Popular Culture and Political Change in Modern America PDF Download

Author: Ronald Edsforth
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 143840185X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
This book is a collection of essays dealing with the ways in which specific popular entertainment media, mass consumer products, and popular movements affect politics and political culture in the United States. It seeks to present a range of possibilities that reflect the dimensions of the current debate and practice in the field. Some of the contributions to this volume place popular culture media such as films, music, and books in a broad social context, and several articles deal with the historical roots of twentieth-century American popular culture. Popular culture is treated as categorically neither good nor bad, in either political or aesthetic terms. Instead, the essays reflect the editors' convictions that popular culture is simply too important to be ignored by those academics who treat politics and its history seriously. The collection also shows that studying popular or mass culture in a historical way illuminates a variety of possible relationships between popular culture and politics.

Author: Jason Wright
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 0595361641
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 295

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Book Description
Tomorrow morning in thousands of newspapers around the country, opinion editorials (or "op-eds") will appear by well-paid columnists like George Will, Michael Barone, Linda Chavez, and many others. Their sharply tuned vocabularies and finely crafted articles serve an important function in shaping public opinion on politics, social issues, and more. But they ain't the only ones. The Internet has made publishing and widespread distribution available to a new brand of opinion writers. They are teachers, lawyers, construction workers and parents with plenty of insightful things to say. And they're saying them at OpinionEditorials.com. OpinionEditorials.com is the only online editorial site that publishes op-eds from writers of all levels and backgrounds-from seasoned columnists to everyday Americans-on a wide variety of topics. The popular web site has become the only resource for what "the rest of America is saying." Americans on Politics, Policy, and Pop Culture contains 101 of the best op-eds published to date at OpinionEditorials.com. In it you'll find a wide variety of short pieces on everyone from President George W. Bush to John Kerry. You'll also find opinions both poignant and humorous on: Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction CBS' newsroom malfunction Howard Dean's brain malfunction What other book offers you that?

Author: Alan R. Gitelson
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780199374229
Category : United States
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
What the typical introductory-level student knows about American government and politics is often based on common myths that distort the reality of the political world. Rather than dismissing those myths as outright falsehoods, American Government: Myths and Realities, 2014 Election Edition, encourages students to confront their preconceived notions in order to think critically about government and politics. Clearly and distinctively woven into each chapter, the myths-and-realities theme provides a pedagogical framework that engages students with interesting conundrums while effectively covering the core concepts of American government. FEATURES * Stunning full-color visuals and updated graphs and charts * Full coverage of the 2014 midterm elections and Supreme Court decisions * Updated throughout to address such issues as public opinion and political participation, the media, and civil liberties and civil rights (now covered in two separate chapters) * Policy Connection features at the end of each chapter present domestic and foreign policy content * Asked & Answered features employ a question-and-answer format in order to examine various political issues * Politics & Popular Culture features, available online at www.oup.com/gitelson, demonstrate how music, movies, television, and books reflect and impact the way that Americans think about government and politics

Author: Scott Laderman
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520971027
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
This is a necessary and urgent read for anyone concerned about the United States' endless wars. Investigating multiple genres of popular culture alongside contemporary U.S. foreign policy and political economy, Imperial Benevolence shows that American popular culture continuously suppresses awareness of U.S. imperialism while assuming American exceptionalism and innocence. This is despite the fact that it is rarely a product of the state. Expertly coordinated essays by prominent historians and media scholars address the ways that movies and television series such as Zero Dark Thirty, The Avengers, and even The Walking Dead, as well as video games such as Call of Duty: Black Ops, have largely presented the United States as a global force for good. Popular culture, with few exceptions, has depicted the U.S. as a reluctant hegemon fiercely defending human rights and protecting or expanding democracy from the barbarians determined to destroy it.

Author: Joseph J. Foy
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 081318326X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 365

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Book Description
The modern landscape of American entertainment is filled with commentary on the state of the union. Viewers turn to The Daily Show instead of Fox or CNN, satirical films such as Wag the Dog, cartoons like The Simpsons, or controversial action dramas similar to 24 in order to learn more about current events in the United States. Popular culture is educating America more than the nightly news, aiding viewers in their quest to understand the American political system. In Homer Simpson Goes to Washington: American Politics through Popular Culture, Joseph J. Foy and other contributing scholars offer diverse political perspectives through the framework of popular culture. From the classic film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington to the cutting-edge television program Chappelle's Show, a wide spectrum of entertainment media is used to explain the complexities of U.S. politics and how audiences engage with them. Popular culture and politics have never been so intertwined in the American consciousness as they are today. As political knowledge becomes increasingly fragmented, Homer Simpson Goes to Washington explains how popular culture can actually help connect people to their government.

Author: Arthur C. Brooks
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062883771
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER To get ahead today, you have to be a jerk, right? Divisive politicians. Screaming heads on television. Angry campus activists. Twitter trolls. Today in America, there is an “outrage industrial complex” that prospers by setting American against American, creating a “culture of contempt”—the habit of seeing people who disagree with us not as merely incorrect, but as worthless and defective. Maybe, like more than nine out of ten Americans, you dislike it. But hey, either you play along, or you’ll be left behind, right? Wrong. In Love Your Enemies, social scientist and author of the #1 New York Times bestseller From Strength to Strength Arthur C. Brooks shows that abuse and outrage are not the right formula for lasting success. Brooks blends cutting-edge behavioral research, ancient wisdom, and a decade of experience leading one of America’s top policy think tanks in a work that offers a better way to lead based on bridging divides and mending relationships. Brooks’ prescriptions are unconventional. To bring America together, we shouldn’t try to agree more. There is no need for mushy moderation, because disagreement is the secret to excellence. Civility and tolerance shouldn’t be our goals, because they are hopelessly low standards. And our feelings toward our foes are irrelevant; what matters is how we choose to act. Love Your Enemies offers a clear strategy for victory for a new generation of leaders. It is a rallying cry for people hoping for a new era of American progress. Most of all, it is a roadmap to arrive at the happiness that comes when we choose to love one another, despite our differences.

Author: Jenn Brandt
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1501320580
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
The first introductory textbook to situate popular culture studies in the United States as an academic discipline with its own history and approach to examining American culture, its rituals, beliefs, and the objects that shape its existence.

Author: Janie Johnson
Publisher: Rtr Press
ISBN: 9780984881963
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
We must inform, engage, and activate all Americans to vote! Critical thinking needs to endure if the US is to survive. We must think America great again, because critical thinking leads to action!Janie Johnson's Think America Great teaches and engages anyone who wants to think and clearly express the ideas that make America great. Conservative principles have made America great and will continue to keep America great! Think America Great provides the ideas and truths designed to help Americans think clearer and to raise awareness of the onslaught of leftist pressure that is trying to destroy the American way of life. Think America Great is really needed today-the ability to think and respond quickly in short, concise, and reasoned phrases and the ability to think and express ourselves like everyday citizens and patriots. Filled with pithy and biting wisdom, this book is the ammunition everyday Americans must have to think and express America's winning conservative solutions to fight liberals and to defend and promote the American way!It is everyday citizens coupled with conservative solutions that can and must keep America great. The Think America Great series uses truth, humor, and wisdom in providing pithy solutions to educate and engage everyday Americans with clever rhetoric and instant rebuttals to fight and expose liberal lies, biases, political talking points, and faux narratives. Johnson works hard to expose the difference between leftist talking points and their true objectives: what sounds good and what they really mean. She does so with biting political humor on a foundation of truth, patriotism, and wisdom. Her everyday message resonates with everyday people. She is a proven success whether playing tennis, writing books, or trending subjects on Twitter. MIT ranked Janie Johnson as one of the world's best social media influencers of the 2016 presidential election. Her first book, Don't Take My Lemonade Stand: An American Philosophy became number one on Amazon politics.Johnson fights daily for every kid's lemonade stand and conservative principles with over 200,000 Twitter followers. She has appeared nationally on Fox & Friends, Hannity, Fox Business, and numerous national and local radio and TV shows to promote her books, Janie participates daily in the social medium, Twitter (@jjauthor).

Author: Lane Crothers
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9780742566835
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
A third edition of this book is now available. Now in a fully revised and updated edition, this concise and insightful book explores the ways American popular products such as movies, music, television programs, fast food, sports, and even clothing styles have molded and continue to influence modern globalization. Lane Crothers offers a thoughtful examination of both the appeal of American products worldwide and the fear and rejection they induce in many people and nations around the world. Concluding with a projection of the future impact of American popular culture, this book makes a powerful argument for its central role in shaping global politics and economic development.

Author: Paul Arthur Cantor
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 081314082X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 490

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Book Description
Popular culture often champions freedom as the fundamentally American way of life and celebrates the virtues of independence and self-reliance. But film and television have also explored the tension between freedom and other core values, such as order and political stability. What may look like healthy, productive, and creative freedom from one point of view may look like chaos, anarchy, and a source of destructive conflict from another. Film and television continually pose the question: Can Americans deal with their problems on their own, or must they rely on political elites to manage their lives? In this groundbreaking work, Paul A. Cantor explores the ways in which television shows such as Star Trek, The X-Files, South Park, and Deadwood and films such as The Aviator and Mars Attacks! have portrayed both top-down and bottom-up models of order. Drawing on the works of John Locke, Adam Smith, Alexis de Tocqueville, and other proponents of freedom, Cantor contrasts the classical liberal vision of America -- particularly its emphasis on the virtues of spontaneous order -- with the Marxist understanding of the "culture industry" and the Hobbesian model of absolute state control. The Invisible Hand in Popular Culture concludes with a discussion of the impact of 9/11 on film and television, and the new anxieties emerging in contemporary alien-invasion narratives: the fear of a global technocracy that seeks to destroy the nuclear family, religious faith, local government, and other traditional bulwarks against the absolute state.