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Title: Vice Capades

Subtitle: Sex, Drugs, and Bowling from the Pilgrims to the Present

Author: Mark Stein

Narrator: David Drummond

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 31 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-08-17

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

From the illegality of bowling in colonial America to violent video games and synthetic drugs, Vice Capades by best-selling author Mark Stein examines the nation's relationship with the actions, attitudes, and antics that have defined morality. This comprehensive yet humorous history reveals that our views of vice are not formed merely by morals but by power. By viewing a variety of vices across the span of American history, Vice Capades brings into focus the nation's inconsistent moral compass and helps us understand shifts in laws to combat vice by revealing who and what wields power (often invisibly) in the United States.

While laws against such things as nude dancing have become less restrictive, restrictive laws have been enacted against sexual harassment. While marijuana is no longer illegal in numerous jurisdictions, restrictive laws have been enacted against cigarettes. Stein examines how this nation's inconsistent moral compass has consistently pointed to every era's powers-that-be and enables us to view shifts in the power structure taking place before the public became aware of particular laws against vice and who determines what is or is not deemed vice.

Critic Reviews:

Vice Capades exposes our racist and sexist history but reads like a Jon Stewart segment. (Marianne Noble, author of The Masochistic Pleasures of Sentimental Literature)

Members Reviews:

Five Stars

Anything by Mark Stein is worth reading.

Insightful, Entertaining and Informative

An insightful book that is an easy read. Stein is a really good writer who can be serious and yet interject a touch of humor that keeps things in perspective. His observations as well as his reporting is not only engaging, it really gets you thinking. A really good book.

"A fresh look at US history".

A very fresh approach to the the history and evolution of laws and mores pertaining to the "vices": drugs, sex, alcohol, pornography, gambling, tobacco... and what that history can tell us about social power both economic and political. No, when I see changes occurring in our legal landscape and political policies, I have learned to ask myself, "What does this tell us about the people trying to attain or maintain power in ou society".

Smart and funny

This smart and funny read does a brilliant job of dissecting America's history with vice and how people have used the label of vice to maintain - or obtain - power. Even when delving into some of the darker aspects of our history, Stein manages to keep a light and often hilarious tone, while not minimizing the experience of the oppressed. A difficult line to walk, but Stein walks it beautifully.