The Ten-Cent Plague
The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America
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Narrated by:
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Stefan Rudnicki
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By:
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David Hajdu
About this listen
David Hajdu reveals how comics, years before the rock-and-roll revolution, brought on a clash between postwar children and their prewar parents. Created by outsiders from the tenements, garish, shameless, and often shocking, comics became the targets of a raging generational culture divide. They were burned in public bonfires, outlawed in certain cities, and nearly destroyed by a series of televised Congressional hearings. Yet their creativity, irreverence, and suspicion of authority would have a lasting influence.
©2008 David Hajdu (P)2008 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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"This book tells an amazing story, with thrills and chills more extreme than the workings of a comic book's imagination." ( The New York Times)
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Ayn Rand is the author of two phenomenally best-selling ideological novels, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, which have sold over 12 million copies in the United States alone. Through them, she built a right-wing cult following in the late 1950s and became the guiding light of Libertarianism and of White House economic policy in the 1960s and '70s. Her defenses of radical individualism and of selfishness as a "capitalist virtue" have permanently altered the American cultural landscape.
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Great history of both Rand and her era
- By Mark on 08-07-10
By: Anne C. Heller
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Superman Versus the Ku Klux Klan
- The True Story of How the Iconic Superhero Battled the Men of Hate
- By: Rick Bowers
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 3 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Journalist Rick Bowers has contributed to Time, The Washington Post, and USA Today, and his fascinating Spies of Mississippi—about the spy network that tried to take down the Civil Rights Movement—earned a starred review from Booklist. Here, Bowers examines how, in the late 1940s, The Adventures of Superman radio show struck a powerful blow to the Ku Klux Klan when Superman aired episodes pitting the hero against the Klan in an effort to teach young listeners to stand up to bigotry.
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The willingness to visit the truth
- By David Alexander McDonald on 03-13-24
By: Rick Bowers
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Printer's Error
- Irreverent Stories from Book History
- By: Rebecca Romney, J. P. Romney
- Narrated by: J.P. Romney
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Since the Gutenberg Bible first went on sale in 1455, printing has been viewed as one of the highest achievements of human innovation. But the march of progress hasn't been smooth; downright bizarre is more like it. Printer's Error chronicles some of the strangest and most humorous episodes in the history of Western printing. Take, for example, the Gutenberg Bible. While the book is regarded as the first printed work in the Western world, Gutenberg's name doesn't appear anywhere on it.
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Porn for Ye Old Bibliophiles
- By George M. Liveakos on 03-24-17
By: Rebecca Romney, and others
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Inside Scientology
- The Story of America's Most Secretive Religion
- By: Janet Reitman
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 15 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Scientology, created in 1954 by a prolific sci-fi writer named L. Ron Hubbard, claims to be the world's fastest-growing religion, with millions of members around the world and huge financial holdings. Its celebrity believers keep its profile high, and its teams of "volunteer ministers" offer aid at disaster sites such as Haiti and the World Trade Center. But Scientology is also a notably closed faith, harassing journalists and others through litigation and intimidation, even infiltrating the highest levels of government to further its goals.
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My cup of tea.
- By MWMcCabe on 08-09-11
By: Janet Reitman
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The Fifties
- By: David Halberstam
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 34 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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The Fifties is a sweeping social, political, economic, and cultural history of the 10 years that Halberstam regards as seminal in determining what our nation is today. Halberstam offers portraits of not only the titans of the age: Eisenhower, Dulles, Oppenheimer, MacArthur, Hoover, and Nixon; but also of Harley Earl, who put fins on cars; Dick and Mac McDonald and Ray Kroc, who mass-produced the American hamburger; Kemmons Wilson, who placed his Holiday Inns along the nation's roadsides; and more.
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one of the very best
- By Chester Chellman on 09-25-18
By: David Halberstam
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1959
- The Year Everything Changed
- By: Fred Kaplan
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Acclaimed national security columnist and noted cultural critic Fred Kaplan looks past the 1960s to the year that really changed AmericaWhile conventional accounts focus on the 60s as the era of pivotal change that swept the nation, Fred Kaplan argues that it was 1959 that ushered in the wave of tremendous cultural, political, and scientific shifts that would play out in the decades that followed.
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Facinating look at a neglected moment in history
- By James on 05-25-11
By: Fred Kaplan
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So We Read On
- How the Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why It Endures
- By: Maureen Corrigan
- Narrated by: Maureen Corrigan
- Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Conceived nearly a century ago by a man who died believing himself a failure, it's now a revered classic and a rite of passage in the reading lives of millions. But how well do we really know The Great Gatsby? As Maureen Corrigan, Gatsby lover extraordinaire, points out, while Fitzgerald's masterpiece may be one of the most popular novels in America, many of us first read it when we were too young to fully comprehend its power.
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Reading Gatsby as an adult reveals its greatness!
- By Mark on 10-06-14
By: Maureen Corrigan
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When Brooklyn Was Queer
- By: Hugh Ryan
- Narrated by: Hugh Ryan
- Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Hugh Ryan's When Brooklyn Was Queer is a groundbreaking exploration of the LGBT history of Brooklyn, from the early days of Walt Whitman in the 1850s up through the queer women who worked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard during World War II, and beyond. In intimate, evocative, moving prose, Ryan brings this never-before-told story of Brooklyn's vibrant and forgotten queer history to life.
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A Love Letter
- By Jeffrey on 06-26-19
By: Hugh Ryan
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Street Poison
- The Biography of Iceberg Slim
- By: Justin Gifford
- Narrated by: J. D. Jackson
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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From a career as a, yes, ruthless pimp in the '40s and '50s, Iceberg Slim refashioned himself as the first and still the greatest of the "street lit" masters, whose vivid books have made him an icon to such rappers as Ice-T, Jay-Z, and Snoop Dogg and a presiding spirit of "blaxploitation" culture.
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A must read for all Robert Beck fans.
- By JMKIII58 on 09-15-16
By: Justin Gifford
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Slugfest
- Inside the Epic, 50-Year Battle Between Marvel and DC
- By: Reed Tucker
- Narrated by: Will Collyer
- Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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The first in-depth, behind-the-scenes audiobook treatment of the rivalry between the two comic book giants. They are the two titans of the comic book industry - the Coke and Pepsi of superheroes - and for more than 50 years, Marvel and DC have been locked in an epic battle for spandex supremacy. At stake is not just sales, but cultural relevancy and the hearts of millions of fans. To many partisans, Marvel is now on top. But for much of the early 20th century, it was DC that was the undisputed leader.
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Loved it, but...
- By Smitty on 05-02-18
By: Reed Tucker
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Twenty-Six Seconds
- A Personal History of the Zapruder Film
- By: Alexandra Zapruder
- Narrated by: Alexandra Zapruder
- Length: 14 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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The moving, untold family story behind Abraham Zapruder's film footage of the Kennedy assassination and its lasting impact on our world. Abraham Zapruder didn't know when he ran home to grab his video camera on November 22, 1963 that this single spontaneous decision would change his family's life for generations to come. Originally intended as a home movie of President Kennedy's motorcade, Zapruder's film of the JFK assassination is now shown in every American history class, included in Jeopardy and Trivial Pursuit questions, and referenced in novels and films.
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Zapruder Does Her Subject Historical Justice
- By Joshua Miller on 12-11-16
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Constitutional fundamentalists read the Constitution selectively and self-servingly. Fundamentalist interpretations of the Constitution elevate certain constitutional rights above all others, benefit the most powerful members of society, and undermine the integrity of the document as a whole. The conservative fetish for the Second Amendment (enforced by groups such as the NRA) provides an obvious example of constitutional fundamentalism; the liberal fetish for the First Amendment (enforced by groups such as the ACLU) is less obvious but no less influential.
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very intelligent and well written hate speech
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It's as if this book was written for me!
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What listeners say about The Ten-Cent Plague
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Nathan Massengill
- 03-20-22
Very Accurate History
Very readable history of a story so bizarre it won't seem entirely real. But it was all too real.
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- Donald Roberts
- 07-19-17
Comic Book Fans Rejoice
A thorough history of what went on after the publication of the book "Seduction Of The Innocent" as well as some history of the comics medium before the publication of the above mentioned book let's just say as a comic book fan I loved it. The reader was top notch.
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- Neal B. Forzod
- 06-05-17
Book Burners Beware
What made the experience of listening to The Ten-Cent Plague the most enjoyable?
A concise account of the history of comics and the fear-mongering that grew up around them in the early days. Remember that time when school librarians, girl scouts and church leaders were holding drives to collect and burn comics? Yeah, this book will make you sad and also make you want to grab a collection of old EC books.
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- Steve Alcorn
- 06-05-17
Exhaustive to a Fault
Any additional comments?
This book is an exhaustive description of the movement to ban comic books, commencing with the advent of the Sunday "funnies" in the 1920s, but focused primarily on the political movement of the early 50s that led to the demise of the industry in 1955, and the end of the "golden age."
The problem with the book is its exhaustive nature. It is interesting when describing the comic companies and artists, but it becomes dull and repetitive as it belabors the efforts to suppress comics, seemingly incorporating descriptions of every PTA member, school official and small town mayor who ever spoke out against the publications.
After all this detail, the ending seems rushed, and the final paragraph before the epilogue is the only place that mentions the resurgence of comics less than a decade later, in the silver age, with Stan Lee's marvel rebirth. What changed to enable that? No explanation is given.
Finally, the subtitle implies some insights into how the censorship efforts changed America, but the subject it never mentioned. Did the suppression of comics lead to a greater or lesser proclivity for censorship in the years that followed? We aren't told. I feel like the book should be half as long, and cover twice the period of time, to truly put these events into perspective.
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- SixCatsStudio
- 10-13-11
An amazing listen
Amongst one of the many things I love that qualify me for "geek" status is my love of history & comic books. So I was pretty stoked to find "The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America" on Audible.
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- Jonathan C
- 09-24-17
A great read if you want to learn about the origins of comics
While a little dry this is a great source for any who wish to learn about how comics as we know them today started out and the great upheaval that they underwent about half way through this past century.
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- just asking for some common sense
- 08-31-18
A little dry, but excellent anyway
I got this on sale one day. Honestly I don't know why the rating is under 4. It is non-fiction with lots of facts and a clear timeline. It's scary how it parallels the attack on music, television, movies and video games. The attack on comic books was outrageous and scary, complete with book burnings. I recommend this book, but be warned that it is a little dry and there are names and dates and facts.
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- kwdayboise (Kim Day)
- 06-08-17
Fascinating history and social study
Winston Churchill once said that the worst argument against democracy was talking to the average voter for five minutes.
This book outlines one of those irritating periods (and there have been so many) when the emotions of the electorate overwhelmed facts or common sense, in this case nearly destroying an entire industry.
David Hajdu follows the history of the comic, from its roots in "Hogan's Alley" (where The Yellow Kid first appeared, giving a name to "yellow journalism") through the first introduction of comic books as free gifts with cereal (an invention of the father of Mad Magazine publisher William Gaines) and into the age of the super-hero comic book.
There had been regular assumptions by the public and some fact-free theorizing by public experts that the original cartoons were ruining American youth, with the same regularity that everything from the waltz to rock-and-roll were destroying American youth. Hajdu says the original furor over "funny pages" died down at the start of the Second World War, when the comics and their heroes turned patriotic. After the war, however, with the growing success of comic books and the intense competition to create something new, there was a growing belief that the medium was causing juvenile delinquency. This despite the fact that juvenile crime rates began decreasing once fathers began returning from the war.
Hajdu goes into wonderful details about the oddball personalities who built the industry, as well as the equally oddball experts and politicians who targeted the industry in the 1950s and basically emasculated and destroyed it. (I have often wondered why, as a person raised in the late 50s, the only comics available were generally Casper and Little Lulu.)
Long before "fake news" the experts began making up facts about the damage that comics, their plots, their artwork, their writing, and even their loud colors, were distorting young minds. It didn't matter that none of their contentions were scientifically tested. It fit the assumptions of many Americans who were convinced that there was a problem even if none existed. The real turning point came when the company that William Gaines inherited EC Comics (originally Educational Comics and later Entertaining Comics) realized that there was a potential market to make comics like the horror radio programs that ran in the 1940s. "Tales from the Crypt" and "Weird Science" joined their already popular crime series. But the often bloody and gruesome drawings and macabre stories (the stories no worse than many Poe stories) led to a growing backlash and eventually hearings in the US Senate.
It is a tragic story in many ways, with stories of many who lost their jobs in the industry and never recovered. Hajdu also touches on the aftermath and the gradual recovery with innovators like Stan Lee and Robert Crumb.
It's a fascinating book that reflects on the times, politics, and the urge to have fun creating something new. Good reading not just for those interested in comics but those interested in modern history, society, and politics.
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- SAMA
- 11-26-17
Fearmongering going out of control
This is what happened when the cave men argued against fire, or when technophobes riled against the Internet. It's another instance of the backlash against anything new, and it will unfortunately continue in a series of generational battles as long as people are around.
Listen to this, and promise yourself that you won't be part of the problem when a new technology emerges.
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- D. Bryant
- 11-13-17
Have no love for comics, yet found this fasinating
I went out on a limb and got this in a 2-for-1 deal. Was more than a little hesitant considering I've owned less than 10 comic books in my life, but I wanted something non-fiction / educational and tend to enjoy historical books, even if the subjects are unfamiliar.
Anyway, even though I still have no interest to pick up a comic book, I have no regrets in picking this up and feel I can understand the love of comics now and have at least cured myself of ignorance in the history of comics.
However, what I really gained from this book was an interesting look into the viewpoint of the mob, in the generic sense. Those who would rather waste the energy and attention into destroying something they consider strange or evil, rather than channeling that passion and focus into producing something good. The sort who skilled in creating hate and are not only proud in their talent, but are celebrated, for a short time before they are forgotten or turn their attention on a new target.
Having recently read/listened to "The Ultimate History of Video Games: From Pong to Pokemon" and a similar history of Dungeons and Dragons, where the same single mindedness was aimed at the destruction of video games and RPGs. It becomes depressingly obvious that events do repeat themselves and society will probably continue to lash out at any shifts in culture before any evidence can be gathered while they are lead by those who prefer to see society frozen in the blissful memory of their childhood.
Beyond the more gloomy sections of the history of comics, there is plenty of humor in this narrative along with the bright and dark sides of the corporate world.
The narration was great, though some did complain of mispronunciations. I didn't really notice.
For those interested in this book, I will also recommend "How Star Wars Conquered the Universe, The Ultimate History of Video Games, Super Mario: The History of Nintendo" and "Masters of the Air" a history of the air war over Europe.
Audible 20 Review Sweepstakes Entry
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