Description
Book SynopsisLooks at a range of commercial objects and phenomenon, from television and toys to comic books and magazines. The author looks at the often unspoken assumptions about class, nation, ethnicity, race, and sexual orientation that underscored both media images (like those of 1960s space missions) and social policies of the mass-produced suburb.
Trade Review“Lynn Spigel’s
Welcome to the Dreamhouse is quite simply superb. It is original, impeccably researched, dazzlingly intelligent, and prickling with humor.”—Julie D’Acci, author of
Defining Women: Television and the Case of Cagney and Lacey
“Spigel possesses one of the few indispensable voices in American cultural studies. She sees the complexity of popular culture where others have tended to see formula and repetition. This is a perfect anthology, one that reflects the intellectual growth of an important thinker and at the same time represents a coherent argument about an important topic.”—Henry Jenkins, author of
From Barbie to Mortal CombatTable of ContentsIntroduction
Part I. TV Households
1. The Suburban Home Companion: Television and the Neighborhood Ideal in Postwar America
2. Portable TV: Studies in Domestic Space Travel
Part II. White Flight
3. From Domestic Space to Outer Space: The 1960s Fantastic Family Sit-Com
Part III. Baby Boom Kids
5. Seducing the Innocent: Television and Childhood in Postwar America
6. Innocence Abroad: The Geopolitics of Childhood in Postwar Kid Strips
Part IV. Living Room to Gallery
7. High Culture in Low Places: Television and Modern Art, 1950–1970
8. Barbies without Ken: Femininity, Feminism, and the Art-Culture System
Part V. Rewind and Fast Forward
9. From the Dark Ages to the Golden Age: Women’s Memories and Television Reruns
10. Yesterday’s Future, Tomorrow’s Home
Index
