One Nation Under A Groove or Communicating in Small Groups

One Nation Under A Groove: Motown and American Culture

Author: Gerald Lyn Early

In its heyday Motown Records was a household word, one of the most famous and successful black-owned businesses in American history, and, arguably, the most significant of all American independent record labels. How it got to be that way and how it changed the face of American popular culture are the subjects of this concise study of Berry Gordy's phenomenal creation. Author Gerald Early tells the story of the cultural and historical conditions that made Motown Records possible, including the dramatic shifts in American popular music of the time, changes in race relations and racial attitudes, and the rise of a black urban population. Early concentrates in particular on the 1960s and 70s, when Motown had its biggest impact on American musical tastes and styles.

With this revised and expanded edition, the author provides an up-to-date bibliography of the major books that have been written about Motown Records specifically, and black American music generally. Plus, new appendices feature interviews with four of the major creators of the Motown Sound: Berry Gordy, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, and Marvin Gaye.

About the Author:
Gerald Early is an award-winning music, sports, and popular-culture scholar. He is Merle Kling Professor of Modern Letters in the Department of Arts and Sciences at Washington University. His book, The Culture of Bruising: Essays on Prizefighting, Literature, and Modern American Culture, won the 1994 National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism.

Publishers Weekly

In this elegant, far-ranging essay, African American studies professor Early (The Culture of Bruising) offers a portrait of the revolutionary as a decidedly bourgeois family man and businessman-Motown Records founder Berry Gordy Jr., stage manager of ``the most shining moment of the American black in popular culture.'' Borrowing crossover boxing hero Joe Louis's gloves and Booker T. Washington's bootstraps, Gordy combined black and American identities in a music ``that neither bleached nor blackened,'' even if it was created, produced and-most significantly-popularized entirely by blacks. Readers hoping for a complete history or a critical equivalent of The Big Chill soundtrack will be disappointed; Early is less interested in particular songs or artists than in the overarching, if never fully described, ``Motown sound'' authored by Gordy himself with the help of in-house songwriters and producers. (Artists were never permitted to write songs or produce, and even diva Diana Ross was never allowed to become more than just the most exalted member of the Motown ``family.'') This is a heady mix of cultural studies and nostalgia, only occasionally bogged down in a slight mist of academicism. (June)

Table of Contents:

	Introduction	1
I	Family happiness	9
II	A usable black present or the lessons of Booker T. Washington and Joe Louis	35
III	The midwest as musical Mecca and the rise of rhythm and blues	67
IV	The shrine and the seer	107
	Appendixes	137
	Notes	223
	Selected bibliography	225
	Index	229

See also: Home Cheese Making or The Bagel

Communicating in Small Groups: Principles and Practices

Author: Steven A Beeb

As the best-selling text in the field of small-group communication, Communicating in Small Groups: Principles and Practices, by Steven A. Beebe and John T. Masterson, has provided readers with a wealth of relevant, practical, and up-to-date information for over a decade and a half. Balancing theoretical perspectives with numerous application and skill activities, the new edition features the following: an emphasis on group communication competency, expanded coverage of fantasy themes and symbolic convergence theory, how to avoid reasoning fallacies when solving problems and making decisions, integrated group problem solving and tools for structuring problem solving and decision making in groups and teams, how to deal with difficult people when managing conflict, the latest research conclusions about leadership and teams, new principles and frameworks for organizing any meeting, and references to total quality management and the role of collaboration in the work force.

Table of Contents:

	Preface
Ch. 1	An Introduction to Small Group Communication	1
Ch. 2	Small Group Communication Theory	30
Ch. 3	Group Formation	51
Ch. 4	Relating to Others in Small Groups	70
Ch. 5	Improving Group Climate	103
Ch. 6	Nonverbal Group Dynamics	135
Ch. 7	Small Group Decision Making and Problem Solving	170
Ch. 8	Small Group Problem-Solving Techniques	209
Ch. 9	Conflict Management in Small Groups	246
Ch. 10	Leadership	286
Ch. 11	Small Group Communication in Organizations	313
App	Communicating in Small Groups to an Audience	348
	Glossary	357
	Acknowledgments	363
	Index	364