Everything was better in America : print culture in the Great Depression / David Welky.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Welky, David.

Series:

History of communication

The history of communication

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American newspapers--History--20th century.

American newspapers.

American periodicals--History--20th century.

American periodicals.

History.

Publishers and publishing--United States--History--20th century.

Publishers and publishing.

United States.

Physical Description:

x, 266 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Urbana : University of Illinois Press, [2008]

Summary:

As a counterpart to research on the 1930s that has focused on liberal and radical writers calling for social revolution, David Welky offers this eloquent study of how mainstream print culture shaped and disseminated a message affirming conservative middle-class values and assuring its readers that holding to these values would get them through hard times. Through analysis of the era's most popular newspaper stories, magazines, and books, Welky examines how voices both outside and within the media debated the purposes of literature and the meaning of cultural literacy in a mass democracy. He presents lively discussions of such topics as the newspaper treatment of the Lindbergh kidnapping, issues of race in coverage of the 1936 Olympic games, domestic dynamics and gender politics in cartoons and magazines, Superman's evolution from a radical outsider to a spokesman for the people, and the popular consumption of such novels as the Ellery Queen mysteries, Gone With the Wind, and The Good Earth. Through these close readings, Welky uncovers the subtle relationship between the message that mainstream media strategically crafted and those that their target audience wished to hear.

Contents:

Introduction: "A time not to rock the boat"

Part One: Newspapers

The Press encounters the New Deal

Kidnapping America's child

Olympic feats of Americanism

The Gumps: America's comic-strip family

Part Two: Magazines

How to slant a magazine

Life, the war, and everything

Defining womanhood in the Ladies' Home Journal

Patriot number one, the man of steel

Part Three: Books

Mainstreaming the book industry

Finding security in best sellers

Ellery Queen restores order

Gone with the wind, but not forgotten

Conclusion: "Everything was better in America".

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [221]-250) and index.

ISBN:

9780252032998

0252032993

9780252075049

0252075048

OCLC:

176861826