Robert Pruter – författare

Curtis Mayfield. Etta James. The Chi-Lites. Chess Records. Jerry Butler. Fontella Bass. Chicago was soul music from the late 1950s through the late 1970s. Chicago Soul chronicles the emergence of Chicago soul music out of the city's thriving rhythm-and-blues industry and shows how it took the world by storm. The performers, A & R men, producers, distributors, deejays, studios, and labels that made it all happen take center stage. Robert Pruter packs each page with painstakingly detailed information sure to enlighten the fan and satisfy the obsessive. Recognized for almost thirty years as an unparalleled history of the subject, Chicago Soul documents the stunning rise and success of the Windy City as a center of the soul music business.

Robert Pruter's classic look at black doowop in the Windy City moves from street corners to South Side clubs to the studios at Chess Records to recapture the doowop scene of the 1950s. Pruter combines long-lost material from fanzines to the Chicago Defender with in-depth interviews to chronicle legendary African American vocal groups like the Flamingos, the Moonglows, the Spaniels, and the El Dorados. But Pruter also delves into the neighborhood scene that produced the likes of the Quintones and Five Chimes, and returns non-recording acts to their rightful place in Chicago music history. Rich with detail and including an irreplaceable discography, Doowop offers doowop obsessives and fans of early rock 'n' roll and R&B a must-have look at the genre.

Between World War I and World War II, women flocked to Chicago’s parks, playgrounds, and clubs, becoming enthusiastic participants, players, and fans of the games of the time. Robert Pruter’s Modern Women and Sports in Interwar Chicago; 1918–1941, examines how the Windy City became home to advancements in women’s track and field, swimming, basketball, golf, speed skating, and softball. As a work of sport and urban history, Pruter’s text situates the vibrant world of women’s athletics within the context of interwar Chicago’s new infrastructure and support from its religious and cultural institutions, newspapers, and industrial and retail firms. Woven into this historical analysis are biographies of individual athletes, including Edith Cummings, the 1920s golf star who inspired F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Tidye Pickett, the first African American woman to compete in the Olympic Games. Modern Women and Sports in Interwar Chicago provides a detailed look at developments in the city, the rise of women’s sporting culture, and the lives and social contexts of the athletes who navigated gender norms while embracing more inclusive recreation and competition.

Robert Pruter's work traces the history of high school sports in America from the student-led athletic clubs of the 1880's through to the government takeover of athletic associations in the 1930s.