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The president electric : Ronald Reagan and the politics of performance / Timothy Raphael.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Raphael, Timothy.
- Series:
- Theater--theory/text/performance
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Reagan, Ronald.
- Presidents--United States--Biography.
- Presidents.
- United States.
- Genre:
- Biographies.
- Electronic books.
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource (ix, 271 pages) : illustrations.
- Place of Publication:
- Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, c2009.
- System Details:
- text file
- Summary:
- This book tells how Reagan's immersion in an electronic media culture of performance shaped his political career. When Ronald Reagan first entered politics in 1965, his public profile as a performer in radio, film, television, and advertising and his experience in public relations proved invaluable political assets. By the time he left office in 1989, the media in which he trained had become the primary source for generating and wielding political power. "The President Electric: Ronald Reagan and the Politics of Performance" reveals how the systematic employment of the techniques and technologies of mass-media performance contributed to Reagan's rise to power and defined his style of governance. The President Electric stands out among books on Reagan as the first to bring the rich insights of the field of performance studies to an understanding of the Reagan phenomenon, connecting Reagan's training in electronic media to the 19th-century notion of the 'fiat of electricity' - the emerging sociopolitical power of three entities (mechanical science, corporate capitalism, and mass culture) that electric technology made possible. The book describes how this new regime of cultural and political representation shaped the development of the electronic mass media that transformed American culture and politics and educated Ronald Reagan for his future role as president.
- Contents:
- The Dramatized Society 5
- Culture as Politics 11
- Mapping 15
- Chapter 1 The Culture of Performance 19
- Natural Theatricality 22
- The Fiat of Electricity 27
- The Pedagogy of Performance 34
- Chapter 2 The Voice of the Electronic Age 58
- Scratching the Crystal 65
- The Theology of the Ether 69
- The Dead Wire 78
- Chapter 3 Sounding the Nation 85
- The National Voice 87
- The Nation and Its Double 105
- Chapter 4 Moving Pictures 120
- An Actor Prepares 129
- A Star Is Born 134
- Sympathetic Magic 142
- The Changing Man 148
- Chapter 5 The Reagan Brand 153
- Brand Loyalty 155
- The Corporate Soul 162
- Electrifying Democracy 169
- Being Televised 172
- Total Electric Living 178
- The Biggest Fan in the World 189
- Chapter 6 The Rights of Memory 195
- Three Things 200
- The Sanction of Death 204
- The Hauntology of Bitburg 207
- Epilogue: Taking Up the Bodies 220.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 249-260) and index.
- Description based on information from the publisher.
- ISBN:
- 9780472070732
- 0472070738
- 9780472050734
- 0472050737
- Publisher Number:
- 10.3998/mpub.331702
- Access Restriction:
- Restricted for use by site license.
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