Elvis Presley stands tall as perhaps the supreme icon of 20th-century U.S. culture. But he was perceived to be deeply un-American in his early years as his controversial adaptation of rhythm and blues music and gyrating on-stage performances sent shockwaves through Eisenhower's conservative America and far beyond. This book explores Elvis Presley's global transformation from a teenage rebel figure into one of the U.S.'s major pop-cultural embodiments from a historical perspective. It shows how Elvis's rise was part of an emerging transnational youth culture whose political impact was heavily conditioned by the Cold War. As well as this, the book analyses Elvis's stint as G.I. soldier in West Germany, where he acted as an informal ambassador for the so-called American way of life and was turned into a deeply patriotic figure almost overnight. Yet, it also suggests that Elvis's increasingly synonymous identity with U.S. culture ultimately proved to be a double-edged sword, as the excesses of his superstardom and personal decline seemingly vindicated long-held stereotypes about the allegedly materialistic nature of U.S. society. Tracing Elvis's story from his unlikely rise in the 1950s right up to his tragic death in August 1977, this book offers a riveting account of changing U.S. identities during the Cold War, shedding fresh light on the powerful role of popular music and consumerism in shaping images of the United States during the cultural struggle between East and West.

Elvis Presley is the single biggest personality in American popular culture. Over three decades after his death in August 1977, he remains the undisputed king of rock'n'roll. Featuring a wealth of first-hand interviews, Elvis combines Jerry Hopkins's two previous classic bestselling Elvis biographies - Elvis: A Biography and Elvis: The Final Years - with all-new material to give the definitive detailed account of Presley's fantastic life

In Race, Rock, and Elvis, Michael T. Bertrand contends that popular music, specifically Elvis Presley's brand of rock 'n' roll, helped revise racial attitudes after World War II. Observing that youthful fans of rhythm and blues, rock 'n' roll, and other black-inspired music seemed more inclined than their segregationist elders to ignore the color line, Bertrand links popular music with a more general relaxation, led by white youths, of the historical denigration of blacks in the South. The tradition of southern racism, successfully communicated to previous generations, failed for the first time when confronted with the demand for rock 'n' roll by a new, national, commercialized youth culture. In a narrative peppered with the colorful observations of ordinary southerners, Bertrand argues that appreciating black music made possible a new recognition of blacks as fellow human beings. Bertrand documents black enthusiasm for Elvis Presley and cites the racially mixed audiences that flocked to the new music at a time when adults expected separate performances for black audiences and white. He describes the critical role of radio and recordings in blurring the color line and notes that these media made black culture available to appreciative whites on an unprecedented scale. He also shows how music was used to define and express the values of a southern working-class youth culture in transition, as young whites, many of them trying to orient themselves in an unfamiliar urban setting, embraced black music and culture as a means of identifying themselves. By adding rock 'n' roll to the mix of factors that fed into civil rights advances in the South, Race, Rock, and Elvis shows how the music,with its rituals and vehicles, symbolized the vast potential for racial accord inherent in postwar society.

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Elvis Presley was born on January 8th, 1935, in a shack in Tupelo, Mississippi. Though he was born a twin, his brother – who had been named Jess Garon – was tragically stillborn. Elvis died on August 16th, 1977, at the age of just 42, in his Graceland mansion. His death marked something significant in the collective mind, like the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, or Martin Luther King. Conspiracy theories took off about the circumstances surrounding his death: Was Elvis murdered by the mob? Was his death faked? Did Elvis commit suicide? Is he still alive? This book sheds new light on many of these questions, while also celebrating his music and legacy. Elvis Presley played a central and vital role in the development of Rockabilly music, drawing as he did on a vast range of styles, from the Gospel music of his southern youth to the country music of the Midwest. This book is dedicated to Elvis: the artist, the human being, and The King.