Steven Watts

A biography of the controversial entrepreneur who transformed the world of American business explores the contradictions of Henry Ford's life and assesses his accomplishments within the context of early tewntieth-century America.

Henry Ford And the American Century

The People's Tycoon

'Dieses Buch macht Spaß. Wie könnte es das Nicht? Das Ziel von Watts ist es, Ihnen einen Mann, das Magazin und ihren Platz in der Geschichte in voller Größe zu zeigen. Der Playboy ist nicht mehr die kulturelle Kraft, die er einmal war, aber er hat die Gesellschaft geprägt.' ASSOCIATED PRESS Es ist schon ein tolles Leben, das Hugh Hefner hat. Schöne Frauen, ein wunderbares Anwesen, schnelle Autos, jede Menge berühmte und interessante Freunde, rauschende Parties. Wer will das nicht? Folgen Sie Steven Watts bei der Zwischenbilanz des Mannes, für den man den Begriff 'Dolce Vita' hätte erfinden müssen, hätte es ihn nicht schon gegeben. Hugh Hefner ist nicht aber nur ein Lebemensch, Steve Watts beschreibt auch einen politisch und sozial engagierten Verleger, ohne den Amerika heute nicht wäre was es ist. Und die Playmates? Natürlich sind die auch mit von der Partie; Hugh Hefner, seine Affären und Ehen. Dabei gibt Watts auf unterhaltsame und gleichzeitig spannende Weise ein faszinierendes Kapitel amerikanischer Zeitgeschichte preis.

Hugh Hefner und der Amerikanische Traum

Mr. Playboy

From very early on in his career, John F. Kennedy’s allure was more akin to a movie star than a presidential candidate. Why were Americans so attracted to Kennedy in the late 1950s and early 1960s—his glamorous image, good looks, cool style, tough-minded rhetoric, and sex appeal? As Steve Watts argues, JFK was tailor made for the cultural atmosphere of his time. He benefited from a crisis of manhood that had welled up in postwar America when men had become ensnared by bureaucracy, softened by suburban comfort, and emasculated by a generation of newly-aggressive women. Kennedy appeared to revive the modern American man as youthful and vigorous, masculine and athletic, and a sexual conquistador. His cultural crusade involved other prominent figures, including Frank Sinatra, Norman Mailer, Ian Fleming, Hugh Hefner, Ben Bradlee, Kirk Douglas, and Tony Curtis, who collectively symbolized masculine regeneration. JFK and the Masculine Mystique is not just another standard biography of the youthful president. By examining Kennedy in the context of certain books, movies, social critiques, music, and cultural discussions that framed his ascendancy, Watts shows us the excitement and sense of possibility, the optimism and aspirations, that accompanied the dawn of a new age in America.

Sex and Power on the New Frontier

JFK and the Masculine Mystique

The real Hugh Hefner-the extraordinary inside story of an American icon ""Riveting... Watts packs in plenty of gasp-inducing passages.""-Newark Star Ledger ""Like it or not, Hugh Hefner has affected all of us, so I treasured learning about how and why in the sober biography.""-Chicago Sun Times ""This is a fun book. How could it not be? Watts aims to give a full account of the man, his magazine and their place in social history. Playboy is no longer the cultural force it used to be, but it made a stamp on society.""-Associated Press ""In Steven Watts'' exhaustive, illuminating biography Mr. Playboy, Hefner''s ideal for living -- marked by his allegiances to Tarzan, Freud, Pepsi-Cola and jazz -- proves to be a kind of gloss on the Protestant work ethic.""-Los Angeles TimesGorgeous young women in revealing poses; extravagant mansion parties packed with celebrities; a hot-tub grotto, elegant smoking jackets, and round rotating beds; the hedonistic pursuit of uninhibited sex. Put these images together and a single name springs to mind-Hugh Hefner. From his spectacular launch of Playboy magazine and the dizzying expansion of his leisure empire to his recent television hit The Girls Next Door, the publisher has attracted public attention and controversy for decades. But how did a man who is at once socially astute and morally unconventional, part Bill Gates and part Casanova, also evolve into a figure at the forefront of cultural change?In Mr. Playboy, historian and biographer Steven Watts argues that, in the process of becoming fabulously wealthy and famous, Hefner has profoundly altered American life and values. Granted unprecedented access to the man and his enterprise, Watts traces Hef''s life and career from his midwestern, Methodist upbringing and the first publication of Playboy in 1953 through the turbulent sixties, self-indulgent seventies, reactionary eighties, and traditionalist nineties, up to the present. He reveals that Hefner, from the beginning, believed he could overturn social norms and take America with him.This fascinating portrait illustrates four ways in which Hefner and Playboy stood at the center of several cultural upheavals that remade the postwar United States. The publisher played a crucial role in the sexual revolution that upended traditional notions of behavior and expectation regarding sex. He emerged as one of the most influential advocates of a rapidly developing consumer culture, flooding Playboy readers with images of material abundance and a leisurely lifestyle. He proved instrumental-with his influential magazine, syndicated television shows, fashionable nightclubs, swanky resorts, and movie and musical projects-in making popular culture into a dominant force in many people''s lives. Ironically, Hefner also became a controversial force in the movement for women''s rights. Although advocating women''s sexual freedom and their liberation from traditional family constraints, the publisher became a whipping boy for feminists who viewed him as a prophet for a new kind of male domination.Throughout, Watts offers singular insights into the real man behind the flamboyant public persona. He shows Hefner''s personal dichotomies-the pleasure seeker and the workaholic, the consort of countless Playmates and the genuine romantic, the family man and the Gatsby-like host of lavish parties at his Chicago and Los Angeles mansions who enjoys well-publicized affairs with numerous Playmates, the fan of life''s simple pleasures who hobnobs with the Hollywood elite.Punctuated throughout with descriptions and anecdotes of life at the Playboy Mansions, Mr. Playboy tells the compelling and uniquely American story of how one person with a provocative idea, a finger on the pulse of popular opinion, and a passion for his work altered the course of modern history. Spans from Hefner''s childhood to the launch of Playboy magazine and the expansion of t

Hugh Hefner and the American Dream

A detailed biography of the ultimate proponent of the playboy lifestyle goes behind the scenes to reveal the real Hugh Hefner, his life, his Playboy empire, and the seminal influence of the controversial publisher on American culture.

Mr Playboy

The Romance of Real Life incorporates sensitivity to the "social history of ideas,in which both the form and content of language remain rooted in the material experience of real life.

Charles Brockden Brown and the Origins of American Culture

The Romance of Real Life

War and the Making of Liberal America, 1790-1820

The Republic Reborn

An illuminating biography of the man who taught Americans “how to win friends and influence people” Before Stephen Covey, Oprah Winfrey, and Malcolm Gladwell there was Dale Carnegie. His book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, became a best seller worldwide, and Life magazine named him one of “the most important Americans of the twentieth century.” This is the first full-scale biography of this influential figure. Dale Carnegie was born in rural Missouri, his father a poor farmer, his mother a successful preacher. To make ends meet he tried his hand at various sales jobs, and his failure to convince his customers to buy what he had to offer eventually became the fuel behind his future glory. Carnegie quickly figured out that something was amiss in American education and in the ways businesspeople related to each other. What he discovered was as simple as it was profound: Understanding people’s needs and desires is paramount in any successful enterprise. Carnegie conceived his book to help people learn to relate to one another and enrich their lives through effective communication. His success was extraordinary, so hungry was 1920s America for a little psychological insight that was easy to apply to everyday affairs. Self-help Messiah tells the story of Carnegie’s personal journey and how it gave rise to the movement of self-help and personal reinvention.

Dale Carnegie and Success in Modern America

Self-help Messiah

Offers an up-close and personal look at the man and mogul behind Disney Studios and the Disney empire through an examination of his work practices, private views, and relationships with family members.

Walt Disney and the American Way of Life

The Magic Kingdom

The Magic Kingdom sheds new light on the cultural icon of "Uncle Walt." Watts digs deeply into Disney's private life, investigating his roles as husband, father, and brother and providing fresh insight into his peculiar psyche-his genuine folksiness and warmth, his domineering treatment of colleagues and friends, his deepest prejudices and passions. Full of colorful sketches of daily life at the Disney Studio and tales about the creation of Disneyland and Disney World, The Magic Kingdom offers a definitive view of one of the most influential Americans of the twentieth century.

Steven Watts

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