Quickie Comment: The History of the World's Most Famous Board Game

If you grew up, or have lived, in North America, chances are you've played Monopoly. You probably know that the original version is based on Atlantic City, New Jersey. On my first trip to that city at age 11, I earnestly searched for all of the Monopoly streets. If you travel at all, you've seen other versions too: the New York City or Chicago versions, the University of Iowa or Virginia Tech versions, the US National Parks version, and so on and so forth. I grew up playing the American Atlantic City version, with the little metal playing pieces: a dog, a steamboat, a car. . . . When I visited Canada on vacation, I was surprised to learn that there is a Canadian Atlantic City version with completely different playing pieces, including a little wooden milk bottle.

If you go to the Monopoly home page, sponsored by Hasbro (the game's manufacturers), you will read that the game was invented in the 1930s. If you read Philip E. Orbanes book, Monopoly: The World's Most Famous Game - And How It Got That Way, you'll learn that an earlier "folk" version of the game, called The Landlord's Game, had been circulating for about three decades before Hasbro introduced its mass-market version. It seems that Monopoly's history is not as straight-forward as Hasbro would like consumers to believe. Given the game's premise, this is, to say the least, an amusing irony.

If you want to learn more about Orbane's book, you can read David Parlett's fine review of it here. Don't be surprised if, upon reading his review, you're inspired to head over to your nearest bookseller so that you may read more about the world's most famous game. After you've done that, you'll undoubtedly amaze family and friends, the next time you play Monopoly, with your insightful knowledge of the game's provenance. In my case, that may alleviate my pain when I suffer yet another bankruptcy at Park Place.

Pornography: Film and Culture

Editor: Peter Lehman
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 0-8135-3871-8

Pornography: Film and Culture, is a compilation of thirteen essays (fourteen if one includes the editor’s introductory essay) in which British and American scholars examine pornography as social phenomenon, social critique, historical commentary and as film and literary genres. The essays are divided into two sections. The first of these, Historical Context, provides six classic essays that were published in several journals from 1980 – 1999. The second section, Current Directions, provides seven essays written specifically for inclusion in this volume.

Historical Context
The first two essays, both of which first appeared in 1980, place pornography in the social, economic and ideological climate of Great Britain as it stood at that time. These essays, which offer a dialog between two opposed views, provide a solid foundation for all of the essays that follow throughout the rest of the book. These are followed by an insightful examination of the structural parallels between feature-length pornographic films and the classic Broadway/Hollywood musical, and a critical response regarding the shortcomings of this analysis. The fifth essay examines pornography from the perspective of class analysis and discusses how pornography has been allocated the role of “white trash” relative to other film genres. The section’s final essay discusses pornography as historical, social, political and cultural commentary and as a means by which individuals define their sexual identities in accordance with or opposition to its representations.

Current Directions
The first essay in this section examines a body of pornographic literary and video texts found in Penthouse Letters. This examination is followed by a study of the transition from pornography transmitted via film technology to a video-based form, a shift that significantly affected the economics, production and distribution of pornography. Formal, technological and economic transitions of the past two centuries have been accompanied by legal challenges, which are discussed in the next essay. This legal discussion precedes an analysis of the role of comedy in pornography in which the author argues that, given pornography’s intensely personal subject matter, comedy must be, and frequently is, handled with great care. The next essay discusses the prevalence of racism, particularly with regard to Asians, in pornography. This discussion is followed by an examination of Internet pornography, which, the author contends, reinforces “white privilege” to the detriment of other groups, which are either excluded entirely (Native Americans) or denigrated by the perpetuation of longstanding, harmful stereotypes (African Americans and Asians). The book’s final essay discusses the problems that have arisen because most research on pornography does not attend to the perspectives of the millions of people who consume it. The author contends that inclusion of consumers’ perspectives would dispel, or at least counterbalance, many of the myths and misunderstandings that dominate public discussions of pornography.

Given this book’s subtitle, it is not surprising that it focuses primarily on pornography as a film genre and pays scant attention to pornographic art and literature, both of which have far longer histories than pornographic films. Given the astonishing amount of pornography that has been available historically on film and is available currently via videotapes, DVDs and the Internet, this is certainly a legitimate and fruitful area for an inquiry into pornography’s aesthetics, forms and social functions.

This is an outstanding collection of essays. The five female and eight male authors who contributed to this volume hold a range of positions regarding the aesthetic, social and personal values of pornography. Notwithstanding their individual proclivities, they all agree that pornography is a cultural phenomenon that should be examined with professional care and integrity. As they demonstrate through these essays, for better or worse, pornography plays at least four significant social roles. First, it provides insight into social and cultural attitudes regarding sexual norms at particular moments in time. Second, it serves as a powerful vehicle for promoting or excluding particular sexual practices. Third, it provides insight into race and class issues that pervade all aspects of socialization. And fourth, it provides a norm by which many individuals define and measure their sexual identities.

Readers interested in film history will benefit from reading this book, as it provides a good grounding in the development of a frequently overlooked film genre. Additionally, readers interested in sexuality studies will find much useful material here, as will readers interested in critical race, class and gender studies. On the other hand, readers offended by sexually explicit material, or material that may not align with their convictions regarding pornography’s role in society, will likely want to steer clear of it.

Ambitious Brew: The Story of American Beer

Author: Maureen Ogle
Publisher: Harcourt, Inc.
ISBN: 0-15-101012-9

In the 1830s, few Americans had ever heard of, let alone tasted, beer. At that time, rum and whiskey were the favorite beverages of the American drinking public, with English ale running a distant third. Over the next half-century, however, thousands of enterprising German immigrants transformed American tastes so that, by 1880, beer had decisively supplanted all other liquors as the American national beverage. Ambitious Brew is an engaging account of that transformation.

The fashioning of an industry required the development of numerous technological and commercial innovations. Starting out as small operators that supplied local saloons, early brewers had to devise ways to ensure consistent quality in every batch of beer they made. Upon solving that problem, brewers who expanded their operations had to resolve issues related to the preservation, distribution and packaging of their products. They had to extend the shelf life of beer so that it would be consumable when it arrived at distant destinations. This was accomplished by experimenting with recipes and by using refrigerated railroad cars for shipping. Moreover, reliable transportation and sales networks had to be cultivated. And, to protect their reputations and prevent saloon keepers from diluting their brews, or replacing them with lower quality swill, brewers began shipping large quantities of their beer in labeled bottles rather than kegs. Thus, as the brewing industry expanded, secondary industries grew alongside it.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a growing temperance movement threatened to dismantle the empires of such brewing giants as Anheuser-Busch, Pabst, Schlitz and others. The brewers, aware that taxes on their products accounted for more than one-third of the American government’s revenues, paid little attention to their critics. Their security was shattered in 1913, when Congress ratified the Sixteenth Amendment that established the income tax as a major source of revenue. This amendment, in conjunction with the cumulative successes of the temperance movement over the previous several decades, made conditions favorable for the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment, which prohibited the production, sale and consumption of all alcoholic beverages in the United States. In January 1919, Prohibition became the law of the land.

Prohibition (enacted in 1919) was in effect from 1920 until 1933. During that time, some brewers kept their businesses alive by producing soft drinks and “near” (non-alcoholic) beer. Others diversified their companies and produced a variety of goods. Needless to say, most brewers did not survive. Those who did discovered that American culture had changed dramatically in a short fourteen year span. The American public had developed a taste for Coca Cola rather than beer. An entire generation had grown up without ever tasting beer. Thus, in the post-Prohibition era, brewers had to cultivate new images and new markets for their products. These struggles continue to this day, as American liquor consumption is still lower than it was before Prohibition.

The period from the 1930s through the 1960s was a time of consolidation. Many small and medium sized breweries went out of business or were bought out by larger companies. In the latter decades of the twentieth century, this trend toward increased centralization was countered by the home brewing movement and the microbrewing industry. Currently, even though Anheuser-Busch and Miller dominate American brewing (these two companies sell over 50% of all beer consumed in the USA), small and regional brewers are making a comeback. In the early twenty-first century, large and small brewers are learning from each other and rejuvenating the brewing industry. In Ogle’s opinion, an exciting future is open for business to the next generation of innovative brewers.

Carefully researched, filled to the brim with technical information and populated with colorful personalities, Ambitious Brew provides a unique lens through which to examine American culture. Ambitious Brew is more than a story about the indelible imprint German immigrants made on their adopted land. And it is more than a tale of how American consumers prompted those immigrants to adapt traditional products for new palates. Indeed, at its heart, Ambitious Brew is the fascinating story of how distinct cultural features have blended to enrich the fabric of a vibrant society. It is a story that needed to be told, and Ogle has told it very well. Beer aficionados and readers interested in popular culture and history will enjoy Ambitious Brew.