Freak Shows and the Modern American Imagination: Constructing the Damaged Body from Willa Cather to Truman Capote

This book examines the artistic use of freak shows between 1900-1950. During this period, the freak show shifted from a highly popular and profitable form of entertainment to a reviled one. But why? And how does this response reflect larger social changes in the United States at the time? Fahy examines this change and how artists responded.