- Home
- ACADEMIC
- Film & Media
- Television
- Suits
You must sign in to add this item to your wishlist. Please sign in or create an account
Description
Fifteen years after the show's debut, take a look back at the pop culture phenomenon Suits and its place in the pantheon of famous legal dramas.
Suits is a cultural phenomenon. It has reached multiple generations of viewers and become one of Netflix's most binge-watched series. Drawing on the history of the television lawyer, workplace drama, and postmodern comedy, the show explores the professional and personal impact of pursuing a career in high-stakes corporate litigation. Its characters navigate ruthless office politics and battle impostor syndrome, while working grueling hours and seeking personal fulfillment.
In Suits: A Cultural History, Richard L. Schur argues that the show reconfigures familiar television tropes and uncovers cultural hopes and fears about ambition, work, success, and justice. Beneath the tailored suits and clever banter lies a deeper story about status anxiety and the cost of “making it.” Set against the two main intellectual currents of the 2010s-Obama's optimism and Trump's nostalgia-Suits exposes a cultural hunger for moral clarity yet harbors suspicions about the major American social institutions that supposedly provide it. What emerges is not simply a television show about rich, attractive lawyers involved in sometimes outlandish cases but a window into viewers' desires for family, community, and justice. A must-read for fans of the show.
Table of Contents
1. Suits: An Introduction
2. The History of Television Lawyers
3. Hope and Nostalgia: American Culture in the 2010s
4. Suits Production History
5. Masculinity on Trial: The Men of Suits
6. The Changing Roles of Women on Suits
7. The Suits Aesthetic
8. Ambition, Success and Power in Suits
9. Moral Talk in an Amoral Universe
10. Race at the Office
11. The Firm as Family
Conclusion
Appendix: My Favorite Suits Episodes
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
Product details
| Published | 15 Oct 2026 |
|---|---|
| Format | Ebook (PDF) |
| Edition | 1st |
| Pages | 240 |
| ISBN | 9798216202363 |
| Imprint | Bloomsbury Academic |
| Illustrations | 10 bw photos |
| Series | The Cultural History of Television |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
About the contributors
Reviews
-
Suits: A Cultural History offers a smart and engaging examination of one of television's most unexpectedly enduring legal dramas. Richard L. Schur skillfully connects the show's sharp storytelling and charismatic characters to larger conversations about ambition, power, and the cultural fascination with the law.
Bernadette Giacomazzo, journalist and author, “In Living Color,” “The Golden Girls,” and “Law & Order”
-
Schur's book brilliantly explores a quirky TV lawyer show centered on a character who is faking his credentials as a lawyer. Somehow, “Suits” resonated with American culture by appealing to a large audience that yearns for stories about family-type relationships--all set in the unlikely environment of a Darwinian law firm.
Michael Asimow, co-author, "Real to Reel," "Law and Popular Culture," and "Lawyers in Your Living Room"

























