Real NASCAR: White Lightning, Red Clay, and Big Bill France

by Daniel S. Pierce

Overview

In this history of the stock car racing circuit known as NASCAR, Daniel S. Pierce offers a revealing new look at the sport from its postwar beginnings on Daytona Beach and Piedmont dirt tracks through the early 1970s, when the sport spread beyond its southern roots and gained national recognition. Real NASCAR not only confirms the popular notion of NASCAR's origins in bootlegging, but also establishes beyond a doubt the close ties between organized racing and the illegal liquor industry, a story that readers will find both fascinating and controversial.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807895726
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	04/01/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	360
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Daniel S. Pierce is professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. He is author of The Great Smokies: From Natural Habitat to National Park.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

This book is like landing on the moon for the first time. Even those of us who have been around for 50 years will find many new twists to the early days when all of this came together and NASCAR was born, put in diapers, and hurled down the straightaway with unbent fury. This is NASCAR 101 told in a colorful way that you can't put down.—H. A. "Humpy" Wheeler, legendary NASCAR promoter, member of the International Racing Hall of Fame

Each NASCAR event is a cultural experience, and any fan or participant who understands the fundamentals on which this sport was founded must read this book. The research and fact-finding are incredible; this is the best I have ever read on the heritage of this amazing sport.—Brad Daugherty, NASCAR team owner, ESPN and ABC analyst

An important book that transcends other works dealing with the complex and mythic background of stock car racing in the post-World War II South. Pierce has cut through the tangle of anecdotal and (self-)promotional writings to boil the first years of NASCAR down to a rich historical broth that needs no embellishment.—Pete Daniel, author of Lost Revolutions: The South in the 1950s

Editorial Reviews

Of the many books on NASCAR history, few have been either as thorough or as authoritative as this one. . . . Pierce's aim to build his work on documented evidence rather than widely accepted and oft-repeated lore makes his book a standout. Enthusiastically recommended.—Library Journal starred review

The first comprehensive history of early southern stock-car racing that reflects its rustic character but not at the expense of academic rigor.—Journal of Southern History

If you're a Southerner, by birth or by inclination, and love Southern foodways, folkways, highways, and low-ways, you'll lap up Daniel S. Pierce's Real NASCAR . . . like grits and red-eye gravy, even if you've never been to a stock car race or watched one on television.—Our State

[A] fascinating history of the era.—Bookforum

Stories of stock car racing and moonshining come to life through oral histories. . . . Real NASCAR contains an energy and respect for its subject that reveals the historian's personal enthusiasm. Even if you have never been a NASCAR fan, you will find much to keep you reading in this intriguing history of the sport.—Smoky Mountain Living

Details the sport's genesis as it has never been shown before. . . . A story that readers will find both fascinating and controversial.—McCormick Messenger

Real NASCAR can be read by racing fans who will share stories about Bill France and Curtis Turner at lunch tables and bars all over America at the same time it becomes a key text in the reading lists of university courses on Southern culture.—Virginia Libraries

Capture[s] the spirit of the early years of rough-and-tumble stock racing.—Roanoke Times

Rollicking and innovative. . . . A history that is captivating, insightful, and surprising. . . . Enthusiastically recommend[ed].—Florida Historical Quarterly

An enthusiastic study that brings to life NASCAR's mythology and reality. . . . This volume will delight fans; researches will appreciate the bounty of resources cited. . . . Recommended.—Choice

Puts research and rigor into the rise of NASCAR, from its well known migration off the back roads of moonshine running to the paved Talladega Raceway.—Autoblog.com

A rich source of the forgotten lore and overlooked history of stock car racing in America. Students of southern history and stock car racing fans alike will want a copy of this fascinating and eminently readable history.—Journal of East Tennessee History

Real NASCAR is one of the very, very few [racing history books] worth reading.—Speedreaders.info

From the Publisher

Of the many books on NASCAR history, few have been either as thorough or as authoritative as this one. Pierce (history, Univ. of North Carolina, Asheville) applies his historian's touch by thoroughly and carefully laying out the story of NASCAR's birth and development, grounding it in the culture and value system of the working-class Piedmont South, one in which manhood was often measured by one's ability to drive a car. That same culture also gave rise to the bootlegging industry and traditions, from which flowed a steady supply of race car drivers, prize money, and racetrack builders. With land readily and inexpensively available, small racetracks sprouted throughout the region after World War II, quickly spreading stock car racing popularity. The final prerequisite for success was an organizer and promoter who could pull all the disparate pieces together. That person, "Big" Bill France, was legendary in the face of many obstacles. Pierce provides not only a finely detailed narrative of NASCAR's formative years but also an examination of why matters unfolded as they did and why people became so strongly attached to the sport. VERDICT Pierce's aim to build his work on documented evidence rather than widely accepted and oft-repeated lore makes his book a standout. Enthusiastically recommended as an important work that would serve an academic audience as well as general readers.—David Van de Streek, Penn State Univ. Libs., York

Library Journal