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The Conversation USA

Before Shark Week and 'Jaws,' World War II spawned America's shark obsession

  • Written by Janet M. Davis, University Distinguished Teaching Professor of American Studies, The University of Texas at Austin College of Liberal Arts
imageA painting for the U.S. Army's Stars and Stripes newspaper shows a downed pilot fending off sharks with a knife.Ed Vebell/Getty Images

Every summer on the Discovery Channel, “Shark Week” inundates its eager audiences with spectacular documentary footage of sharks hunting, feeding and leaping.

Debuting in 1988, the television event was...

Read more: Before Shark Week and 'Jaws,' World War II spawned America's shark obsession

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