The Political Theory of I Love Lucy

The Political Theory of I Love Lucy PDF Author: Leslie Dale Feldman
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 1498541550
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 185

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Book Description
This book looks at how the classic television series fits into the cultural milieu of mid-century America. I Love Lucy incorporates key themes of the 1950s American political scene and classic American values of family, social mobility, community, individualism and work, keeping in mind that “Luck” as Machiavelli said “is the arbiter of half of what we do.” As the beloved American TV queen, Lucy Ricardo is a psychologically complicated character, conflicted between her role as a 1950s housewife and her wish to be a star. She is an icon of social mobility, going from a small New York City apartment to a country house in a swanky suburb, and an example of the “transitional” woman who wants to have it all. Is she a feminist? Is she a conformist? Does she prefer the country to the city? Whether she is working on the chocolate factory assembly line, baking bread, or achieving the American dream, Lucy is always “speeding it up!”

The Political Theory of I Love Lucy

The Political Theory of I Love Lucy PDF Author: Leslie Dale Feldman
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 1498541550
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 185

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book looks at how the classic television series fits into the cultural milieu of mid-century America. I Love Lucy incorporates key themes of the 1950s American political scene and classic American values of family, social mobility, community, individualism and work, keeping in mind that “Luck” as Machiavelli said “is the arbiter of half of what we do.” As the beloved American TV queen, Lucy Ricardo is a psychologically complicated character, conflicted between her role as a 1950s housewife and her wish to be a star. She is an icon of social mobility, going from a small New York City apartment to a country house in a swanky suburb, and an example of the “transitional” woman who wants to have it all. Is she a feminist? Is she a conformist? Does she prefer the country to the city? Whether she is working on the chocolate factory assembly line, baking bread, or achieving the American dream, Lucy is always “speeding it up!”

Mad Men

Mad Men PDF Author: Gary R. Edgerton
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
ISBN: 0814345476
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 158

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Book Description
A captivating and analytical compendium to the hit show -and its creation, story, and impact on contemporary media and popular culture. This one-stop primer offers a succinct analysis of one of the most skillfully produced, artistically innovative, and culturally resonant scripted series in modern television. It opens by explaining how Mad Men (AMC, 2007–2015) functions as a representative example of much deeper and more profound structural changes happening in television since the 2000s. Gary R. Edgerton highlights influences driving the creation of the show, including creator Matthew Weiner’s personal connections to the subject matter and the development of the main character, Don Draper (Jon Hamm). Analysis of the show’s story progression is delineated by a pivotal shift from a culturally relevant Zeitgeist phenomenon to a narrative more concerned with Draper’s introspective and existential journey to reconciliation and self-awareness. Cultural reflections are also explored with interrogations of privilege and prejudice, the American Dream, ethnicity, race, gender politics, and class as witnessed through the program’s complex and conflicted characters. Following its debut, Mad Men quickly became a bellwether of contemporary culture. The award-winning series set the creative standard in drama over the span of its initial run and is now recognized as a milestone in the history and development of scripted television. Throughout its seven seasons, the series struck a delicate balance of being both complex and cerebral while also entertaining and accessible, a balance that Edgerton skillfully carries over to this book.

Introduction to Sociology Through Comedy

Introduction to Sociology Through Comedy PDF Author: Julie Morris
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1040018602
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Book Description
Questioning society and one’s place in it is a common theme in both comedy and sociology. Understanding and subverting hierarchies and norms, exploring deviance and taboos, and relating lived experience to broader questions all hold a crucial place for them both. Introduction to Sociology Through Comedy teaches foundational sociological concepts using comedy, first considering the history of sociology before employing examples from comedians – including standalone comedy bits, sketches, characters, and scenes – to illustrate a specific theory, concept, or social phenomenon. The profession of comedy is then used as a case study for the application of sociological concepts, such as impression management, social stratification, racial segregation, deviance, and stigma, allowing readers to gain familiarity with the concepts while simultaneously practicing their application. This book explains why we laugh by applying theories of humor, which will bolster students’ understanding of sociological principles by forcing them to question their own assumptions – helping them to put why they laugh into sociological terms.

Rustics and Politics

Rustics and Politics PDF Author: Leslie Dale Feldman
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 0739171496
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 199

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Book Description
The Beverly Hillbillies includes the portrayal of rich versus poor, the American dream, wealth, and social mobility in popular culture. The Hillbillies was a phenomenon of post-World War II America, the second wave after the 1950s, the dustbelt Depression meets the promise of opportunity achieved through luck. Luck counts in liberal society. It is, said Machiavelli, “the arbiter of half of what we do.” But is success based on luck really the American dream? And who is the bigger success story—the Hillbillies or those who have earned their wealth? Whom do we want to be or be like? Everyone wants to win the lottery, but is everyone willing to do what it takes to achieve financial independence without winning the lottery? Does winning the lottery bring social status or can it only be achieved by labor? In sum, Paul Henning’s brilliant comedy series The Beverly Hillbillies is replete with political ideas and has come to occupy a special place in popular culture as a classic television icon because of its deeper meaning and relationship to how we think about wealth, status, social mobility and the American dream.

The Politics of Everyday Fear

The Politics of Everyday Fear PDF Author: Brian Massumi
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
ISBN: 0816621632
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 347

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Book Description
The contemporary consumer is bombarded with fear-inducing images and information. This media shower of imagery is equalled only by the sheer quantity of fear-assuaging products offered for our consumption. "The Politics of Everyday Fear" addresses questions raised by the saturation of social space by capitalized fear. Emphasizing the relatively neglected domain of what might be called "ambient" fear - continually rekindled, low-level fear that insinuates itself into people's daily routine, subtly reshaping their lives - "The Politics of Everyday Fear" approaches fear less as a psychological fixation than a fluid mechanism for the social control order of late capitalism. Brian Massumi is the author of "User's Guide to Capitalism and Schizophrenia: Deviations From Deleuze and Guattari" (1992) and with Kenneth Dean of "First and Last Emperors: the Absolute State and the Body of the Despot (1992)". He has translated many books and written many essays on contemporary discourses. This book is intended for undergraduates and graduate students in media studies, interdisciplinary cultural theory, comparative literature, postmodernism, Marxism and post-structuralist media theory.

The Politics and Business of Self-Interest from Tocqueville to Trump

The Politics and Business of Self-Interest from Tocqueville to Trump PDF Author: Richard Ned Lebow
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319685694
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 129

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Book Description
Self-interest is an important human motive and this book explores its evolution in the United States and its consequences for politics, business, and personal relationships. In the postwar era American understandings of self-interest have moved away from Alexis de Tocqueville’s concept of “self-interest well-understood” – in which people recognize that their interests are served by the success of the community of which they are part – towards “individualism” – by which he meant narrow framing that often leads people to pursue their interests at the expense of the community. The book documents this evolution through qualitative and quantitative content analysis of presidential speeches, television sitcoms and popular music, before exploring its negative consequences for democracy.

The Case Against the Global Economy

The Case Against the Global Economy PDF Author: Jerry Mander
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134202180
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
The greatest political debate of our time is about the blind rush towards a single global economy, its consequences for jobs, democracy, human well-being and cultural diversity, and its impact on the natural world that sustains us. Its effects will be profound and irreversible, but globalization itself is not inevitable. In The Case Against the Global Economy, 24 leading economic, agricultural, cultural and environmental authorities, drawn from across the world, argue that free trade and economic globalization are producing exactly the opposite results to those promised. From a detailed analysis of the new global economy, its structures and its full social and ecological implications, they show how it is undermining our liberty, our security and our well-being, and is devastating the planet. First published in the USA in 1996, in an edition focused on North America, the book won the American Political Science Association award for the Best Book in Ecological and Transformational Politics. This completely revised and updated international edition presents a passionate and persuasive case for the need to reverse course, away from globalization and towards a revitalized democracy, local self-sufficiency and ecological health.

Battleground: Science and Technology [2 volumes]

Battleground: Science and Technology [2 volumes] PDF Author: Peter H. Denton
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 156720743X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 611

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Book Description
The modern world is filled with debate and controversy, and science and technology—the most characteristic features of the modern world—are not immune. Science and technology are implicated in many if not all of the issues, troubles, and problems students are likely to come across in their classes and in their everyday lives. Science and technology serve as a primary pathway to understanding front page headlines on everything from war to AIDS, and from oil exploration to global warming. Battleground: Science and Technology examines the most hot-button issues involving science and technology and provides a balanced assessment of the arguments on all sides of the often strident debates. The approximately 100 issues examined in Battleground: Science and Technology include topics in the brain sciences, including the controversies over the cause of autism and the reliability of memory, as well as the debates over parapsychology; debates surrounding information technology, such as only privacy, the impact of video games on social behavior, and the advent of virtual reality; the complexity over drugs and medications, such as the testing of the efficacy of medications, the war on recreational drugs, and the costs of pharmaceutical research; and hot-button topics that are constantly in the news, such as evolution and creationism, DNA testing, stem-cell research, and genetically modified organisms. Each entry provides a list of accessible resources useful for further research.

The Lonely Nineties

The Lonely Nineties PDF Author: Paul Arras
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 331993094X
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
This book examines the most popular American television shows of the nineties—a decade at the last gasp of network television’s cultural dominance. At a time when American culture seemed increasingly fragmented, television still offered something close to a site of national consensus. The Lonely Nineties focuses on a different set of popular nineties television shows in each chapter and provides an in-depth reading of scenes, characters or episodes that articulate the overarching “ideology” of each series. It ultimately argues that television shows such as Seinfeld, Friends, Law & Order and The Simpsons helped to shape the ways Americans thought about themselves in relation to their friends, families, localities, and nation. It demonstrates how these shows engaged with a variety of problems in American civic life, responded to the social isolation of the age, and occasionally imagined improvements for community in America.

Latinx Studies

Latinx Studies PDF Author: Frederick Aldama
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351614355
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Book Description
Latinx Studies: The Key Concepts is an accessible guide to the central concepts and issues that inform Latinx Studies globally. It summarizes, explains, contextualizes, and assesses key critical concepts, perspectives, developments, and debates in Latinx Studies. At once comprehensive in coverage and detailed and specific in examples analyzed, it provides over 25 key concepts to the field of Latinx Studies as shaped within historical, social, cultural, regional, and global contexts, including: • Body • Border Theory • Digital Era • Familia • Immigration • Intersectionality • Language • Latinidad/es • Latinofuturism • Narco Cultura • Popular Culture • Sports Fully cross-referenced and complete with suggestions for further reading, Latinx Studies: The Key Concepts is an essential guide for anyone studying race, ethnicity, gender, class, education, culture, and globalism.