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Mad Men and Politics
Nostalgia and the Remaking of Modern America
Mad Men and Politics
Nostalgia and the Remaking of Modern America
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Description
Mad Men, using the historical backdrop of the many events that came to demarcate the 1960s, has presented a beautifully-styled rendering of this tumultuous decade, while teasing out a number of themes that resonate throughout the show and connect to the contemporary discourses that dominate today's political landscape. The chapters of this book analyze the most important dimensions explored on the show, including issues around gender, race, prejudice, the family, generational change, the social movements of the 1960s, our understanding of America's place in the world, and the idea of work in the post-war period.
Mad Men and Politics provides the reader with an understanding not only of the topics and issues that can be easily grasped while watching, but also contemplates our historical perspective of the 1960s as we consider it through the telescope of our current condition.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
The American Century
I. Mad Men and Politics: Nostalgia and The Remaking of America
Lilly J. Goren and Linda Beail
II. If You Don't Like What They Are Saying, Change the Conversation: The Grifter, Don Draper, and the Iconic American Hero
Lilly J. Goren
III. The Power Elite and Semi-Sovereign Selfhood in post-War America
Loren Goldman
IV. Cash or Credit?: Sex and the Pursuit of Happiness
Laurie Naranch
Business and Identity
V. Appearances, Social Norms, and Life in Modern America: Nationalism and Patriotism in Mad Men
Lawrence Heyman
VI. Going Groovy or Nostalgic: Mad Men and Advertising, Business, and Social Movements
Kate Edenborg
Those Seen and Not Seen, Heard and Not Heard
VII. Masculinity and Its Discontents: Myth, Memory and the Future on Mad Men
Denise Witzig
VIII. “You Can't Be a Man. So Don't Even Try”: Femininity and Feminism in Mad Men
Natalie Fuehrer Taylor
IX. Invisible Men: The Politics and Presence of Racial and Ethnic “Others” in Mad Men
Linda Beail
Conclusion
X. Tomorrowland: Contemporary Visions, Past Indiscretions
Rebecca Colton Josephson
Appendix I: Products of Mad Men
Appendix II: Episodes of Mad Men
Bibliography
Author Biographies
Index
Product details

Published | 12 Mar 2015 |
---|---|
Format | Ebook (Epub & Mobi) |
Edition | 1st |
Extent | 288 |
ISBN | 9781501306365 |
Imprint | Bloomsbury Academic |
Illustrations | 4 halftones |
Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
About the contributors
Reviews
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The ten essays in Mad Men and Politics offer a number of ruminations on the various ways in which the series dramatized the seismic socio-cultural shifts of that decade ... [The book provides] structured, rigorous textual analysis of themes, characters and plot lines.
Times Literary Supplement
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[This book] is bound by an overriding interest in disentangling the series' many thematic and narrative strands through sociopolitical analysis ... The introduction (as Chapter One) neatly sets out a stall carrying concerns of American identity, social and political life, race, gender and class, and the theme of appearance and reality.
Critical Studies in Television
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As savvy and incisive as Mad Men itself, Mad Men and Politics showcases excellent analyses of American political problems-including sexism, racism, inequality, consumption, and the meaning of America itself-from the 1960s to the present. Goren and Beail reveal Mad Men as a fascinating window into the underbelly of American politics, even while it provides viewers with the pleasures of glamour and nostalgia.
Elisabeth Anker, Assistant Professor of American Politics and Political Science, George Washington University, USA
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Few television shows deserve the hardcore, serious, academic approach as much as Mad Men. Mad Men and Politics is a worthy entry. With its diverse essays and authors, there's something for everyone. Mad Men has "changed the conversation" about everything from fashion to sexism, and it's wonderful that Mad Men and Politics has entered that conversation.
Deborah Lipp, Co-owner, Basket of Kisses
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Mad Men and Politics is further proof, as if it was needed, that the new breed of television series-and Matthew Weiner's creation in particular-does what great literature has always done: incite, delight, and provoke fascinating lines of inquiry in all directions.
Brett Martin, author of Difficult Men: Behind the Scenes of A Creative Revolution, From The Sopranos and The Wire to Mad Men and Breaking Bad
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These essays provide a series of smart takes on one of the most influential series in television history. The book shows how Mad Men's exploration of America's past provides an insight into what we are thinking today; and it deals boldly with the big issues of power, race, sex and ideas of masculinity and femininity. Reading it extends one's appreciate of the series.
Evangeline Morphos, Associate Professor, Columbia University School of the Arts Film, USA

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