{"product_id":"the-greatest-shows-on-earth-a-history-of-the-circus","title":"The Greatest Shows on Earth: A History of the Circus","description":"Beautifully illustrated and filled with rich historical detail and colorful anecdotes  this is a vibrant history for all those who have ever dreamed of running away to the circus  now in paperback.  Step right up! and buy a ticket to the Greatest Show on Earththe Big Top  containing death-defying stunts  dancing bears  roaring tigers  and trumpeting elephants. The circus has always been home to the dazzling and the exotic  the improbable and the impossiblea place of myth and romance  of reinvention  rebirth  second acts  and new identities. Asking why we long to soar on flying trapezes  ride bareback on spangled horses  and parade through the streets in costumes of glitter and gold  this captivating book illuminates the history of the circus and the claim it has on the imaginations of artists  writers  and people around the world.  Traveling back to the circuss early days  Linda Simon takes us to eighteenth-century hippodromes in Great Britain and intimate one-ring circuses in nineteenth-century Paris  where Toulouse-Lautrec and Picasso became enchanted with aerialists and clowns. She introduces us to P. T. Barnum  James Bailey  and the enterprising Ringling Brothers and reveals how they created the golden age of American circuses. Moving forward to the whimsical Circus Oz in Australia and to New York Citys Big Apple Circus and the grand spectacle of Cirque du Soleil  she shows how the circus has transformed in recent years. At the center of the story are the peopletrick riders and tightrope walkers  sword swallowers and animal trainers  contortionists and clownsthat created the sensational  raucous  and sometimes titillating world of the circus.","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44923656405045,"sku":"ByrdShop_1780233582","price":227.12,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/ByrdShop_1780233582.jpg?v=1768647168","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-greatest-shows-on-earth-a-history-of-the-circus","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}