Books like Top of the rock by Warren Littlefield

Brett Martin’s nonfiction book chronicles the rise of cable drama in the 1990s and 2000s, revealing how writers‑showrunners created complex, socially resonant series like The Wire, The Sopranos, and Mad Men.

Television shows have now eclipsed films as the premier form of visual narrative art of our time. This new book by one of our finest critics explains—historically, in depth, and with interviews with the celebrated creators themselves—how the art of must-see/binge-watch television evolved. Darwin had his theory of evolution, and David Bianculli has his. Bianculli's theory has to do with the concept of quality television: what it is and, crucially, how it got that way. In tracing the evolutionary history of our progress toward a Platinum Age of Television—our age, the era of The Sopranos and Breaking Bad and Mad Men and The Wire and Homeland and Girls—he focuses on the development of the classic TV genres, among them the sitcom, the crime show, the miniseries, the soap opera, the western, the animated series and the late night talk show. In each genre, he selects five key examples of the form, tracing its continuities and its dramatic departures and drawing on exclusive and in-depth interviews with many of the most famed auteurs in television history. Television has triumphantly come of age artistically; David Bianculli's book is the first to date to examine, in depth and in detail and with a keen critical and historical sense, how this inspiring development came about. --- [(source)][1] [1]: https://www.amazon.com/Platinum-Age-Television-Walking-Terrific/dp/0385540272

Keith Badman's comprehensive biography of The Beach Boys offers an unparalleled chronicle of the band’s career from 1961 to 1976, complete with rare photographs, studio logs, and detailed session accounts.

A scholarly look at how U.S. history, race relations, and constitutional law have shaped firearms policy and civil rights.

A collection offering an blend of popular folk songs and rare, old songs in the folk tradition of the American Civil War.