Gary McDonogh. Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture

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to make the point that while they were representing their country, that country

discriminated against them (both were suspended from the US team).

The 1968 Olympics also witnessed major trackand-field landmarks: Bob Beamon won

the gold medal in the long jump with a world record (29ft, 2½ in), shattering the old mark

y nearly 2 feet (unlike most records, this one remained unbroken until 1991 when Mike

Powell jumped 2 inches further); and Dick Fosbury fundamentally altered the high jump

with his “Fosbury Flop.”

Two other track-and-field stars deserve mention. Florence Griffith Joyner (1959–98),

known as “FloJo,” was a triple gold medalist at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. She was

recognized around the world for both her colorful and asymmetrical running outfits and

her long, painted fingernails. Smashing the world records for the 100- and 200-meter runs

in Seoul and also winning a gold medal in the 4×100 relay, she later served as

cochairperson of President Clinton’s Council on

Physical Fitness,

before suffering a

heart attack and dying in 1998. As with Rudolph before her, Griffith Joyner’s

performances challenged assumptions about the relationship between

sport and gender

Carl Lewis (1961–) dominated track-and-field events throughout much of the 1980s

and early 1990s. Unable to run in Moscow because of the boycott, Lewis amassed a

record in sprints and long jump equaled by no other athlete. Widely regarded as the

greatest track-and-field athlete of all time, he matched Jesse Owen’s record in 1984, won

three medals in 1988 (two gold and one silver) and another two gold medals in 1992. At

the 1991 World Championships in Tokyo he also set the world record for the 100m (9.86

seconds).

ee also:

Olympians; running; steroids

ROBERT GREGG

trade and trade agreements

For much of American history, trade policy has meant protection of domestic resources

and fledgling industries through tariffs and controls on importation. In the postwar

eriod, however, a stronger America has lowered its own trade barriers substantially

while using trade as a carrot and stick, reducing barriers globally in order to open markets

internationally to US goods, agricultural, industrial and intellectual, and to affirm special

relationships (“most favored nation status”). Economists, on the whole, tend to favor free

trade, foreseeing greater efficiency and long-run benefits.

Global trade increased more than fourteen-fold from 1950 to 1998, contributing to

improved standards of living/consumption for many in the US and abroad. This growth

also has resulted in a large persistent American trade deficit since the 1970s and diverse

reactions from the American people to arrangements made by both the government and

multinational negotiators under the GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, first

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signed in 1947) and the WTO (World Trade Organization) that has replaced it since

1994/5.

America’s undamaged industrial and agricultural infrastructure allowed it to capture a

preeminent place in global marketing in the postwar

eriod, which was eventually

undercut by its own development practices and investments that created cheaper, more

efficient manufacturing abroad. Hence, former enemies Japan and Germany have become

major sources of the trade deficit along with neighbors

Mexico

and

Canada

(under

AFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement) and new Asian industrial nations.

By contrast, the US ran a surplus with Europe until 1991, and maintains this relationship

with Britain and the Netherlands. Trade balances may be affected by limits and subsidies

(in the case of the European Union and Japan) or by weaknesses in local currency and

markets that undercut buying power (Canada, Mexico, Asia). Trade wars may be raged

through such apparently unlikely products as bananas (with Europe) or film (with Japan).

Relations with

China

have created especially thorny issues.

Such imbalances in manufacture and trade cost jobs in the United States, even when

they involve offshore investments of American corporations and

miultinationals,

leading

unions to charge that profits and consumption are being traded for workers’ lives. Issues

of environmental conditions of the non-US workplace, child labor, respect for intellectual

roperty, morality and political regimes and related topics have also been brought by

critics to debates over trade as moral policy.

Many of these issues were galvanized in the debate surrounding NAFTA (1994), which

1992 third-party candidate Ross Perot characterized by a “giant sucking sound” of jobs

going to Mexico, but which nonetheless gained approval with solid bipartisan presidential

and congressional support. To some extent, NAFTA built on years of special relations

among the three North American states, including many measures for development of the

Mexican American

borderlands

. Critics both before and after passage have challenged

its impact on employment and wages, both in the US and an increasingly polarized

Mexico, as well as failures to protect the environment and human rights equally under the

agreement.

Frustration with the impacts of such agreement spilled out into days of civil action at

the WTO meetings in

Seattle, WA

in 1999. Unions, environmentalists, anarchists and

other citizens from the US and abroad joined in to protest both policies and domination o

trade by this international group. Thus, trade became a popular as well as political issue

in a new way for the nation and the world.

Further reading

Coffey P.

et al

(1999)

NAFTA,

Boston: Kluwer.

GARY McDONOGH

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trains

Train stations tell the stories of railroads since the Second World War. Once, they were

the temples of nineteenth-century American civic progress. Transcontinental railroads

(built by immigrant Irish, Chinese and Mexicans as well as

African Americans

) united

peoples and goods, and stations became marble and gilt gateways for

cities

. Cities and

companies competed; even small towns vied for connections and identity within national

mass transportation. The demolition of

New York

City, NY’s Pennsylvania Station in

1963, a rallying point for

historic preservation,

and the conversion of other once-

roud

stations to museums

(Savannah, GA),

malls

(Cincinnati, OH)

and abandonment shows

railroads’ loss of position to

automobiles, trucks

and airplanes. Despite 1990s plans for

a new “old” Penn Station in New York—in the shell of a central post office now more

effectively connected to trucks and air—outside the Northeast and some Pacific Rim

routes, new generations of Americans experience domestic railroads as nostalgic rides in

amusement parks or along special, scenic routes. Even in media, railroads belong to

westerns, film noir

and Disneyworld rather than contemporary life.

American railroads emerged in a constant interaction of government interests and

rivate speculation. By the turn of the nineteenth century, the Interstate Commerce

Commission had taken control over the worst excesses of cut-throat capitalism and

corruption. Trains were taken over temporarily by the government in the First World War

and remained strong and central economically through the Second World War. They

were also embedded in popular culture as film backdrops, settings for arrivals and

departures for

war,

college

and new lives, and the tracks on which presidential

campaigns and hoboes rode.

By the 1950s, diesel engines were replacing steam and panoramic cars added new

dimensions to western runs. Yet, the Interstate

Highway

system slowly ate into freight

and passenger revenues. Trucks were more flexible in cargo, while pipelines and barges

also cut into cargo profits. Expanding airlines later captured passengers and rapid

delivery. Meanwhile, railroads, with a century of contracts and regulations, found

themselves unable to trim budgets or staff while taxed to pay for new airports. By 1965

railroads carried only 18 percent of total intercity passenger service and only 44 percent

of freight. Most ran deficits and sought to consolidate via mergers; the giant Penn Central

declared bankruptcy in 1970.

Here, government intervention was called upon to save public service. Amtrak was

created in 1971, providing government support to maintain a multicompany national

assenger service. A similar freight plan, Conrail, built on the Penn Central and other

ankrupt northeastern lines in 1976. Corporate mergers consolidated other regional

freight service as railroads steadily cut workers and lines, increasing efficiency and

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ultimately stabilizing freight handling. President Carter promoted deregulation in 1980,

allowing railroads to change rates and compete with other transport. In 1995 rail freight

doubled its 1944 peak, although only holding 37 percent of the market. Conrail was sold

to the public in 1984, although Amtrak continued to struggle, despite its rapid reserved

Metroliner service in the Northeast and vacation packages. Clinton eliminated the ICC in

1995.

Politicians and entrepreneurs have nonetheless sought to keep passenger travel alive

and connecting their regions. In the late 1990s, the Northeast prepared for new high-

speed trains. Auto-trains connected northern vacationers and Florida, while West Coast

lines and regional connector systems grew. Another rapid line is proposed for Florida, to

connect Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville and Miami. Still, these generally demand

government subsidies, which raise questions among citizens and representatives for

whom rail service is no longer a daily concern. Problems with wastes and safety have

also been raised with regards to passenger and freight lines—a 1999 television movie, for

example, featured a run-away train carrying nuclear waste.

Commuter rails are more limited and secure, with government subsidies, especially on

the East Coast. Yet, cars and highways carry the future for most Americans. At the same

time, railroads may provide warnings for subsequent developments in mass transportation

and

mass media,

where negotiations of government responsibility over public goods and

private profits continue.

Further reading

Stover, J. (1997)

American Railroads,

Chicago: University of Chicago.

Yenne, B. (1989)

All Aboard,

New York: Barnes & Noble.

GARY McDONOGH

transexuals

Conventionally defined as individuals who have undergone a sex change operation in

order to become a member of the opposite sex. Yet, this definition is imposed upon

transexuals from the largely hostile American mainstream; many transexuals themselves

disagree with it.

First, there are many degrees of transexuality which some transexuals feel are obscured

y the conventional definition. Certain individuals who identify themselves as transexual

do not desire medical intervention. Others have undergone some medical procedures,

such as hormone treatments, yet do not wish to undergo surgical procedures. Finally,

some have undergone an entire sex-change operation.

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Second, the conventional definition assumes that a transexual changes

from

one sex

another. This idea is based on a sex dichotomy which only concedes of two possibilities:

male and female. Some scientists, such as Anne Fausto-Sterling of Brown University,

have argued that there are more than two sexes.

Mainstream American culture generally considers transexuality to be indicative o

abnormal or poorly adjusted individuals. Owing to their deviant status, transexuals

continually face the threat of brutality from those who hate and fear them. Also, the

medical establishment requires transexuals to undergo psychological testing before

treatment is given. It is considered in the best interests of transexuals to be thoroughly

screened before they are allowed to obtain the medical help that they desire.

Unfortunately this process is often experienced as difficult and demeaning by transexual

people themselves.

Further reading

Wilchins, R. (1997)

Read My Lips: Sexual Subversion and the End of Gender,

Ithaca:

Firebrand.

ELIZABETH A.GALEWSKI

transgendered

bisexuality; gay and lesbian life and politics; gender and sexuality

transvestites

Transvestites challenge the established norm for gender behavior. While the most visible

transvestites are the male drag queens, whether politicized or in show business, others

have adopted crossdressing as a more private behavior. Adoption of clothing, hair and

facial preparation and other attributes appropriate to another sex has deep roots in

American folklore and history.

For women, this allowed more freedom to take on roles of power and independence in

wars and immigration (as fictionalized by Barbra

Streisand

Yentl,

1983). As women’s

clothing has become casual and functional, cross-dressing is more complex. Few women

who dress in men’s clothes would call themselves transvestites.

Males have also taken on female clothing for ritualized occasions, including mock

weddings and mock

cheerleading

in the

South,

rites of initiation for male fraternities and

vaudeville humor, whether Milton Berle in early television or New York Mayor Rudolph

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Giuliani on

Saturday Night Live

. Like many others perceived to be engaged in alternative

sexuality, transvestites tended to keep their interests private until liberation movements in

the 1960s opened a wider discussion and range of public behavior. Transvestite males, in

particular, are often taken to be gay although their use of women’s clothing may be based

on other aesthetic or tactile features.

The most flamboyant modern exposure of transvestite life has been the “drag show,”

with male and female celebrity impersonators, following lip-synched song and dance

routines and attracting diverse audiences. Drag shows, as urbane entertainment, have also

broken through in Hollywood and Broadway with comedies like

Victor/Victoria

(1982)

To Wong Fu Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar

(1995), and the celebrity status

accorded to RuPaul. Director Ed Woods, who treated transvestisim as a clinical condition

in his own terrible (now cult) films, was treated as a sympathetic closet transvestite in

Tim Burton’s 1994 bio-pic. Dennis Rodman, the NBA star, has made cross-dressing a

more confrontational issue of

masculinity

and choice in his public demeanor.

This is an area fraught with multiple and contradictory meanings as well as reactions.

Further reading

Feinberg, L. (1998)

Trans Liberation,

Boston: Beacon.

Newton, E. (1972)

Mother Camp: Female Impersonators in America,

Englewood Cliffs:

Prentice-Hall.

Wheelwright, J. (1989)

Amazons and Military Maids,

London: Pandora.

GARY McDONOGH

CINDY WONG

trucks and trucking

The

highways

that reshaped America moved goods as well as passengers.

Experimentation with car bases followed the initial mass production of autos, but trucks

gained special impetus with First World War mobilization. Trucks were produced by the

Big Three automakers as well as specialists like Mack Trucks. In the 1930s they extended

their reach through urban and rural areas, forcing government regulations (although the

situation remained chaotic through the Second World War). As the Interstate Highway

System expanded, trucks became a major force in national transportation, challenging

trains

with their flexibility and connections. Smaller trucks adapted to the urban

landscape—from deliveries to ice-cream vendors whose music evokes summer days and

cold popsicles—or rural work, where pick-ups have replaced horses. Over decades,

moreover, trucks and truckers have changed American geography with truck stops and

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motels and have created an American folklore of the freedom of the road in songs,

language (on CB radios) and activities of the

Teamsters Union

that represents many

drivers.

Trucks may be owned by companies (private carriers) or leased from for-hire carriers.

Roughly 100,000 independent truckers own and operate their own vehicles, although

often within permanent lease arrangements. The 1973

oil

crisis and later deregulation, in

fact, increased some aspects of dependency and lessened government protection. These

truckers, nonetheless, sometimes depicted as modern

cowboys,

have captivated American

media in representations of

class,

independence and generally male stereotypes (in the

female

road movie

Thelma and Louise

(1991), blowing up a man’s truck declares

independence).

Convoy

(1978) and

Over the Top

(1987) offer more standard visions o

men grappling with social challenges. Trucker music—“Six Days on the Road and I’m

Gonna See my Baby Tonight”—has also defined road folklore, alongside “urban

legends” of vanishing hitchhikers and media representations of killer trucks.

Another characteristic adaptation to life on the road is the truck stop, which offers fuel,

food, relaxation, showers, even occasional religious services. Like gas stations, truck

stops have sometimes been templates to play with modernist design, but more often they

are functional service and food clusters near major highways. Nearby

motels

may offer

lodging, but many large trucks are designed with living and sleeping quarters for long

hauls.

This is not to say that trucks are without enemies. Concerns over congestion and safety

in urban areas as well as highway dangers are often spurred by media reports on

speeding, fatigue and accidents. Damage to roadways through overloads and

environmental deterioration are also concerns of a truck-reliant society.

Most of these concerns are aimed at multipleaxle, large vehicles. Other trucks in

common commercial use include vans and pick-ups. In fact, in the 1990s, small pick-up

trucks have moved beyond the workplace to become mass recreational vehicles.

Further reading

Childs, W. (1985)

Trucking and the Public Interest,

Knoxville: University of Tennessee.

Agar, M. (1986)

Independence Declared,

Washington, DC: Smithsonian.

GARY McDONOGH

Truman, Harry S.

b. 1884; d. 1972

Elected

vice-president

in 1944 when Franklin D.

Roosevelt

won a fourth consecutive

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 1142

residential term, Truman became president when Roosevelt died in April 1945. Within

months he had made pivotal foreign-

olicy decisions: at the Potsdam Conference he and

Allied leaders agreed to prosecute German leaders for war crimes committed during the

Second World War; and, in August, he approved the dropping of atomic bombs on

Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki, bringing an end to the Second World War.

Early in the

Cold War,

his administration adopted the Truman Doctrine, which

developed into the policy of “containment” to halt Soviet expansion. One aspect of the

Doctrine was the Marshall Plan, an economic recovery program for European nations,

and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization

(NATO),

a military alliance designed to

protect Western Europe from Soviet aggression.

Truman began the 1948 presidential campaign as an underdog to Republican nominee

Thomas Dewey. However, he defeated Dewey, proving wrong experts and a premature

headline in the

Chicago Tribune:

“Dewey Defeats Truman.”

In June 1950, communist North Korea invaded South Korea, prompting Truman to

send United States forces to the region to protect South Korea. Led by General Douglas

MacArthur,

United Nations’ (UN) troops brought most of South Korea under UN

control by October.

Truman is most often remembered for developing a civil-rights agenda, issuing

executive orders banning discrimination in the civil service and in the armed forces, and

for his phrase, “The buck stops here,” meaning ultimate responsibility rests with the

president.

Further reading

McCullough, D. (1992)

Truman,

New York: Simon & Schuster.

JAMES DEVITT

Trump, Donald

b. 1946

Real-estate financier. In the 1980s, Trump built an estimated $2 billion fortune through

investments in luxury properties in and around

New York

City. Combining bold business

tactics and a high public profile, Trump established himself as a financial and political

power, as well as a social

celebrity

. The early 1990s recession pushed him to the brink o

bankruptcy, but Trump rebounded after ceding control of much of his

real-estate

empire

to creditors. He maintains his association with such prestigious New York City holdings

as the Trump Plaza Hotel and several casinos in

Atlantic City

SARAH SMITH

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Tupperware

Earl Tupper’s refined plastics, used in Second World War gas masks, created a classic

American brand among postwar families who relied on its airtight storage containers for

food storage between shopping trips. Unsuccessful in stores, by the late 1940s,

Tupperware developed direct distributors and Tupperware parties, which mingled

cooking and entertaining demonstrations,

games,

snacks, sociability and sales for female

uyers. The company sells more than $1 billion annually in household, educational and

related goods; 85 percent of sales occur outside the US. After fifty years of parties, it has

experimented with mall kiosks, corporate-controlled online sales, commer cials and

Disney

tie-ins to reach working parents and new consumers.

GARY McDONOGH

turkey

The symbolic weight of this bird crashes onto American dinner tables every

Thanksgiving. Although a New World species, the Pilgrims probably knew it in England

before any mythic dinners of peace with Indians. Still, custom patterns a “traditional”

Thanksgiving menu replete with stuffing, cranberries, potatoes and pies. Regional and

ethnic variations in stuffing (cornbread versus white bread or oysters) and cooking

abound, as do cynical responses in popular media to dry meat and endless leftovers.

Benjamin Franklin proposed the turkey as a national bird instead of the eagle, but it is

also renowned for stupidity, especially as a domestic fowl. While marketed for other

large meals and as a healthy alternative to other kinds of meat, turkey remains bound to

the holiday as a cultural symbol.

GARY McDONOGH

Turner, Ted

b. 1938

Ted Turner (R.E.Turner III) is largely credited for the popularization of

cable

TV with

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TBS, one of the first stations to reach a nationwide audience in 1975. This station carried

only the minimal amount of

news

required by the

FCC

and showed mostly reruns.

Another one of his groundbreaking stations, CNN, was initiated in 1981, and has had an

incredible influence both in news broadcasting and in reporting mostly national events to

international audiences from its Atlanta base. An outspoken and controversial figure, he

is married to actor Jane Fonda; he has challenged other wealthy men to give more with

his planned $10 billion gift to the UN. In 1995 TBS was sold to

Time Warner,

Inc. and

Turner rose to the position of vice-chair within the huge conglomer-ate. He also became

the largest single land-owner in the US in 2000 with 1.7 million acres.

EDWARD MILLER

TV Guide

Brainchild of

Philadelphia Inquirer

publisher Walter Annenberg, TV

Guide

was created

in 1953 as the ephemeral bible of the television generation. It was sold to Rupert

Murdoch in 1988. Its multiple local program guides, meshed with national features on

stars,

programming and even investigative work, have allowed it to vie with

Reader’

iges

as the most popular American

magazine

(13 million plus circulation). Still, like

television,

it remains absent from scholarly settings like

libraries,

even though the

magazine may figure as a

collectible

in its own right. Annenberg, ambassador to Britain

under

Reagan,

used his media wealth to fund communication studies and civic and

educational projects.

GARY McDONOGH

Tyson, Mike

boxing

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