Readers young and old will enjoy reading about Mary Peacock's fictional horse story infused with common emotions and silly illustrations.

The nineteenth century saw the American circus move from a reviled and rejected form of entertainment to the “Greatest Show on Earth.” Circus Life by Micah D. Childress looks at this transition from the perspective of the people who owned and worked in circuses and how they responded to the new incentives that rapid industrialization made possible. The circus has long been a subject of fascination for many, as evidenced by the millions of Americans that have attended circus performances over many decades since 1870, when the circus established itself as a truly unique entertainment enterprise. Yet the few analyses of the circus that do exist have only examined the circus as its own closed microcosm—the “circus family.” Circus Life, on the other hand, places circus employees in the larger context of the history of US workers and corporate America. Focusing on the circus as a business-entertainment venture, Childress pushes the scholarship on circuses to new depths, examining the performers, managers, and laborers’ lives and how the circus evolved as it grew in popularity over time. Beginning with circuses in the antebellum era, Childress examines changes in circuses as gender balances shifted, industrialization influenced the nature of shows, and customers and crowds became increasingly more middle-class. As a study in sport and social history, Childress’s account demonstrates how the itinerant nature of the circus drew specific types of workers and performers, and how the circus was internally in constant upheaval due to the changing profile of its patrons and a changing economy. MICAH D. CHILDRESS received his PhD in history from Purdue University and currently works as a Realtor® in Grand Rapids, Michigan. His articles have appeared in Popular Entertainment Studies and American Studies.

From the 1870s to the 1960s, circuses crisscrossed the nation providing entertainment. A unique workforce of human and animal laborers from around the world put on the show. They also formed the backbone of a tented entertainment industry that raised new questions about what constituted work and who counted as a worker. Andrea Ringer examines the industry-wide circus world--the collection of shows that traveled by rail, wagon, steamboat, and car--and the traditional and nontraditional laborers who created it. Performers and their onstage labor played an integral part in the popularity of the circus. But behind the scenes, other laborers performed the endless menial tasks that kept the show on the road. Circus operators regulated employee behavior both inside and outside the tent even as the employees themselves blurred the line between leisure and labor until, in all parts of the show, the workers could not escape their work. Illuminating and vivid, Circus World delves into the gender, class, and even species concerns within an extinct way of life.

It is 1971 and seventeen-year-old Sarah Cunningham is consumed by wanderlust. When her passion for capturing interesting subjects through her camera lens leads Sarah to a grassy lot one day, she becomes immediately mesmerized by the fascinating circus life that surrounds her. Eager to fit in and in need of a passport into a world beyond her reach, Sarah escapes her scripted suburban life, makes the circus her family, and loses her virginity to West, a handsome performer with a gift for handling wild animals. While under the spell of circus mystique, Sarah falls in love with West and the nomadic way of life as she mingles with jailbirds and performers alike. As the tour nears its end, the gritty underbelly of the circus is revealed. Just before the show reaches winter quarters in Florida, Sarah makes two unwanted discoveries that place her prematurely into adulthood and lead her to face major life choices. In this coming-of-age story, a restless teenager embarks on a journey of self-discovery during the 1970s after she runs away with the circus and discovers that life under a tent is as unpredictable as she is.

A journal of politics and humor.