Michael Barson

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BIOGRAPHY

Michael Barson is the author of more than a dozen books that examine various facets of American popular culture in the 20th century, about which he has been interviewed by National Public Radio on several occasions. He has a Ph.D. in American Culture and a Masters degree in Popular Culture, both from Bowling Green State University in Ohio. Born in Massachusetts at the dawn of the Eisenhower era, Barson has lived and worked in the New York City area since 1981. At present he is Senior Director of Publicity for Putnam.

Barson is the author of more than a dozen books, including Agonizing Love: The Golden Era of Romance Comics (2011), True West: An Illustrated Guide to the Heyday of the Western (2008), Red Scared! The Commie Menace in Propaganda and Popular Culture (2001), and Teenage Confidential: An Illustrated History of the American Teen (1998, 2005).

Primary Contributions (186)

Articles

Preston Sturges

Preston Sturges was an American motion-picture director, screenwriter, and playwright best known for a series of hugely popular satirical comedies that he made in the early 1940s. Sturges made his mark at a time when talk in large part had supplanted images as the driving force in filmmaking.…

William Cameron Menzies

Franklin J. Schaffner

Publications (3)

Red Scared!: The Commie Menace in Propaganda and Popular Culture

By Steven Heller, Michael Barson

Red Scared! Reproduces The Books, Films, Magazines, Posters, Games, And Other Media That Trumpeted The Commie Threat. Vivid Renditions In Pulp Novels And Films Of Menacing Commie Commissars And Evil, Anti-capitalist Militarists Haunted Governmental Crackdowns On Suspected Spy Rings And The Notorious Mccarthy Years. Red Scared! Offers Valuable Lessons From The Vault On How To Identify Communists, Media Reports On The Jolly Side Of Stalin, Guidelines For Bomb Shelter Chic, And Much More. As They Did...

The Illustrated Who's Who of Hollywood Directors: The Sound Era (1995)

By Michael Barson

Agonizing Love: The Golden Era of Romance Comics

By Michael Barson

Agonizing Love is a rich anthology of those legendary romance comic books that once filled newsstands to overflowing during their heyday in the 1940s and '50s. "I Craved His Kisses," "With Hate in My Heart," "Kisses Came Second," "Flame of Jealousy," "Was I a Wicked Wife?": these stories are just a taste of the absolutely riveting dramas that play out in the sob-racked pages of this evocative collection. Agonizing Love—is there any other kind?—runs the narrative gamut from honeymoon...