Steve Fraser

In popular retellings of American history, capitalism generally doesn't feature much as part of the founding or development of the nation. Instead, it is alluded to in figurative terms as opportunity, entrepreneurial vigor, material abundance, and the seven-league boots of manifest destiny. ?In this collection of essays, Steve Fraser, the preeminent historian of American capitalism, sets the record straight, rewriting the arc of the American saga with class conflict center stage and mounting a serious challenge to the consoling fantasy of American exceptionalism. From the colonial era to Trump, Fraser recovers the repressed history of debtors' prisons and disaster capitalism, of confidence men and the reserve armies of the unemployed. In language that is dynamic and compelling, he demonstrates that class is a fundamental feature of American political life and provides essential intellectual tools for a shrew reading of American history.

A uniquely personal yet deeply informed exploration of the hidden history of class in American life From the decks of the Mayflower straight through to Donald Trump’s “American carnage,” class has always played a role in American life. In this remarkable work, Steve Fraser twines our nation’s past with his own family’s history, deftly illustrating how class matters precisely because Americans work so hard to pretend it doesn’t. He examines six signposts of American history—the settlements at Plymouth and Jamestown; the ratification of the Constitution; the Statue of Liberty; the cowboy; the “kitchen debate” between Richard Nixon and Nikita Khrushchev; and Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech—to explore just how pervasively class has shaped our national conversation. With a historian’s intellectual command and a riveting narrative voice, Fraser interweaves these examples with his own past—including his false arrest on charges of planning to blow up the Liberty Bell during the Civil Rights era—to tell a story both urgent and timeless.

Few sports are as intense as wrestling. The physical training demands total dedication. The mental side requires focus, anticipation and resilience. No letup. No excuses.Wrestling Tough, Second Edition, will inspire and guide you to achieve the mind-set of a champion. Whether you need to identify the flaws of an opponent, get optimally psyched for a big match, or overcome the adversity inherent in participating in the sport, Wrestling Tough will prepare you to excel and win.Mike Chapman, known for his unique expertise, analysis, and insight into the great sport of wrestling, has had the privilege of rubbing shoulders with many of America’s greatest amateurs and professional wrestlers. In the second edition of Wrestling Tough, he shares his insights to take you beyond the physical attributes needed to succeed on the mat:• Explore the attacking mind-set and the importance of psyching up for competition.• Gain perspective on the increasing popularity of the sport among women and girls and how female participants are proving their toughness on the mat at all levels.• Examine the rise and importance of funk-style wrestling, through which an individual’s personality is allowed-and encouraged-to shine.• Glimpse the key moments in the careers of many great wrestlers and the training methods they used to break through barriers and achieve ultimate success.Wrestling Tough is loaded with stories, insights, and coaching philosophies from legendary coaches and wrestlers such as Cael Sanderson, Dan Gable, Lee Kemp, John Smith, Tom Brands, and Steve Fraser, and even coaches from other sports such as basketball’s John Wooden and football’s Vince Lombardi. These stories will captivate wrestlers, coaches, and fans of wrestling alike.Make your mind a key weapon in your wrestling arsenal. Wrestling Tough provides you the ammunition to develop the mental firepower to win and dominate on the mat.

"Sweeping and ambitious . . . Fraser weaves together a rich tapestry of history, statistics and barely suppressed outrage." -- Maura Casey, The Washington Post From the Revolution through the Civil Rights Movement, Americans mobilized against political, social, and economic privilege. But over the last half-century that political will has vanished. In The Age of Acquiescence, Steve Fraser explains why. His account of national transformation brilliantly examines the rise of American capitalism, the visionary attempts to protect the democratic commonwealth, and the great surrender to today's delusional fables of freedom and the politics of fear. Effervescent and razorsharp, The Age of Acquiescence is indispensable for understanding why we no longer fight for a more just society, and how we can revive the great American tradition of resistance in our own time.

From the American Revolution through the Civil Rights movement, Americans have long mobilized against political, social, and economic privilege. Hierarchies based on inheritance, wealth, and political preferment were treated as obnoxious and a threat to democracy. Mass movements envisioned a new world supplanting dog-eat-dog capitalism. But over the last half-century that political will and cultural imagination have vanished. Why?THE AGE OF ACQUIESCENCE seeks to solve that mystery. Steve Fraser's account of national transformation brilliantly examines the rise of American capitalism, the visionary attempts to protect the democratic commonwealth, and the great surrender to today's delusional fables of freedom and the politics of fear. Effervescent and razorsharp, THE AGE OF ACQUIESCENCE will be one of the most provocative and talked-about books of the year.

Meet the imperious aristocrat, the wily confidence man, the Napoleonic hero, and the soulless sinner—iconic figures on the Street since the days of the Revolution Wall Street: no other place on earth is so singularly identified with money and the power of money. And no other American institution has inspired such deep moral, cultural, and political ambivalence. Is the Street an unbreachable bulwark defending commercial order? Or is it a center of mad ambition?This book recounts the colorful history of America’s love-hate relationship with Wall Street. Steve Fraser frames his fascinating analysis around the roles of four iconic Wall Street types—the aristocrat, the confidence man, the hero, and the immoralist—all recurring figures who yield surprising insights about how the nation has wrestled, and still wrestles, with fundamental questions of wealth and work, democracy and elitism, greed and salvation. Spanning the years from the first Wall Street panic of 1792 to the dot.com bubble-and-bust and Enron scandals of our own time, the book is full of stories and portraits of such larger-than-life figures as J. P. Morgan, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and Michael Milken. Fraser considers the conflicting attitudes of ordinary Americans toward the Street and concludes with a brief rumination on the recent notion of Wall Street as a haven for Everyman.

Americans have experienced a love-hate relationship with Wall Street for two hundred years. Long an object of suspicion, fear, and even revulsion, the Street eventually came to be seen as an alluring pathway to wealth and freedom. Steve Fraser tells the story of this remarkable transformation in a brilliant, masterfully written narrative filled with colorful tales of confidence men and aristocrats, Napoleonic financiers and reckless adventurers, master builders and roguish destroyers. Penetrating and engrossing, this is an extraordinary work of history that illuminates the values and the character of our nation.