{"product_id":"looking-for-miss-america-isbn-9781640094901","title":"Looking for Miss America","description":"\u003cb\u003eWinner of the Popular Culture Association’s Emily Toth Best Book in Women’s Studies Award\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom an author praised for writing “delicious social history” (Dwight Garner,\u003ci\u003e The New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e) comes a lively account of memorable Miss America contestants, protests, and scandals—and how the pageant, now in its one hundredth year, serves as an unintended indicator of feminist progress\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLooking for Miss America\u003c\/i\u003e is a fast–paced narrative history of a curious and contradictory institution. From its start in 1921 as an Atlantic City tourist draw to its current incarnation as a scholarship competition, the pageant has indexed women’s status during periods of social change—the post–suffrage 1920s, the Eisenhower 1950s, the #MeToo era. This ever–changing institution has been shaped by war, evangelism, the rise of television and reality TV, and, significantly, by contestants who confounded expectations.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSpotlighting individuals, from Yolande Betbeze, whose refusal to pose in swimsuits led an angry sponsor to launch the rival Miss USA contest, to the first black winner, Vanessa Williams, who received death threats and was protected by sharpshooters in her hometown parade, Margot Mifflin shows how women made hard bargains even as they used the pageant for economic advancement. The pageant’s history includes, crucially, those it excluded; the notorious Rule Seven, which required contestants to be “of the white race,” was retired in the 1950s, but no women of color were crowned until the 1980s.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn rigorously researched, vibrant chapters that unpack each decade of the pageant, \u003ci\u003eLooking for Miss America\u003c\/i\u003e examines the heady blend of capitalism, patriotism, class anxiety, and cultural mythology that has fueled this American ritual.\u003cb\u003e*Winner of the Popular Culture Association’s Emily Toth Best Book in Women’s Studies Award*\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA \u003ci\u003eCosmopolitan\u003c\/i\u003e Best Nonfiction Book of 2020 \u003cbr\u003eA \u003ci\u003eNew York Post\u003c\/i\u003e Best Book of 2020 \u003cbr\u003eA \u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e Best Summer Book \u003cbr\u003eA \u003ci\u003ePureWow\u003c\/i\u003e 12 Best Nonfiction Books of 2020 \u003cbr\u003eA \u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e 2020 Title to Watch \u003cbr\u003eA \u003ci\u003eLitHub\u003c\/i\u003e Best Reviewed Book \u003cbr\u003eA \u003ci\u003eNational Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e 5 Hot Books Pick\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Mifflin is no Miss America apologist. She’s cleareyed about the pageant’s many hypocrisies and failures . . . But Mifflin, too, is invested in the pageant’s sense of specialness; she’s mining Miss America for meaning . . . The pageant’s tensions and ambiguities emerge most vividly through the way particular women understood them in the context of their particular time . . . Lively.” —Molly Fischer, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Mifflin is as alive to the pageant’s historical grotesqueries as she is to the weirdo details of its founding.” —Lauren Collins, \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Nothing short of fascinating.” —Laura Hanrahan, \u003ci\u003eCosmopolitan\u003c\/i\u003e, A Best Nonfiction Book of the Year\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A fascinating look at how Miss America has struggled to stay relevant in the 21st century, without condescension or ridicule toward the women who have fought tooth and nail to be crowned.” —Sarah Stiefvater, \u003ci\u003ePureWow\u003c\/i\u003e, A Best Nonfiction Book of the Year\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A comprehensive history of how a beauty contest moonlighting as a scholarship program evolved over a century . . . \u003ci\u003eLooking for Miss America\u003c\/i\u003e is an exploration into the pageant's past, but the contest's days might be numbered.” —Shannon Carlin, \u003ci\u003eBust\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“In this well–written and thoroughly researched book, Mifflin explores how the evolution of the Miss America pageant has echoed ongoing women's rights movements and examines the overall impact of a beauty–based scholarship competition.”—\u003ci\u003eBitch\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"In her formidably researched book, \u003ci\u003eLooking for Miss America: A Pageant’s 100-Year Quest to Define Womanhood\u003c\/i\u003e, scholar Margot Mifflin provides a lavish and detailed account of the various milestones that have defined the pageant for decades . . . A fascinating and entertaining account for anyone interested in reading a first-rate analysis of the United States’s most distinctive beauty contest.\" —Elwood Watson, \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Historian Margot Mifflin encourages us to view Miss America as more complicated than just sashes, hairspray and high heels . . . Even if you’ve never watched a single Miss America pageant on TV, anyone with an interest in American history would benefit from this deep dive into a complex cultural figurehead.”—Jessica Wakeman, \u003ci\u003eBookPage\u003c\/i\u003e (starred review)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Vigorously researched and wryly humorous . . . This incisive and entertaining history deserves the spotlight.” —\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Lively and probing . . . Whether fans or foes of Miss America, few readers will see the pageant in the same way after finishing this book. A cleareyed look at an iconic beauty pageant and its efforts to stave off irrelevance.” —\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Smart and witty narrative . . . Mifflin reveals how the contest wormed its way into the national subconscious, taking us through its disasters, hypocrisies and ambitions over the last century.” —\u003ci\u003eThe National Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Though she explores the serious failings of the contest, Mifflin also relishes the nostalgia and camp associated with Miss America, making this social history a perfect summer read.” —\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eMargot Mifflin\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of \u003ci\u003eLooking for Miss America\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eBodies of Subversion: A Secret History of Women and Tattoo\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eThe Blue Tattoo: The Life of Olive Oatman\u003c\/i\u003e. She has written for publications including \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e. Find out more at margotmifflin.com.","brand":"Counterpoint","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46300779577573,"sku":"NP9781640094901","price":17.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781640094901.jpg?v=1767731734","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/looking-for-miss-america-isbn-9781640094901","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}