Freak Show: Presenting Human Oddities for Amusement and Profit - Softcover

Bogdan, Robert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0226063127 ISBN 13: 9780226063126

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 1990

Synopsis

From 1840 until 1940, freak shows by the hundreds crisscrossed the United States, from the smallest towns to the largest cities, exhibiting their casts of dwarfs, giants, Siamese twins, bearded ladies, savages, snake charmers, fire eaters, and other oddities. By today's standards such displays would be considered cruel and exploitative—the pornography of disability. Yet for one hundred years the freak show was widely accepted as one of America's most popular forms of entertainment.

Robert Bogdan's fascinating social history brings to life the world of the freak show and explores the culture that nurtured and, later, abandoned it. In uncovering this neglected chapter of show business, he describes in detail the flimflam artistry behind the shows, the promoters and the audiences, and the gradual evolution of public opinion from awe to embarrassment. Freaks were not born, Bogdan reveals; they were manufactured by the amusement world, usually with the active participation of the freaks themselves. Many of the "human curiosities" found fame and fortune, becoming the celebrities of their time, until the ascent of professional medicine transformed them from marvels into pathological specimans.

About this title

About the Author:

Robert Bogdan is professor of special education, cultural foundations of education, and sociology at Syracuse University.

Review:

"A stunning achievement in cultural history." Philadelphia Inquirer

"A fine example of what has emerged as a major genre in the field of social history: the study of phenomena on the margins of society in order to illuminate developments at the core." Cullen Murphy, Atlantic

"This is a cool and careful look at an inflammatory subject." Laurie Block, Washington Post

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 1990
• ISBN 10: 0226063127
• ISBN 13: 9780226063126
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336