Gary McDonogh. Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture

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centered around one family’s encounter with racial discrimination in housing, it enjoyed

a successful Broadway run (ironically to mostly segregated audiences), winning its author

Pulitzer Prize

Realistic drama has survived through the century manifested later in plays by such

authors as August

Wilson,

who has chronicled the dreams and frustrations of African

Americans in plays set in each decade of the century While Wilson’s plays are largely

linear realism, they are unique in the use of rich poetic language.

Neil Simon is the most commercially successful contemporary creator of the romantic

comedy

version of dramatic realism. His comedies from the 1960s, such as

Barefoot in

the Park

and

The Odd Couple,

have endured with regular performances at dinner and

community theaters. His prolific and popular body of work also includes the

autobiographical comic dramas

Brighton Beach Memoirs

and

Biloxi Blues,

both written

in the 1980s, which look at life from the perspective of growing up Jewish in America.

Several of Simon’s plays, along with many other authors’

lays in the realist genre, have

een turned into films. It could be argued that they are just as, if not more, suited to that

medium with its ability to create a sense in the audience of eavesdropping on a private

world.

Since the expressionist movement at the start of the twentieth century fourth-wall

realism has shared the American stage with more selfreferential, non-realistic forms.

Many contemporary American playwrights turned away from linear plot structures (in

which each event seems inevitably to trigger the next, building to a predestined climax)

to a style that celebrates the live and immediate audience/performer relationship. These

lays often purposely draw attention to the means of production, constantly reminding

the audience that they are watching a play instead of reality

Many of the authors who have embraced this presentational style (inspired by the

groundbreaking work of German playwright Bertolt Brecht) find it more suitable for

framing the political and social critiques inherent in their works.

Asian American

playwright David Henry Hwang’s play

M.Butterfly,

draws a parallel between the sexist

attitudes of patriarchal culture and the racist attitudes of the Western world towards the

“exotic” East. Hwang uses several devices that highlight the artificial nature o

erformance: the main character narrates the story speaking directly to the audience;

several of the actors play more than one role; the play leaps backwards and forwards in

time rather than following a linear plot line. These devices serve to remind the audience

that they are watching a performance, and, by de-emphasizing plot, the play steers the

audience’s attention to the social and political issues behind the dramatic events.

Some playwrights, such as Edward

Albee

and Sam

Shepard,

mix elements of realism

with surreal and absurd events to create their own deliberate distortions of the American

dream. Albee’s works often focus on the behaviors of the East Coast privileged class,

while Shepard deromanticizes the frontier spirit of the West. Other theater artists, such as

Robert

Wilson,

create works that stretch the boundaries of nearly every definition o

“theatre” by staging works that might last up to 23 hours (

Ka Mountain,

1973), dispense

with storyline altogether and are as much visual art as text-based drama.

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 356

These departures from realism are, in part, reactions against the realism of film and

television

. Because the camera can establish verisimilitude so much more effectively,

many contemporary playwrights have sought to create forms that integrate and embrace

the uniquely live nature of the theater experience.

ee also:

theater

Further reading

Marranca, B. and Dasgupta, G. (1981)

American Playwrights,

New York: Drama Book

Specialists.

Coven, B. (ed.) (1982)

American Women Dramatists of the Twentieth Century,

Metuchen: Scarecrow.

Hill, E. (ed.) (1980)

The Theatre of Black Americans,

Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.

PAMELA R.HENDRICK

drive-ins

American automotive culture created intense demands for car-oriented services. Drive-in

movies mushroomed from 300 after the Second World War to thousands in the 1950s.

Along with drive-in restaurants, these provided convenient outlets for

baby boomer

families as well as

teenagers

exploring independence in their social and sexual lives.

Movies faded in the 1970s as

suburban

expansion swallowed their valuable properties.

Fast-food

chains and

banks,

however, have incorporated

“drive-through”

windows,

without the parking and in-car services shown in

American Graffiti

(1973). Other

experiments like drive-in churches have had limited novelty value, but all emphasize

Americans’ continual synthesis of

automobiles

and lifestyle.

GARY McDONOGH

Dr Seuss (Theodore Geisel)

children’s literature

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drug culture

A term often associated with the rebellion, lifestyles and attitudes formed around

marijuana

and psychedelic drugs in the 1960s. In fact, there have been many drug

cultures in postwar America, including those deeply divided by

class

(cocaine for the rich

and powerful, crack or heroin in the

ghetto)

and in severity of punishment. Moreover, the

widespread use of

alcohol, tobacco

and pharmaceuticals suggests that the term “drug

culture” might effectively characterize much of the nation, as well as those people and

ractices identified as antithetical to American health and morality As an official cultural

construct, the ongoing

War on Drugs

since the 1980s represents a concerted effort to

delegitimize any use of illegal drugs. Yet drugs still pour into poor areas in the cities and

other sites without strong government commitment to halt the importation of drugs from

abroad.

GARY McDONOGH

CINDY WONG

drug policy

Distinctions between medicinal and nonmedicinal, legal and illegal substances, are the

result of a long and continuing debate about the morality of consciousness alteration, the

intrinsic dangers of particular substances and the costs and benefits of various regulatory

schemes. Including colonial regulation of taverns and

alcohol

sales to Native Americans,

America has had some form of drug policy for over 300 years. The tensions in American

drug policy—and recent objections to its application abroad—derive from longstanding

conflict about the wisdom of prohibitions.

The template for American drug control was established by the regulation of alcoholic

everages. Until the 1850s or so, Americans drank huge quantities of alcohol, mainly in

the form of distilled spirits, beverages with very high alcohol content (usually 40 percent

or more). Per capita consumption was much higher than it is today Men drank far more

than women, and there is ample evidence that women suffered greatly from the whisky-

and rum-related aggression of men. Indeed, the nineteenth-century temperance

movement, arguably the most successful mass movement in American history did not

begin as an alcoholprohibition movement, but as an anti-spirits campaign. Rooted in

Protestant anxieties about self-control and sexual expression, women’s dread of male

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 358

violence,

and the personal discipline required for success in an emerging market regime,

the temperance movement successfully stigmatized the consumption of alcohol,

articularly in its highly concentrated forms and especially in misogynist settings like the

old-time saloon (the “anti-home,” as temperance enthusiasts called it). By the end of the

nineteenth century abstinence (or extreme moderation) was a hallmark of middleclass

respectability in America and, even today roughly one-third of Americans do not drink

alcoholic beverages. They are disproportionately women and are concentrated in regions

of the country with long traditions of Protestant temperance agitation (the so-called

“Bible belt”

of the

Midwest

and

South)

The temperance movement turned resolutely towards a Prohibitionist (rather than

suasionist) position after the Civil War (1861–5). Long before the Volstead Act created a

national prohibition of the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages (effective in

1920), many local and state governments adopted similar measures or created selective

rohibitions against sales to minors, Native Americans, slaves, or drunkards. With the

repeal of national Prohibition in 1933, a few

states

and some jurisdictions within states

remained “dry”; virtually all retained a selective prohibition against sales to minors and

installed or revived systems to oversee the liquor industry and regulate drinking places

(to prevent the return of the saloon). Today a few states (notably Pennsylvania) still

operate state monopolies of wholesale and/or retail distribution of alcohol. Wholesale

monopoly protects state revenues from alcohol sales, whereas retail monopoly (more

common) also addresses problems of public order and sales to minors and intoxicated

persons. Most states, however, only regulate wholesalers, license premises for on-site or

off-site sales and investigate complaints. Since the late 1980s, a national drinking age o

twenty-one has been imposed for all alcoholic beverages; most states have tightened their

drink-driving laws; some have passed “server liability” laws (which impose civil

penalties on irresponsible hosts) or imposed cheap-drink (“happy hour”) restrictions. This

recent movement towards closer alcohol regulation has gone under the banner of “neo-

temperance,” although many of its critics, notably those in the alcohol beverage industry

have referred to it (incorrectly) as “neo-Prohibitionist.”

The nineteenth-century temperance movement’s turn towards political prohibition

profoundly influenced policy towards other consciousness-altering substances.

Particularly as pharmacists and physicians discovered the extraordinary prevalence o

morphine addiction during the last decades of the nineteenth century (much of it the

result of medical treatment), many states moved to regulate the sale of opiates and

cocaine by the mechanism of a doctor’s prescription. In 1914 the Harrison Narcotic Act

created a federal registration system for dispensers of opiates and cocaine that was used

in conjunction with state legislation to prohibit effectively the non-medical use of these

drugs and their furnishing to addicts by physicians. Although its crude distinctions among

substances have been greatly elaborated by subsequent federal legislation, the regulatory

scheme erected by the Harrison Act has remained fundamental to American drug policy

Most contemporary proposals for policy reform—whether concerning the medicinal use

of cannabis or the prescribing of methadone or even heroin to opiate addicts—rely on the

Entries A-Z 359

mechanism of an expert intermediary usually a physician. Even more radical proposals—

for the legalization of cannabis, for instance—retain the long-established selective

prohibition against consumption by minors that is applied to alcohol and

tobacco

. Most

also incorporate a commodity

tax

modeled on those applied to alcohol and tobacco.

Current American distinctions between legal and illegal drugs cannot be understood on

pharmacological grounds. (For example, no experts doubt that alcohol and tobacco-

delivered nicotine are far more addictive and intrinsically dangerous to health than

cannabis.) Rather, the legal status of various consciousness-altering substances must be

seen in the context of the country’s experience with Prohibition, which was not a happy

one. Although alcohol consumption and alcohol-related problems declined during the

first few years of Prohibition, the gradual organization of illicit supply and the

unregulated nature of the illicit market, provided both ample (if often impure) liquor and

tremendous opportunity for criminal entrepreneurs. Moreover, after decades o

disreputability hard drinking became a mark of sophistication and rebellion among young

eople of the 1920s in much the same way that the consumption of cannabis and

hallucinogens signified cultural dissent during the 1960s and 1970s. Further, the loss o

alcohol tax revenue was a major blow to government, particularly during the Great

Depression. By the late 1920s, even many women’s organizations thought of Prohibition

as a failure and favored a return to the older principles of moderation and a suasionist

form of temperance.

The lessons of Prohibition did not extend immediately to policy concerning

consciousnessaltering substances other than alcohol, however. Primarily this had to do

with alcohol’s status as America’s traditional intoxicant. (Even Harry Anslinger, iron-

fisted Chief of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics from 1930–62, was quite fond of Jack

Daniels, a Kentucky whisky.) Other substances were exotic, associated with suspect

groups like Mexicans (cannabis) or the Chinese (smoking opium). Moreover, the

temperance and medical crusade against morphine, a very widely used substance,

changed the social locus of its use. Whereas the typical morphine addict of the late

nineteenth century was a middle-aged, rural woman using the drug on a doctor’s order,

changing medical practices and cultural mores increasingly isolated the use of morphine

(and later, heroin) in “sporting circles” and among nightlife afficianadoes. By the First

World War, it had become a drug of young, lower-class men (mainly) and cultural fringe-

dwellers—groups against which sumptuary legislation could easily be directed, especially

in the name of moral upliftment. As a practical matter of enforcement, until the 1960s,

relatively few Americans used substances other than alcohol. The movement for the

decriminalization or outright legalization of cannabis could arise only when that

substance became popular among

middle-class, white

young people.

After Repeal, then, American drug policy incorporated substances developed

specifically for medical use into a prescription regime; legalized or kept legal such

commonly used substances as alcohol and tobacco (subject to regulation, selective

rohibition and taxation); and criminalized or left illegal exotic substances consumed for

“non-medical” reasons by small minorities. During the postwar era, international treaties,

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 360

cemented with financial aid and linked to anti-communist political objectives,

internationalized the American model of Prohibition, though it was applied with variable

enthusiasm and honesty.

In the twenty-first century Americans may need to relearn the lessons of temperance

history In its suasionist form, the temperance movement had a lasting impact on what

Americans drank, and how much they drank under what circumstances. In its

Prohibitionist expression, the temperance movement supported unenforceable laws that

undid many of its accomplishments by creating unregulated manufacture, sale and

consumption, and by undermining respect for law and individual restraint. Disillusioned

alcohol Prohibitionists recognized that America could not be made alcohol-free, and that

responsible regulation was the only practical method for managing its presence in society

Many disillusioned drug Prohibitionists now promote a similar message: it is better to

reduce the harm associated with the inevitable use of now-

roscribed substances than to

erpetuate what has become an international system of banditry and political oppression.

The future shape of American drug policy remains to be seen, but the growing number o

states that have passed “medical cannabis” laws, the growing interest of policy-makers in

needle exchanges, physician prescription of methadone and even heroin, and the first

discussion of safe-injection rooms—all increasingly common features of Central

European drug policy—suggest that the American policy model is in decline.

ee also:

alcohol

Further reading

Musto, D. (1999)

The American Disease: Origins of Narcotic Control,

New York:

Oxford University.

Reinarman, C. and Levine, H. (eds) (1997)

Crack in America,

Berkeley: University of

California.

Courtwright, D. (1982)

Dark Paradise,

Cambridge, MA: Harvard University.

Rose, K. (1996)

American Women and the Repeal of Prohibition,

New York: New York

University

Acker, C. and Tracy S. (eds) (2000)

Alcohol and Drugs

in American History,

Amherst:

University of Massachusetts.

JIM BAUMOHL

dual cities

Emerging in the 1980s and 1990s, this term describes the socio-economic

segregation

urban society with special reference to

New York

. During the 1977–87 boom, the top 10

Entries A-Z 361

ercent experienced a 20 percent gain in income (almost half of all gains), while the

situation of lowest percentiles declined, and the numbers of poor and

homeless

increased.

Essentially this metaphor focused attention on a disappearing

middle

(mediating)

class

Further reading

Mollenkopf, J. and Castells, M. (1991)

Dual City: Restructuring New York,

New York:

Russell Sage.

GARY McDONOGH

Du Bois, W.E.B.

b. 1868; d. 1963

Towering

intellectual

of the twentieth century remembered mostly for his opposition

to Booker T. Washington’s polices of accommodation, and for his suggestion in

Souls o

lack Fol

(1903) that “the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color

line” (1969:3). Generally overlooked in commemorations of Du Bois’ life are his

contributions to the disciplines of

sociology

and

history,

his role as editor of the largest

circulating newspaper among

African Americans

(The Crisis),

his pivotal role in

founding Pan-Africanism, his conversion to Marxism in the 1930s, the persecution he

faced during the

McCarthy

years and his death while in exile in Ghana on the eve of the

March on Washington.

Further reading

Du Bois, W.E.B. (1903)

Souls of Black Folk,

Greenwich: Fawcett, 1969 reprint.

ROBERT GREGG

Dukakis, Michael

b. 1933

Nationally known for an unsuccessful 1988 bid for the

presidency,

Michael S.Dukakis

had a varied political career that spanned thirty years. A

lawyer

by training, Dukakis

graduated with honors from Harvard University’s law school in 1960. In 1962 he won a

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 362

seat in the Massachusetts state legislature. Other political posts he held ranged from

Brooklyn, Massachusetts town meeting representative to governor of Massachusetts. As

governor,

he served three terms before winning the

Democratic

presidential nomination

in 1988. A

Greek American,

born in Brooklyn, Dukakis and Andrew Jackson are the

only two presidential nominees whose parents were both immigrants.

COURTNEY BENNETT

Dungeons and Dragons

The most popular of a series of “role-playing”

games

first released widely in the mid-

1970s, Dungeons and Dragons is particularly appealing to

teenage

boys who seek an

outlet for their creativity as well as a means of escape from the travails of adolescence.

Moderated by a “Dungeon Master” with access to the game’s detailed rules and reference

ooks, Dungeons and Dragons creates a portrayal of middle Earth populated by warriors

and wizards, in which players play the parts of heroes of their own imaginings. The

complexity of the game and its level of realism sometimes inspires players to act out their

arts, and leads to accounts, some themselves more hysterical than authentic, of young

people who have become entranced by the game.

ROBERT ANDERSON

Dylan, Bob

b. 1941

Singer/songwriter, née Robert Zimmerman. Arguably the most influential individual in

the development of modern

rock

and

folk music

. Although his music sold modestly and

received limited

radio

time, Dylan’s blending of folk/ protest traditions with his own

oetic, mystical, sometimes hallucinogenic style influenced virtually all later rock music.

“The Times They Are A-Changin” (1964) is a classic of the 1960s counterculture. Other

acclaimed work includes the “Highway 61 Revisited” (1965) and “Blonde on

Blonde” (1966) albums. He has also produced albums like “Nashville Skyline” (1969),

which exhibits influence from

country music,

and “Slow Train Coming” (1979), which

shows his religious interest.

KENT BLASER

Entries A-Z 363

Earl, Harley

b. 1893; d. 1969

Industrial designer and head of styling at General Motors (1926–59), Earl was

responsible for the general trends in American

automobile

styling from the 1920s to the

end of the 1950s, most notably for the excesses of fins, chromium, curved glass and other

styling details of post-Second World War American car design. Earl gave buyers a little

Hollywood

glamour and individuality at massproduction prices in designs that captured

the optimistic, technological

zeitgeist,

appealing to the dreams and aspirations of the

rapidly expanding, affluent

middle class

. Earl’s department was also responsible for

most GM designs, including

buses,

trains

and home appliances.

Further reading

Gartman, D. (1994)

Auto Opium: A Social History of American Automobile Design,

London: Routledge.

COLVILLE WEMYSS

Earth Day

The first Earth Day, held on April 22, 1970, was a national day of rallies and teach-ins

expressing support for environmental protection. Events were held in major

cities

as well

as on most college

campuses

. In the end, some 20 million people took part, calling

attention to the swelling support for environmentalism across the country Later annual

celebrations still revolve around this concept, with local clean-up efforts and political

speeches. They have had limited results; yet, without being decisive in any specific issue,

each Earth Day underscores the extent to which environmental issues have become a

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 364

national priority

ee also:

deep ecology/Earth First!

BRAD ROGERS

Eastern-European Americans

The first phase of Eastern-European

immigration

is generally accepted to have begun in

the 1880s, although small numbers from the

Russian

and Austro-Hungarian empires had

arrived before this time. This first wave lasted until 1914, by which time nearly 7 million

Russians, Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Belorussians, Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Hungarians,

Serbs, Croats, Slovenes and Romanians had arrived in the US from Eastern Europe.

Following the two world wars, there was a further smaller wave of immigrants,

refugees

from the postwar chaos, and more political refugees arrived in subsequent decades.

The immigrants of the first wave were motivated by both push factors and pull factors.

Between 1880 and 1914, the Austro-Hungarian empire was in a state of economic turmoil

as changes in landownership structure and collapsing agricultural prices, coupled with

opulation increases, meant a surplus of population in rural areas in particular. Many

young men were also anxious to be conscripted into the Austro-Hungarian army. Russia

was embroiled in many of the same problems, and, additionally a series of persecutions

known as “pogroms” killed or drove out many thousands of

Jews

At least 90 percent of those who left Eastern Europe during this period went to the US.

The pull factor here was the reputation of the US as a “promised land.” Freedom to

worship, for Jews, Doukhobors and other religious groups, was part of the appeal; there

was also the idealized vision of America as a land of opportunity where it was possible to

rise “from rags to riches.” This last was reinforced by the activities of recruiting agents,

who were active in the Austro-Hungarian empire in particular, and who painted a

glowing picture of opportunities in America.

Settlement patterns of Eastern-European immigrants varied. Many of the Jewish

refugees settled in

New York

City, first on the Lower East Side and later in Brooklyn

and other districts. Other groups, however, though they arrived initially in New York,

moved on relatively quickly. Large numbers found their way to the rapidly growing

industrial centers of the

Midwest,

where unskilled labor was urgently needed. Today

large proportions of the populations of states from Pennsylvania west to Ohio and Illinois

are of Eastern-European descent.

Eastern-European immigrants have added much to the character of the US today.

Individual immigrant communities, such as the Jews of New York and the Poles o

Chicago, IL,

remain culturally vibrant. More generally the view of the US as a land o

opportunity where poor and oppressed peoples can find freedom and riches, has become

part of America’s general view of itself. The fact that many of the immigrants found the

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