Shades of Springsteen: Politics, Love, Sports, and Masculinity

Although never having met Bruce Springsteen, connecting with the poet/rock star has been a seminal event in John Massaro’s life. In Shades of Springsteen: Politics, Love, Sports, and Masculinity Massaro, SUNY Distinguished Teacher Professor of Politics, draws upon his years of research in preparing a college level course on Springsteen. He documents a truly mutual connection linking two related stories: Springsteen’s and his own. That connection-shades of Springsteen, if you will-opened Massaro not only to Springsteen but also to a wider enriching world. Massaro fleshes out the connection by focusing on what Springsteen’s lyrics can tell us about music, politics, love, sports, and masculinity. In this unique and far-ranging book, Massaro artfully and convincingly connects Springsteen’s oeuvre to his own life but also to the lives of a diverse collection of other intriguing characters, fictional and real, including Richard Nixon, Alexander Hamilton, George Carlin, The Great Gatsby, Caravaggio, Mao Tse-tung, Carl Jung, J.Edgar Hoover, Mohamed Atta, J.D. Salinger and Holden Caulfield.