
Citizen Cowboy
Will Rogers and the American People
Steven Watts(Author)
Cambridge University Press
Will be published approx. on 17. September 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
469 pages
978-1-108-81120-0 (ISBN)
Description
Citizen Cowboy is a probing biography of one of America's most influential cultural figures. Will Rogers was a youth from the Cherokee Indian Territory of Oklahoma who rose to conquer nearly every form of media and entertainment in the early twentieth century's rapidly expanding consumer society. Through vaudeville, the Ziegfeld Follies and Broadway, syndicated newspaper and magazine writing, the lecture circuit, radio, and Hollywood movies, Rogers built his reputation as a folksy humorist whose wit made him a national symbol of common sense, common decency, and common people. Though a friend of presidents, movie stars and industrial leaders, it was his bond with ordinary people that endeared him to mass audiences. Making his fellow Americans laugh and think while honoring the past and embracing the future, Rogers helped ease them into the modern world and they loved him for it.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
ISBN-13
978-1-108-81120-0 (9781108811200)
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Book
08/2024
Cambridge University Press
€37.80
Shipment within 15-20 days
Person
Steven Watts has written seven books, including biographies of Walt Disney, Henry Ford, Hugh Hefner, Dale Carnegie, and John F. Kennedy. He has written for The Atlantic, National Review, Newsweek, Salon, and The American Spectator, and has appeared on NPR, C-Span, BBC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, Fox, and Bloomberg News. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of Missouri.
Content
Author's note; Introduction: Will Rogers' America; 1. The final frontier; 2. The Cherokee kid; 3. The vaudeville romance; 4. Follies and frolics; 5. The celluloid cowboy; 6. An age of publicity; 7. The American soul; 8. Politics is applesauce; 9. The unfunny business of trying to be funny; 10. The private man; 11. The little fellow and the Great Depression; 12. Man in motion; 13. The man talkies were invented for; Epilogue: Thy will be done; Acknowledgements.