, if only because it makes you think a bit about various aspects of American culture and how they got they way they are.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A really wild, funny book, May 6, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Poplorica: A Popular History of the Fads, Mavericks, Inventions, and Lore that Shaped Modern America (Hardcover)

Pros: the writers have a nice, easy to read style, filled with plenty of ironic humor.
Cons: they should have done 25 items instead of 20!

POPLORICA is a very absorbing and amusing book, filled with strange facts and events--how a young Muhammad Ali, for example, copied the flamboyant style of cross-dressing wrestler Gorgeous George, after meeting him on a radio show, how Alfred Kinsey became a sex researcher after his own disastrous honeymoon, why Americans are so obsessed with their lawns and with losing weight, how the electric guitar was invented, etc. The book is divided into 20 chapters and each one is a separate story, so it's ideal reading material if you only have a few minutes at a time to pick it up....a great book to read on a plane trip or the beach, or to leave on your nightstand. Every chapter has some sort of strange, odd surprise in it that will leave you laughing.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE OPERATIVE NUMBER - 5/5, May 15, 2004

By 

"missyalots" (Sherwood Park, Alberta, CAN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Poplorica: A Popular History of the Fads, Mavericks, Inventions, and Lore that Shaped Modern America (Hardcover)

Combining wit, humour, history and sociology into one book proves to be an exciting cultural adventure for Kiger and Smith. The things that we take for granted and their implications for modern life are laid out with such a sense of fun, that you almost forgive the guys who created air conditioning and tv dinners for their contributions to a comfortable, yet more isolated world. One reference to George W. Bush in the book is so unexpected that it makes one laugh out loud, then long for the old days of high ceilings and accordion fans. As a Canadian who hates mowing lawns, it is comforting to know that we didn't start the trend, but annoying to see how like always, we seem to follow. (My "Canadian Identity" was shattered after realizing that I knew of each and every innovation in this book quite well...LOL) And the chapter on Kinsey makes one wonder how a guy who knew so little became the most knowledgeable man in the world in his field....

Read it, pass it on, use it for those times you have a lag in the conversation, and need "a little known fact" to jumpstart it again. It should also be required reading for modern history classes and sociology majors who need something concrete to illustrate how a little thing can make a big difference culturally. This book is like finding the dump on an archeological dig- thrilling and important, but much less dirty, and a heck of a lot more fun to dig through.