Mass-Market Fiction and the Crisis of American Liberalism, 1972--2017 /
General Material Designation
[Book]
First Statement of Responsibility
Michael J. Blouin.
.PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, ETC
Place of Publication, Distribution, etc.
Cham, Switzerland :
Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.
Palgrave Macmillan,
Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.
[2018]
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Specific Material Designation and Extent of Item
1 online resource (ix, 253 pages)
INTERNAL BIBLIOGRAPHIES/INDEXES NOTE
Text of Note
Includes bibliographical references and index.
CONTENTS NOTE
Text of Note
Intro; Acknowledgements; Contents; Chapter 1 Introduction: Popular Paperbacks and the Transformation of American Liberalism; A Very Brief History of Liberalism's Changing Spirit; "The Golden Straitjacket"; What Money Cannot Buy; A Case Study: Detectives in the New World Order; Reading as a Liberal Art; In Pursuit of Precision; The Framework; Works Cited; Part I The Neoliberal Turn; Chapter 2 The Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic of Mass-Market Fiction; The Book Wars; "Disjunctive Conjunction"; To Cultivate A Feeling for Books; On Writing at the Hinge; Picking Winners; A Neoliberal Bloom
Text of Note
Engineers and EntrepreneursWorks Cited; Part II Conjunctures; Chapter 5 Tom Clancy and the Liberal Family Tree; The Fight Over Family; Oriented Around Uncertainty; Law and Justice; The Spirit of Liberalism; Works Cited; Chapter 6 John Grisham and the New Economy Thriller; Our Enemy, The State; The Technocrats; Raggedy Dick 2.0; Baudelaire v. Babbitt; Introducing the Intrapreneur; Intrapreneurs in Action; Works Cited; Chapter 7 Dean Koontz and the Problem with Power; Our Enemy, the State (Redux); Ascetic Koontz; Abdication; Aesthetic Koontz; Intensity; Standardized Singularities; Conjuncture
Text of Note
Works CitedChapter 3 Danielle Steel and New Home Economics; Romancing Capital; Entrepreneurial Reading; The Body Economic; Power Plays Without Power; Maternal Corporations; The Chastened Hero; Stocks, Ratings, and Rapturous Love; Irresistible Forces; Happily Ever After (Deferred); For Love of Market; Works Cited; Chapter 4 Michael Crichton and the Heritage of Invention; Conformity and Applied Science; Aesthetic Thrillers and the Chaotic Subject; The Cyborg Science; Familial Chaos; Genetic Codes and the Neoliberal Condition; Agnotology and the Ambivalent Crichton Character
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SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
Text of Note
Mass-Market Fiction and the Crisis of American Liberalism, 1972-2017 tracks the transformation of liberal thought in the contemporary United States through the unique lens of the popular paperback. The book focuses on cultural shifts as they appear in works written by some of the most widely-read authors of the last fifty years: the idea of love within a New Economy (Danielle Steel), the role of government in scientific inquiry (Michael Crichton), entangled political alliances and legacies in the aftermath of the 1960s (Tom Clancy), the restructured corporation (John Grisham), and the blurred line between state and personal empowerment (Dean Koontz). To address the current crisis, this book examines how the changed character of American liberalism has been rendered legible for a mass audience.
OTHER EDITION IN ANOTHER MEDIUM
Title
Mass-Market Fiction and the Crisis of American Liberalism, 1972--2017.
International Standard Book Number
9783319893860
TOPICAL NAME USED AS SUBJECT
American fiction-- 20th century-- History and criticism.
American fiction-- 21st century-- History and criticism.