Faith, Family, and Flag - by Joanna Dee Das (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Sons of Britches. The Great American Chuckwagon Dinner Show. These are just a couple of the many shows performed in Branson, MO, where the seemingly innocent entertainment fuels American conservatism. Branson, Missouri, the Ozark Mountain mecca of wholesome entertainment, has been home to countless stage shows espousing patriotism and Christianity, welcoming over ten million visitors a year. Some consider it "God's Country" and others "as close to Hell as anything on Earth." For Joanna Dee Das, Branson is a political, religious, and cultural harbinger of a certain enduring dream of what America is. She takes Branson more seriously than the light-hearted fun it advertises-and maybe we should too. For Das, Branson's performers offer visions of the American Dream that embody a set of values known as the three Fs: faith, family, and flag. Branson boosters insist that these are universal values that welcome all people; the city aims to capture as many tourists as possible. But over the past several decades, faith, family, and flag have become markers of contemporary conservatism. The shows and culture of Branson, for all their fun and laughter, have been a galvanizing political force for white, working-and-middle class, Christian Americans. For social and economic conservatives alike, Branson is practically proof-of-concept for America as they want it to be. Faith, Family, Flag is a comprehensive history of the Branson entertainment industry, within the context of America's long culture wars. Das reveals how and why a town known for popular entertainment, a domain associated most often with the political left ("Hollywood liberals"), came to be so important to the political right and its vision for America"--

Book Synopsis

Sons of Britches. The Great American Chuckwagon Dinner Show. The Haygoods. The Grand Jubilee. These are just a couple of the many shows performed in Branson, MO, where the seemingly innocent entertainment fuels American conservatism.

Branson, Missouri, the Ozark Mountain mecca of wholesome entertainment, has been home to countless stage shows espousing patriotism and Christianity, welcoming over ten million visitors a year. Some consider it "God's Country" and others "as close to Hell as anything on Earth." For Joanna Dee Das, Branson is a political, religious, and cultural harbinger of a certain enduring dream of what America is. She takes Branson more seriously than the light-hearted fun it advertises--and maybe we should too.

For Das, Branson's performers offer visions of the American Dream that embody a set of values known as the three Fs: faith, family, and flag. Branson boosters insist that these are universal values that welcome all people; the city aims to capture as many tourists as possible. But over the past several decades, faith, family, and flag have become markers of contemporary conservatism. The shows and culture of Branson, for all their fun and laughter, have been a galvanizing political force for white, working-and-middle class, Christian Americans. For social and economic conservatives alike, Branson is practically proof-of-concept for America as they want it to be.

Faith, Family, and Flag is a comprehensive history of the Branson entertainment industry, within the context of America's long culture wars. Das reveals how and why a town known for popular entertainment, a domain associated most often with the political left ("Hollywood liberals"), came to be so important to the political right and its vision for America.

Review Quotes

"Branson has always been derided as a place where entertainers past their peak go to die, but Das shows that this strange nexus of can-do capitalism and left-field showbiz is deeply rooted in the American psyche. Full of forgotten characters straight from Mark Twain, Faith, Family, and Flag is an entertaining and informative dive into a rare pocket of America where people with contradicting values and biographies learn to live together. This book reveals a fascinating world of hustlers, country singers, preachers, Mormons, hillbilly comedians, marketers, and even one US president, who collectively prove Branson is ultimately about one of America's greatest traits: reinvention."--Mark Guarino, author of 'Country and Midwestern: Chicago in the History of Country Music and the Folk Revival'

"Das peels back the layers of the Branson entertainment scene to reveal a complexity that most of us, regardless of political persuasion, would not expect to encounter. Timely and personal, yet scholarly and balanced, Faith, Family, and Flag is essential reading for understanding the Branson phenomenon and the nation's love-hate relationship with it."--Brooks Blevins, author of 'A History of the Ozarks'

About the Author

Joanna Dee Das is associate professor of performing arts at Washington University in St. Louis. She is the author of the award-winning book Katherine Dunham: Dance and the African Diaspora.