Gary McDonogh. Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture

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often redeemed. Scion of an upper

middle-class

family he was typecast in juvenile roles

Broadway

before his breakthrough as Duke Mantee in

The Petrified Forest

(play

1935, film 1936). Later, he defined an American anti-hero in

The Maltese Falcon

(1941),

Casablanca

(1943),

To Have and to Have Not

(1944), when he married co-star an Oscar.

In these films he was often paired with Lauren

Bacall,

Treasure of the Sierra Madre

(1948) and

The African Queen

(1951), for which he received strong, interesting women.

His films and even lines have become proverbs to generations of Americans

rediscovering his brooding, lonely yet gentle masculinity lovingly memorialized in

Woody Allen’s

Play it Again, Sam

(1972).

ee also:

actors

GARY McDONOGH

bomb shelters

Underground rooms of the

Cold War

which, at times of heightened paranoia like the

Cuban missile crisis,

families constructed and stocked to allow them to survive

imminent nuclear holocaust, extending civil defense preparations for tornadoes or

conventional weapons into a new age. Civic buildings also altered cellars and posted

signs. Although many shelters never went beyond planning, they stimulated debates over

inclusion and exclusion recalled in a 1962 song by comedian Shel Silverstein, “I’m

Standing Outside of your Shelter Looking in.” In subsequent decades these shelters faded

into embarrassment and oblivion; a 1999 Hollywood comedy

Blast from the Past,

ridiculed a Cold War family who spent decades hiding in one. Nonetheless, echoes of this

bomb-shelter mentality recur in propaganda of

survivalists,

messianic Christians and

even apocalyptic interpretations of Y2K.

GARY McDONOGH

Bookchin, Murray

b. 1921

Bookchin, an

anarchist

ecologist, worked through various leftist movements before

finding the libertarian viewpoint most useful in critiquing American growth and

roposing ecologically sensitive and just alternatives. The synthesis of anarchism and

ecology which he has expounded since the 1950s has become known as social ecology;

Bookchin founded and ran an institute of that name in Vermont. He argues that

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 146

decentralization, community and absence of hierarchy are intrinsic to issues of energy

management and environmental balance. Throughout his life, Bookchin also has been an

activist in social movements and Green issues. Major works include

Post-Scarcity

narchism

(1971),

The Ecology of Freedom

(1982),

From Urbanization to Cities

(1995)

and

The Third Revolution

(1996).

GARY McDONOGH

borderlands

For nearly half its distance, the 1,947 kilometer US/Mexico border follows the Rio

Grande river from Brownsville/Matamoros to El Paso/Ciudad Juárez, where it becomes a

geometric line cutting across the Sonora and Mojave desert until it reaches San

Diego/Tijuana. The region was sparsely populated until after the Second World War

when development programs fostered the expansion of

agriculture and agribusiness,

trade, tourism

and

maquiladoras

(assembly plants). Between 1930 and 1990, the

population of El Paso increased from 102,421 residents to 515,342, while its “sister city”

Ciudad Juárez grew from 19,669 to 789,522. During the same period

San Diego

went

from 147,87 to 1,110,549 inhabitants, and Tijuana 8,384 to 698,752 inhabitants.

Because of this rapid growth,

immigration,

environmental and cultural issues have

become a source of bi-national tension and concern. On a cultural level, the meaning o

the border speaks directly to perceptions of US identity since many see it as a dividing

line while others, including many

Chicanos/as,

emphasize the possibilities for cultural

exchange and dialogue.

From 1521 to 1810, the settling of Northern Mexico—now the US

Southwest

—

Spanish soldiers, farmers and missionaries was sporadic because of violent

confrontations with Native Americans and the region’s arid climate. Attempts to settle

the region, which included devising policies aimed at attracting Anglo settlers, continued

after Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1810. US expansion led to the US/

Mexico War and the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848), which ceded

orthern Mexico to the US. As Anglo settlers moved into the region, they

dispossessed—through force, legal maneuvers and purchase—Mexicans of their land. In

the US, racial segregation was the rule as Mexican Americans were seen and treated as a

cheap labor force.

The introduction of new irrigation techniques and railroad lines in the 1900s led to the

expansion of agribusiness and the wider use of Mexicans as

farm

labor. The “bracero”

rogram, which was started in 1942 to provide US agribusiness with temporary Mexican

field-hands, brought thousands of Mexican workers to the Southwest. When the program

was ended in 1964, many workers settled in the border region and continued migrating to

the US.

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By the 1960s the border region was the site of a number of industries, including

agriculture, defense, technology, petroleum, real estate and tourism. The economies o

border

cities

have become tightly linked as goods, labor (both legal and illegal), tourists,

shoppers and plant managers cross the border on a daily basis. On the Mexican side, the

government promoted maquila (assemblyplant) manufacturing in cities such Tijuana,

Piedras Negras, Ciudad Juárez and Nuevo Laredo. The Mexican Border Industrialization

Program, which was started in 1965, sought to take advantage of the low-wages paid to

and the high productivity of the Mexican workforce. The program allowed for the duty-

free importation of machinery equipment and materials under the condition that

everything produced was exported. By 1975, 67,214 were employed in maquilas, by

1990, 460,293. The majority of these plants engaged in electronic and furniture assembly

and textile production. Maquilas have generated controversy because of their low-wages,

reliance on young women as employees, ecological impact and inability to provide jobs

for the large number of migrants to the border region.

In order to control the entry of illegal immigrants the US has begun to militarize the

border, including deploying marines for patrol duty. Militarization and

violence

on the

order have led to concerns over the protection of human rights. Groups such as

America’s Watch have written reports critical of the Immigration and Naturalization

Service’s ability to guarantee the rights of legal and illegal immigrants. Attempts to limit

illegal immigration—such as the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act which

included employer sanctions for hiring undocumented workers—have had little impact on

the migrant flow. Many of these issues of crossing and employment are depicted in the

movie

El Norte

(1989). Most analysts agree that as long as there exists such a large

disparity in Mexican and US wage rates—and a demand in the US for Mexican labor—

illegal immigration will continue.

As a result of border industrialization, environmental problems have generated new

legal issues and highlighted the need for greater bi-national cooperation. Problems such

as cross-

order flooding, sewage spills, the disposal of hazardous waste and air pollution

have drawn the attention of environmental groups and policy-makers. Untreated waste

from Tijuana has polluted beaches near San Diego and over half of the maquilas, most o

which are owned by US and Japanese companies, have toxic-discharge problems. After

1990, with the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement, both the US and

Mexican governments began to voice concern over borderland environmental conditions.

In 1992 US and Mexican environmental agencies devised the Integrated Border

Environmental Plan, which focused mainly on educational programs and information

sharing while paying little attention to enforcement. A number of US and Mexican non-

governmental organizations have formed to pressure for improving environmental

conditions.

For many who view US culture as being homogenous and bounded, the complexities

and permeability of the border represent a diluting of US culture and ideals. Many

Chicanos/as have challenged this view by emphasizing the porous and creative nature o

identity and culture; cultural borderlands are not threatening exceptions, but rather

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 148

regions of cultural exchange and dialogue. Indeed, this rethinking of US identity is

needed for transforming perceptions of the US/Mexico border from a closed dividing line

to a region where new forms of bi-national cooperation and cultural expression should be

fostered and encouraged.

ee also:

Mexico, relations with

Further reading

America’s Watch (1992)

Human Rights Abuses Along the US Border With Mexico,

USA:

Human Rights’ Watch.

Barry T. (1994)

The Challenge of Cross-Border Environmentalism: The US—Mexico

Case,

Albuquerque: Resource Center.

Herzog, L. (1990)

North Meets South: Cities, Space, and Politics on the US-Mexico

Border,

Austin: University of Texas.

Vélez-Ibañez, C. (1996)

Border Visions: Mexican Cultures of the Southwest United

States,

Tucson: University of Arizona.

MIGUEL DÍAZ-BARRIGA

Borlaug, Norman

b. 1914

Winner of the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize for his work in creating the Green Revolution in

which limited acreage fed more and more people. Borlaug learned from his experiences

of the

Midwest

Dustbowl and developed high-yield, low-

esticide dwarf wheat crops

that proved effective in Mexico and then in South Asia in the 1960s. His later campaigns

against famine in

Africa,

however, faced criticism for their impact on population growth

and the crops’ need for pesticides and irrigation.

GARY McDONOGH

Borscht Belt

Jews

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Bosnia and Kosovo

During the second half of the 1980s, Yugoslavia’s ethnically and religiously diverse

republics—Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia—started to push for

greater autonomy In response, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, an avowed

Serbian nationalist, endeavored to consolidate the position of Serbia in various ways.

Slovenians and the Croatians declared their independence. Forced to accept Slovenian

independence, since almost no Serbs lived in that province, Milosevic went to war with

the Croatians. The

Bush

administration remained onlookers (hoping that Yugoslavia

would not break up into small provinces and not wanting involvement in another war so

soon after the

Gulf War

) until news reports of “ethnic cleansing”

rompted government

officials to push for peace negotiations. The

Clinton

administration followed a more

active policy favorable to the Muslims. Following accords

etween the disputing

provinces, the United Nations sent in peacekeeping forces to Croatia.

The Serbs then turned their attention to Bosnia, with a multi-ethnic, generally

harmonious population centered in the historically cosmopolitan capital, Sarajevo. Bosnia

was now painted by Milosevic as a province marked by centuries of ethnic strife, with a

Christian Serb minority at the mercy of the Muslims. Serbs bombarded Sarajevo, which

had received no peacekeepers and which, with the international arms embargo on the

region, was essentially defenseless. During this conflict (1992–5), the leader of the

Bosnian Serbs, Radovan Karadzic, is alleged by the War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague

to have established concentration camps and to have sanctioned torture, rape and

massacres. As many as 200,000 Bosnian Muslims, Croats and Serbs may have been

killed in this genocidal civil war.

The intervention of the United States, and the diplomacy of Richard Holbrooke, helped

ring about the Dayton Agreement in November 1995, which partitioned Bosnia. The

establishment of a NATO mission in the country brought peace, but the settlement’s

partition appeared to validate some of the Serbs’ territorial demands and strengthened

Milosevic’s position in Yugoslavia, leading him to respond in a similar way to Kosovar

nationalists as he had done to the Bosnians. Milosovic’s refusal to recognize

independence for Kosovo was followed by a Yugoslav onslaught on Albanian Kosovar

forces in 1999, allegations of renewed genocidal activity and NATO military intervention

(including the presence of US troops) that established greater independence for the

province.

ROBERT GREGG

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 150

Boston, Massachusetts

History permeates contemporary Boston. While active as a

state

capital and financial

center, the city’s institutions, ethos and cultural diversity are all shaped by its colonial

heritage and later cultural roles which encourage contemporary tourism, as well as

shaping local landscapes, politics and divisions within a metropolitan area of 5 million

inhabitants in New Hampshire and Eastern Massachusetts.

Founded in the 1630s by English Puritan settlers at the intersection of the Charles

River and the Atlantic Ocean, Boston was the main settlement of the Massachusetts Bay

Colony. Boston was a seat of revolutionary activity during the late eighteenth century and

is still closely associated with early American patriots Paul Revere, Samuel Adams and

John Hancock, as well as the “Boston Tea Party” tax revolt of 1773. During the

nineteenth century Boston was considered “the Hub of the Universe”

ecause of its

geographic importance in terms of transportation,

economics

and culture. The nineteenth

century also saw significant geographic expansions with the creation of bourgeois

neighborhoods such as the Back Bay and the South End.

Immigration

from Italy and

Ireland also helped create an ethnic blue-collar neighborhood culture, which defines such

areas as the North End, South Boston and nearby Somerville and Charlestown to this day

Other cultural influences include

African Americans

(especially in Roxbury and the

South End), Armenians (in Watertown), Portuguese and more recent immigrants from the

Caribbean and Asia. Boston is still widely associated with white racism over such issues

busing

and school integration. Loyalty towards the area’s sports franchises (Celtics,

Bruins, Red Sox, Patriots) has also defined the character of the city. Boston’s ethnic

neighborhood culture, well known for its distinctive accent, has been represented in such

films as

Good Will Hunting

(1997) and

television

series such as

Cheers

Architecturally the city is characterized by brick town houses in the older

neighborhoods

and the triple-decker type in the

suburbs,

although this was dramatically

changed by urban renewal in the postwar era, including the creation of the Central Artery

and the destruction of the West End in the 1950s, and the creation of a new Boston

City

Hall

(designed by Kallmann, McKinnell and Knowles), completed in 1969. Recently

gentrification

has attracted many young professionals back into the city and Fanieul Hall

is typical of urban festival marketplaces in historic locations.

Boston and its surrounding towns host over sixty colleges and universities, including

Boston College, Boston University and Northeastern University Cambridge, across the

Charles River, is the site of both Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute o

Technology and has long been considered a center of progressive politics and local

nightlife. This large urban student population stimulated active underground music and

art, producing such artists as Nan Goldin and rock bands as the Lemonheads, Juliana

Entries A-Z 151

Hatfield and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones.

Further reading

Cregory S. (1987) “Afro-Caribbean Religions in New York: The Case of Santeria,” in

C.Sutton and E.Chaney (eds)

Caribbean Life in New York,

New York: Center for

Migration Studies of New York.

Murphy J. (1988)

Santería: An African Religion in America,

Boston: Beacon Press.

TRACEY E.HUCKS

bowl games

The bowl games are the climax to the college

football

season. Begun with the Rose Bowl

(Pasadena), dating back to 1902, many bowl games were created by boosters in Southern

cities

wishing to attract tourists and investors. Once

television

networks began to

urchase the rights to games for millions of dollars, they became very lucrative for the

colleges represented. Each bowl committee (sugar, orange, sun, cotton, etc.) invites two

teams to play according to their college conference records. Many sports analysts

consider this an inadequate season finale as seldom do the two best teams have a

showdown. The frequent cases of competing claims to the national championship have

increased the clamor for a tournament, as in college

basketball,

that would produce a

final four and an undisputed champion.

ee also:

Superbowl (Sunday)

ROBERT GREGG

bowling

Bowling became popular in the 1890s, quickly acquiring a beer-drinking and

working-

class

image. However, the sport was open to both

genders

and, facilitated by the use o

handicaps, which adjust for the differing abilities of players and teams, women began to

Entries A-Z 153

compete early on. During the First World War, when many women entered the industrial

workforce, the sport became a popular pastime for them, leading to the formation of the

Women’s National Bowling Association. After the Second World War, the image of the

sport changed, becoming associated with

middle-class

housewives. Consequently

owling alleys began to incorporate beauty salons and other shopping conveniences in

close proximity to the lanes.

Bowling has advanced technologically with automatic pin-replacing and electronic

scoring machines, new kinds of wooden surfaces, varnishes and balls, all of which have

made the game easier for the recreational bowler, and more expensive for the serious

owler (each ball may cost as much as 1200). Where once the alleys attracted teams

formed around strong neighborhood or workplace associations, they are now increasingly

becoming places where single families go for an afternoon’s fun, and becoming another

venue (along with skating rinks,

zoos, YMCAs

) for birthday parties. Loud

disco

music

and kids running around are the norm.

ROBERT GREGG

boxing

Boxing in its contemporary form is a sport in which men and increasingly among

rofessionals, women of closely matched weights fight with their fists in padded leather

gloves. No bare description can account for the impact of boxing on American culture, or

an appeal which persists despite, or perhaps because of, occasional ring deaths, and in the

face of medical evidence that persistent blows to the head, even from gloved fists, can

cause forms of brain damage. (The

American Medical Association

has frequently called

for the sport to be banned.)

Ever since

African American

boxer Jack Johnson’s championship reign (1908–15),

boxing has been a crucible for issues of race and

masculinity

. Johnson’s first

championship victory over Tommy Burns in Australia, provoked

race riots

in many

American cities and gave rise to the racially charged search in the press and elsewhere for

a “Great White Hope” (one of many boxing expressions that have entered common

usage, including “double cross,” “knockout,” “up against the ropes” and “the real

McCoy”).

Boxers have traditionally come from economically oppressed minority communities,

especially African American,

Italian American

Irish American

. Like other

rofessional sports, boxing has been seen as a way to escape poverty but success is rare,

and boxers have frequently been financially exploited. Despite the successes of such

great champions as Henry Armstrong, Sugar Ray Robinson and Joe Louis (whose

knockout of the German Max Schmeling in 1938 was seen as a rebuff to Adolf Hitler’s

claim of Aryan racial superiority), black boxers’ opportunities at the highest levels were

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 154

restricted to the extent that white boxers could avoid them, until after the Second World

War. Successful black boxers had to be very careful about their public image (Louis was

instructed not to be photographed alongside white women). In the 1950s, however, this

egan to change with the combination of somewhat improved opportunities for black

men following from their wartime service and, by the late 1950s, the advent of televised

oxing and increased demand for talented fighters. African Americans have dominated

the public face of the sport ever since, especially in the most visible heavyweight

division, where the last undisputed white champion was Rocky Marciano, who retired in

1955. Many boxers in the lighter weight classes have been from Latin America and Asia,

especially as boxing’s market has expanded via global communications networks.

Since the 1960s, the three central figures in the public awareness of boxing have been

the heavyweight champions Muhammad

Ali

and Mike Tyson, and the promoter Don

King. Handsome, flamboyant and loquacious, Ali’s public opposition to the

Vietnam

War

and his claims to be “the prettiest” and “the Greatest,” echoing the political slogan

“Black is Beautiful,” made him into a hero for many and eventually one of the most

famous men alive. Boxing was seen to fall into a lull after Ali’s retirement in the early

1980s. By then the division of championships by separate sanctioning bodies meant that

there were often multiple champions in each weight division, and without charismatic

figures like Ali many fans lost interest.

Tyson’s very different appeal sparked something of a popular revival. For Tyson,

boxing was an escape from a much-

ublicized juvenile delinquent youth on the streets o

Brooklyn, New York, and he became a protégé of the trainer Cus D’Amato. Viewed

against Ali’s speed and agility Tyson was an explosive puncher who rose to prominence

with a series of spectacular early round knockouts, and unified the title (won the title

under each of the separate sanctioning organizations) in 1988. As champion, Tyson’s

malevolent, “gangster” rap image and his very public personal life were accompanied by

rumors of continued delinquency and charges of sexual harassment. His marriage to actor

Robin Givens collapsed, and, in a stunning upset, he was defeated by unheralded Buster

Douglas in 1990. In 1992 Tyson was convicted in Indiana of the rape of a Miss Black

America pageant contestant. His supporters claimed for him the same status as a legal

martyr to racism that Ali and before him Jack Johnson had attained. Paroled after three

years, Tyson fought a series of inconsequential bouts that brought him a meaningless

championship. However, he was unexpectedly and thoroughly beaten by Evander

Holyfield in 1996 and again in 1997 when he was disqualified for twice biting

Holyfield’s ears.

The promoter Don King, his trademark upright hairstyle and motto, “Only in

America,” ubiquitous at major bouts, spans the championship reigns of Ali and Tyson. A

former Cleveland numbers runner, once convicted of manslaughter, King secured the first

$10 million purse for Ali’s bout with George Foreman in Zaire in 1974, and the bloated

prize-money in tens of millions of dollars, for Tyson’s comeback mismatches on pay-per-

view television. Although he has avoided legal entanglements, his simultaneous

romotional deals with opposing boxers have been associated with the perceived

Entries A-Z 155