The Legacy of MAD MEN
CULTURAL HISTORY, INTERMEDIALITY AND AMERICAN TELEVISION
Edited by Karen McNally, Jane Marcellus, Teresa Forde, Kirsty Fairclough
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
ISBN 978-3-030-31090-5 (hardcover) or 978-3-030-31091-2 (e-book)
For seven seasons, viewers worldwide watched as ad man Don Draper moved from adultery to self-discovery, secretary Peggy Olson became a take-no-prisoners businesswoman, object-of-the-gaze Joan Holloway developed a feminist consciousness, executive Roger Sterling tripped on LSD, and smarmy Pete Campbell became a surprisingly nice guy. Mad Men defined a pivotal moment for television, earning an enduring place in the medium’s history.
This edited collection examines the enduringly popular television series as Mad Men still captivates audiences and scholars in its nuanced depiction of a complex decade. This is the first book to offer an analysis of Mad Men in its entirety, exploring the cyclical and episodic structure of the long form series and investigating issues of representation, power and social change. The collection establishes the show’s legacy in televisual terms, and brings it up to date through an examination of its cultural importance in the Trump era. Aimed at scholars and interested general readers, the book illustrates the ways in which Mad Men has become a cultural marker for reflecting upon contemporary television and politics.
ISBN 978-3-030-31090-5 (hardcover) or 978-3-030-31091-2 (e-book)
For seven seasons, viewers worldwide watched as ad man Don Draper moved from adultery to self-discovery, secretary Peggy Olson became a take-no-prisoners businesswoman, object-of-the-gaze Joan Holloway developed a feminist consciousness, executive Roger Sterling tripped on LSD, and smarmy Pete Campbell became a surprisingly nice guy. Mad Men defined a pivotal moment for television, earning an enduring place in the medium’s history.
This edited collection examines the enduringly popular television series as Mad Men still captivates audiences and scholars in its nuanced depiction of a complex decade. This is the first book to offer an analysis of Mad Men in its entirety, exploring the cyclical and episodic structure of the long form series and investigating issues of representation, power and social change. The collection establishes the show’s legacy in televisual terms, and brings it up to date through an examination of its cultural importance in the Trump era. Aimed at scholars and interested general readers, the book illustrates the ways in which Mad Men has become a cultural marker for reflecting upon contemporary television and politics.
MAD MEN and WORKING WOMEN
FEMINIST PERSPECTIVES ON HISTORICAL POWER, RESISTANCE, AND OTHERNESS
by Erika Engstrom, Tracy Lucht,
Jane Marcellus, Kimberly Wilmot Voss
PETER LANG PUBLISHING, INC.
ISBN 978-1-4331-3330-5 (paperback, revised version 2016)
ISBN 978-1-4331-2419-8 (hardcover, original version 2014)
ISBN 978-1-4539-1254-6 (e-book)
From the back cover:
This book offers interpretive and contextual tools to read the AMC television series Mad Men, providing a much-needed historical explanation and exposition regarding the status of women in an era that has been painted as pre- or non-feminist.
In chapters aimed at helping readers understand women’s lives in the 1960s, Mad Men is used as a springboard to explore and discover alternative ways of seeing women. Offering more than a discussion of the show itself, the book offers historical insight for thinking about serious issues that “modern” working women continue to face today: balancing their work and personal lives, competing with other women, and controlling their own bodies and reproductive choices.
Rather than critiquing the show for portraying women as victims, the book shows subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) ways that feminism functioned in an era when women were supposedly caught between the “waves” of the women’s movement but when, the authors argue, they functioned nonetheless as empowered individuals.
By doing so, it provides historical context and analysis that complicates traditional interpretations by (1) exploring historical constructions of women’s work; (2) unpacking feminist and non-feminist discourses surrounding that work; (3) identifying modes of resistance; and (4) revisiting forgotten work coded as feminine.
AUTHORS
ERIKA ENGSTROM (Ph.D., University of Florida) is director of the University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Media. She is the author of The Bride Factory: Mass Media Portrayals of Women and Weddings.
TRACY LUCHT (Ph.D., University of Maryland) is Associate Professor at Iowa State University. She is the author of Sylvia Porter: America’s Original Personal Finance Columnist.
JANE MARCELLUS (Ph.D., University of Oregon) is Professor at Middle Tennessee State University. She is the author of Business Girls and Two-Job Wives: Emerging Media Stereotypes of Employed Women.
KIMBERLY WILMOT VOSS (Ph.D., University of Maryland) is Professor at the University of Central Florida. She is the author of The Food Section: Newspaper Women and the Culinary Community.
ISBN 978-1-4331-3330-5 (paperback, revised version 2016)
ISBN 978-1-4331-2419-8 (hardcover, original version 2014)
ISBN 978-1-4539-1254-6 (e-book)
From the back cover:
This book offers interpretive and contextual tools to read the AMC television series Mad Men, providing a much-needed historical explanation and exposition regarding the status of women in an era that has been painted as pre- or non-feminist.
In chapters aimed at helping readers understand women’s lives in the 1960s, Mad Men is used as a springboard to explore and discover alternative ways of seeing women. Offering more than a discussion of the show itself, the book offers historical insight for thinking about serious issues that “modern” working women continue to face today: balancing their work and personal lives, competing with other women, and controlling their own bodies and reproductive choices.
Rather than critiquing the show for portraying women as victims, the book shows subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) ways that feminism functioned in an era when women were supposedly caught between the “waves” of the women’s movement but when, the authors argue, they functioned nonetheless as empowered individuals.
By doing so, it provides historical context and analysis that complicates traditional interpretations by (1) exploring historical constructions of women’s work; (2) unpacking feminist and non-feminist discourses surrounding that work; (3) identifying modes of resistance; and (4) revisiting forgotten work coded as feminine.
AUTHORS
ERIKA ENGSTROM (Ph.D., University of Florida) is director of the University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Media. She is the author of The Bride Factory: Mass Media Portrayals of Women and Weddings.
TRACY LUCHT (Ph.D., University of Maryland) is Associate Professor at Iowa State University. She is the author of Sylvia Porter: America’s Original Personal Finance Columnist.
JANE MARCELLUS (Ph.D., University of Oregon) is Professor at Middle Tennessee State University. She is the author of Business Girls and Two-Job Wives: Emerging Media Stereotypes of Employed Women.
KIMBERLY WILMOT VOSS (Ph.D., University of Maryland) is Professor at the University of Central Florida. She is the author of The Food Section: Newspaper Women and the Culinary Community.
Business Girls & Two-Job Wives
EMERGING MEDIA STEREOTYPES OF EMPLOYED WOMEN
by Jane Marcellus
HAMPTON PRESS COMMUNICATION
ISBN 978-1-5727-3988-8M (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-5727-3989-5 (paperback)
Hampton Press
Amazon
From the back cover:
This book is a historical examination of how popular magazines portrayed wage-earning women during the critical interwar years, 1918-1941. Although women had been entering the workplace for some time, their contributions to World War I, the passage of women's suffrage, postwar business expansion, and changing social mores put the cultural conversation over women's employment into high gear. Examining how magazines covered employed women during this critical period, this book identifies a number of emerging stereotypes that the author argues were used to re-inscribe women into a domestic discourse. Moreover, those stereotypes are echoed today in print media, television, film and the Internet.
ISBN 978-1-5727-3988-8M (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-5727-3989-5 (paperback)
Hampton Press
Amazon
From the back cover:
This book is a historical examination of how popular magazines portrayed wage-earning women during the critical interwar years, 1918-1941. Although women had been entering the workplace for some time, their contributions to World War I, the passage of women's suffrage, postwar business expansion, and changing social mores put the cultural conversation over women's employment into high gear. Examining how magazines covered employed women during this critical period, this book identifies a number of emerging stereotypes that the author argues were used to re-inscribe women into a domestic discourse. Moreover, those stereotypes are echoed today in print media, television, film and the Internet.