Gary McDonogh. Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture

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$18 for three-day admissions, paying performers and controlling film rights. Nonetheless,

the experience of being there created an alternative vision of

Woodstock Nation

(1969).

This myth also opposed the Rolling Stone’s Altamount concert that year, at which Hells’

Angels, hired as bodyguards, beat a fan to death (recorded in David and Albert Maysle’s

Gimme Shelter,

1970).

Attempts to recreate this event/ambiance have proven less successful. Woodstock

1994, the twenty-fifth anniversary, became highly commercialized, with sponsorship

from Polygram and Pepsi and pay-per-view retransmission; musician Neil Young dubbed

it “Greedstock.” Although Woodstock 1999 gathered strong contemporary bands and

1969 veterans, it, too, was marred by costs and commercialism ($150 entrance tickets).

Fires and destruction at closing and a disturbing misogyny marked by reports of multiple

rapes, made it seem even further from the original or its myth. Whether the result of the

high expectations set by the first or increasingly exploitative concerts and festivals in the

interim, it seems one cannot go back to Yasgur’s farm.

Further reading

Hoffman, A. (1969)

Woodstock Nation,

New York: Vintage.

Makower, J. (1989)

Woodstock: The Oral History,

New York: Doubleday

GARY McDONOGH

working class

If the

middle class

represents “the American dream,” the situation, goals and meanings

of working-class life and identity are immediately thrown into question in the United

States. Since the Second World War, one notes a continual decline in the presence,

organization and impact of the working class as a result of both intergenerational changes

in working-class families and external pressures from government and business. Indeed,

the American working class at the end of the century tended to be represented in negative

or nostalgic terms. Moreover, difference in work itself in the postwar period complicated

any definitions that might convey an identification of working-class and factory life. Are

service workers working class, whether flipping burgers at

McDonald’s

or typing in an

office? Truckers? Farmers? Artists and

intellectuals

who speak for a

class

Hence, it is impossible to talk about American working-class culture or organization in

a sense comparable to traditions of Europe or Latin America. In fact, even while the

situation of workers has become endangered by deindustrialization, lack of welfare safety

nets, offshore production and imports, their response has tended to be conservative and

patriotic. Nonetheless, the

Left

has seen this class as a potential locus for organization

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 1226

whose success might be epitomized in activities protesting

trade agreements

like the

WTO in Seattle (1999).

Since the emergence of American industrialization, certain features have worked

against the cohesion of working-class consciousness and action. One of these was the

ideology of individual worth and mobility that the United States has held dear. Even i

workers were trapped in a routine, they were taught that their children might find more

security and gain, through education, homeownership, connections and hard work—the

working class was a point of origin, not an end. Here, class and gender also coincided as

the mother became especially charged with guiding children upward (or, in the case o

the 1930s tearjerker

Stella Dallas,

not holding them back).

This was also tied to the politics of

immigration

and ethnicity. As immigrants found

work in factories, they began to assimilate and identified mobility with citizenship. This

meant that in the postwar period, Americanism could be identified with moving to the

suburbs

out of the old neighborhood (a battleground with new races or ethnicities trying

to enter the workplace), replacing the blue-collar work shirt with a white shirt and tie, and

getting a college education. Again, a generational perspective was important, as the GI

Bill, 1950s prosperity and limits on new immigration promoted a generalized sense o

mobility. Moreover,

race

clearly divided this class.

Some were left behind—especially where class intersected with race.

African

Americans

moved into the Northeastern and Midwestern industrial workforce with the

Great Migration, but found their opportunities for advancement constrained. Even in the

Second World War and civil-rights era, they were often “last hired, first fired.” For many

blacks, a solid upper-working-class job—post office or steady employment—has been

read instead as a marker of middle-class identity. Single mothers, white and black, also

constitute a large proportion of the “working poor.”

Yet the dynamics of the disappearance of the working class do not rest with the

working class. Business and government have long been uneasy about working-class

organizations, especially if they betray any leftist or revolutionary consciousness (often

imputed to “foreignness” or “anti-American sentiments”). Businesses have fought

unions

for a century often with government assistance. Meanwhile, both elites have often co-

opted workers into a sense of an American mission—to fight the Depression, win wars

(where the working classes, black and white, are more likely to be soldiers), or rally

against

communism

. Perhaps the most successful manipulation of this was the

Reagan

Revolution of 1980, where a conservative, elite Republican establishment rallied workers

against the perceived threats of welfare moms, illegal immigrants and the Evil Empire

rather than around issues of security safer and more just societies or healthcare and

environmental stewardship.

The imagery of the working class in the US problematizes consciousness and culture.

Working-class culture is often defined, even in academic tomes, in terms of deficits or

substitutes for institutions that reaffirm the middle class—neighborhoods, bars and

churches for clubs and civic associations, etc. Clothes, accent, behavior and even body

type tend to be treated as inferior versions of a middle-class norm (uneasily aping upper-

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class representations). Hence Paul Fussell writes sarcastically in

Class

that “If you can

gauge people’s proximity to prole status by the color and polyester content of their

garments, legibility of their dress is another sign…. When proles assemble to enjoy

leisure, they seldom appear in clothing without words on it” (1992:56).

ass media

representations also affirm this generally negative overview, sometimes

interlaced with nostalgia for a simple life now lost. Many actors use working class

roles—smudged and unglamorous—in a manner analogous to portrayals of the

disabled—to show their skills in being what they actively are not. Barbara Stanwyck in

Stella Dallas

(1937) Jane Fonda and Robert De Niro in

Stanley and Iris

(1989) and

Sharon Stone in

The Mighty

(1999) all demarcate a tradition of the working class as other

for Hollywood. Works like John Sayle’s

Matewan

(1987) or some works of Barry

Levinson and John Waters, among others, present more independent exceptions.

Television has done little more, although there were appeals to ethnic working-class

neighborhoods in the golden age and a clear exaltation of working-class domesticity in

The Honeymooners

(CBS, 1955–71). The

Roseanne

(ABC, 1988–97) show, starring

female comedian Roseanne Barr, also confronted issues of job insecurity and family

udget, domestic tension, teenage behavior and other issues with humor and integrity

Documentaries, including

Salt of the Earth,

Barbara Kopple’s

Harlan County USA

(1976) and

American Dream

(1990) and grassroots/activist videos have confronted these

issues more politically

While this may seem to present a bleak portrait of the working class and its future, one

should not overlook possibilities of organization and action in coalition that continue to

crop up in cities, environmental causes and even international politics. These are

especially important where divisions of race, ethnicity and gender are overcome. Even

intergenerational differences may pose compelling questions about the dream and its

costs for children and grandchildren of working-class families.

Further reading

Fussell, P. (1992)

Class,

New York: Simon & Schuster.

Kelley, R. (1997)

Yo’ mama’s disfunktional!,

Boston: Beacon Press.

(1985)

Labor in America: a Historical Bibliography,

Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio.

(1949–)

Labor in Postwar America

(periodical).

Roediger, D. (1999)

The Wages of Whiteness,

London: Verso.

Terkel, S. (1974)

Working,

New York: Pantheon.

GARY McDONOGH

world’s fairs

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 1228

International celebrations hosted by American cities (and American participation abroad)

has highlighted the growing strength of the nation and significant visions for the future.

Chicago, IL’s

World’s Columbian Exposition (1893) shifted American urbanism

towards the planned City Beautiful, while the 1939 New York World’s Fair (controlled

by Robert

Moses)

foreshadowed technological shifts to follow the Second World War.

Later, while

Seattle

(1962) focused on science and the 1964–5 New York World’s Fair

introduced exciting futuristic visions and Disney audio-animatronics, other fairs have

been seen as economic and urbanistic failures (Knoxville, Tennessee, 1982;

New

Orleans, LA,

1984); enthusiasm shifted towards the Olympic media stage. American

articipation abroad has produced notable buildings but it, too, has lacked enthusiastic

government and corporate support, especially in Brussels (1958) when exhibits treated

America’s social problems. Subsequent exhibits abroad have stressed space and

technology as well as innovative design like Buckminster

Fuller’s

geodesic dome for

Montreal (1968).

GARY McDONOGH

Wounded Knee

In 1973 the American Indian Movement (AIM) occupied the town of Wounded Knee,

South Dakota, the site of the massacre of Sioux Indians in 1890. The

American Indian

activists wanted to draw attention to the impoverished social conditions on Native

American reservations. In response, FBI agents (fresh from their battles with Black

Panthers) stormed the town killing an activist. These events were portrayed in the

docudrama

Incident at Oglala—The Leonard Peltier Story

(1992). The conflict marked a

new, more militant phase in the resistance to oppression among American Indians.

ROBERT GREGG

wrestling

Two very different stories are encompassed in the term “wrestling”—the

college

and

rofessional games. College wrestling has been strong since the nineteenth century and

featured in the revived

Olympic Games

held in Greece in 1896. There are now believed

to be around 750,000 participants in the sport nationwide, with a large number

concentrated in Pennsylvania and Ohio, the heartland of the sport.

The amateur sport has come under threat from a number of directions, however. First,

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the impact of

Title IX

has been felt most heavily in minor sports like wrestling without

female opportunity Unwilling to cut into funding for football programs to make money

available for women’s sports, colleges tended to cut back on wrestling. Of the 788

schools with programs in 1982, only 247 have programs in 1997.

This has had an impact on the number of scholarships available to wrestlers and has

served to increase the intensity of the competition in wrestling. There is a long history o

wrestlers trying to lose weight to remain in a lower weight class, but since 1997 there

have been at least three deaths at colleges resulting from starvation and dehydration. One

wrestler, for example, who normally weighed over 235 pounds attempted to wrestle at

190 pounds. Managing to bring his weight down to 195 pounds, he died of heart failure.

Deaths have also occurred due to muscle-

uilding dietary supplements like creatine.

These events have caused the

NCAA

to place new restrictions on the way wrestlers shed

ounds, ending the use of rubber exercise suits and diuretics. Amateur wrestling was also

tainted by its association with John Du Pont, a multimillionaire who had never fulfilled

his own wrestling ambitions. After funding the American Olympic team for many years

and providing housing on his grounds, Du Pont shot and killed Dave Schultz, the leading

American freestyle wrestler, in 1996.

Professional wrestling was transformed after the Second World War with the new

medium of

television

and the establishment of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) in

1948 by Midwestern promoters. Instead of merely presenting athletic bouts, as previously

these promoters staged athletic

soap operas

with themes of good against evil and o

American wrestlers fighting off foreign enemies—Japanese, Middle-Eastern, or Soviet.

Although these events required great physical prowess and considerable training, the

choreography involved fundamentally altered the nature of wrestling as a sport.

The 1980s saw a further explosion of wrestling on cable television. Ted Turner bought

out the NWA in 1988 and established World Championship Wrestling (WCW), which

ecame a mainstay of TNT, TBS and USA networks. The World Wrestling Federation

(WWF) emerged as the other dominant wrestling federation picked up by a variety o

television channels. In addition, many local professional organizations appeared in the

late 1990s that promoted the same style of wrestling but in which the wrestlers, with great

fan enthusiasm, suffered actual injuries.

Wrestling, with its combination of acting and athleticism, has become central to

American popular culture. Commercials and movies frequently feature wrestlers like

“Hollywood” (socalled by his detractors) Hulk Hogan, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin and

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Sony PlayStations and other television consoles feature

games that many children can play from which they can learn moves and holds that they

try out with their friends, occasionally with catastrophic results. The death of a young boy

clothes-lined by his elder brother, has fueled the controversy about the impact o

television violence on the young.

The election of former wrestler Jesse Ventura, as

governor

of Minnesota on a reform

ticket, has illustrated the cultural significance of professional wrestling, helping to

determine the outcome of a contest in the sport of name-recognition—politics.

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 1230

ROBERT GREGG

Wright, Frank Lloyd

b. 1869; d. 1959

Wright’s buildings reinforce American ideals of democracy individual

freedom

and

family

. His inexpensive

middle-class

Usonian (United States-onian) homes and low,

extended Prairie houses have led to the development of a uniquely American,

suburban

housing type. Consistent placement of the fireplace at the heart of a house was both a

metaphorical and physical organizing principle. He utilized natural imagery and materials

while accepting modern machinery demonstrated in the Fallingwater house, Larkin

Building and the Guggenheim Museum. His promotion of the American natural and

social landscape in architecture still influences design decades after his death.

BIANCA T.SIEGL

Wright, Richard

b. 1908; d. 1960

After a difficult childhood described in his auto-biography

Black Boy

(1945), Wright

moved from Tennessee to

Chicago, IL

in 1927 hoping to become a writer. In the

Depression he belonged to the Communist Party; in 1935, he also joined the Federal

Writers Project of the Works Progress Administration. By 1937 he moved away from the

Communist

Party and Chicago, resettling in

Harlem, NY

. In 1938 Wright published

Uncle Tom’s Children

. Two years later,

Native Son,

comparable in impact to

Ellison’s

nvisible Man,

cemented Wright’s international reputation, especially in Europe. His

study of Kwame Nkrumah (

Black Power,

1954) contributed to his influence among Pan-

Africanists and provided a term for American black militants when the

Civil Rights

movement

began to falter.

ROBERT GREGG

WTO (World Trade Organization)

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trade and trade agreements; Left, the

Wyler, William

b. 1902; d. 1981

Wyler’s reputation as a

Hollywood

film

director

veers from that of a meticulous and

creative craftsperson to a plodding dullard who had little eye for visual storytelling.

Wyler did his best work when he worked for producer Samuel Goldwyn, who supported

his efforts with studio artisans like cinematographer Gregg Toland. He drifted visually

and thematically in the 1960s when the studio system had broken down. Three Wyler

films won Best Director and Best Film Oscars:

Mrs Miniver

(1942),

The Best Years o

Our Lives

(1946) and

Ben-Hur

(1959)

MELINDA SCHWENK

Wynette, Tammy

b. 1942; d. 1998

Born Virginia Wynette Pugh in Mississippi and raised by grandparents who picked

cotton, Tammy became the First Lady of

country music

(although the “real”

First Lady,

Hillary Rodham Clinton, said in 1992 she was no “Stand by Your Man” woman). Ms

Wynette left her hairdressing career behind and moved to Nashville in 1966 to record; her

resonant voice came to epitomize the female country voice in the 1970s, singing of love

and loss. After her fifth husband, she released her most famous song “Stand by Your

Man” (1969), although her comeback hit with the English pop act KLF, “Justified and

Ancient” (1992), sold more records internationally. She also performed duets with

Smokey Robinson, Aaron Neville and Elton John.

EDWARD MILLER

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 1232

Xerox

The Haloid company (founded 1906) acquired Chester Carlson’s patents for a

xerographic process in 1947, introducing its first copier two years later. Plain-

aper

copying followed in 1959. The Xerox corporation (renamed 1961) not only dominated

copy machines, but entered American speech as a synonym for copying (despite

warnings about trademark use). By the 1980s, copiers became staples in workplaces,

educational facilities, churches and even homes. As copiers have been integrated into

computer

technology often combined with fax machines, scanners and printers, and

companies like Sharp compete for the market, Xerox has recast itself as “the document

company”

JAMES DAVID

X-Files

science fiction, television; UFOs/ extraterrestrials

X-games/X-treme sports

First held in Providence, Rhode Island, in October 1993, Extreme Games were promoted

y the sports cable company ESPN to highlight rising sports (many of them noted for

their danger) that networks had previously neglected. Featuring such sports as street luge,

skateboarding,

skiboarding, bungy jumping, downhill

in-line skating,

skysurfing,

wakeboarding and

bicycle

stunts, they emphasize daredevil acts rather than races against

time. Planned as biannual events, the first games were so successful (watched by over

220 million domestic viewers and carried in over 150 countries) that organizers decided

to hold the games every year. The US Post Office offered a 1999 stamp series honoring

them.