{"product_id":"well-met-renaissance-faires-and-the-american-counterculture","title":"Well Met: Renaissance Faires and the American Counterculture","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Renaissance Fairea 50 year-long party  communal ritual  political challenge and cultural wellspringreceives its first sustained historical attention with Well Met. Beginning with the chaotic communal moment of its founding and early development in the 1960s through its incorporation as a major family friendly leisure site in the 2000s  Well Met tells the story of the thinkers  artists  clowns  mimes  and others performers who make the Faire.  Well Met approaches the Faire from the perspective of labor  education  aesthetics  business  the opposition it faced  and the key figures involved. Drawing upon vibrant interview material and deep archival research  Rachel Lee Rubin reveals the way the faires established themselves as a pioneering and highly visible counter cultural referendum on how we live nowour family and sexual arrangements  our relationship to consumer goods  and our corporate entertainments.  In order to understand the meaning of the faire to its devoted participants both workers and visitors  Rubin has compiled a dazzling array of testimony  from extensive conversations with Faire founder Phyllis Patterson to interviews regarding the contemporary scene with performers  crafters  booth workers and playtrons. Well Met pays equal attention what came out of the fairethe transforming gifts bestowed by the faires innovations and experiments upon the broader American culture: the underground press of the 1960s and 1970s  experimentation with ethnic musical instruments and styles in popular music  the craft revival  and various forms of immersive theater are all connected back to their roots in the faire. Original  intrepid  and richly illustrated  Well Met puts the Renaissance Faire back at the historical center of the American counterculture.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44983697571893,"sku":"ByrdShop_0814771386","price":58.84,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780814771389.jpg?v=1770806597","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/well-met-renaissance-faires-and-the-american-counterculture","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}