Martin Harris is a writer, teacher, and poker reporter who has covered the game for the last dozen years. He earned a Ph.D. in English from Indiana University at Bloomington and has taught full- and part-time at the university level for two decades. He currently teaches in the American Studies program at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, where his courses include "Poker in American Film and Culture" and "Tricky Dick: Richard Nixon, Poker, and Politics."
Description
Reviews
I always wondered what 'exhaustively researched' really meant. Now I know. Harris has unearthed a staggering array of juicy poker facts and lore from literature, movies, television, music and history, but his accomplishment goes far beyond its remarkable thoroughness, giving context, stature and meaning to America's game, conveying it all in a delightfully elegant prose that is as heady and surprising as hitting a one-outer on the river. Poker & Pop Culture is a fist-pumping winner of a book.--Peter Alson, Author of Take Me to the River and co-author of One of a Kind This book had to be written, and only one person could write it. Poker's place in our culture has been Martin's passion and expertise as long as I've known him. Poker is a story of a thousand stories, and they're all here.--Tommy Angelo, Author of Elements of Poker and Painless Poker A thorough, well-informed and highly entertaining exploration of the cultural riches bred by poker, explaining why the game remains so quintessentially American while growing ever more universal.--Anthony Holden, Author of Big Deal and Bigger Deal Martin Harris's Poker & Pop Culture is a lively, well researched, highly readable account of the game's hold on the popular imagination, revealing its history -- from Shakespeare to ESPN, Flash Kate to James Bond, Tony Soprano to Daniel Negreanu -- with 1,001 telling details. A+ Americana, and then some--James McManus, Author of Positively Fifth Street and Cowboys Full