Mad Men - (Cultural History of Television) by M Keith Booker & Bob Batchelor (Hardcover)

About the Book

Mad Men: The Cultural History brings to life the cultural importance of the television show as it engages with ideas central to the American experience, from the evolution of gender roles to family dynamics and workplace relationships. This book demonstrates how viewers use qu...

Book Synopsis

Mad Men: The Cultural History brings to life the cultural importance of the television show as it engages with ideas central to the American experience, from the evolution of gender roles to family dynamics and workplace relationships. This book demonstrates how viewers use quality television to define and redefine themselves and their lives today via their engagement with the past.

Review Quotes

M. Keith Booker and Bob Batchelor's Mad Men: A Cultural Historymakes a significant contribution to this scholarship. The book, published after the television series' finale, is the first publication to critically interrogate the show from start to finish, providing both scholars and fans of the series with a comprehensive examination of the ways in which Weiner uses American cultural memory of the 1960s to shape both his characters' developments and the narrative arc of his series as a whole.... Mad Men: A Cultural Historyprovides both scholars and fans with valuable insight into the historical moments of the 1960s that inform and shape our understanding of the television series.

Get out the martini shaker, crank up the Rolling Stones and the Beatles, and get ready to dive into this book chronicling the hit television series that ran from 2007 to 2015 and offered a nostalgic trip down the memory lane of 1960s advertising. Booker and Batchelor provide an in-depth look into the show and explain why it resonated with viewers. Relating the show's characters and topics to the real-world events of its era, the authors show how Mad Men was able to capture the zeitgeist of the period. Camelot, the Vietnam War, rock 'n' roll, women's liberation, youth culture, free speech, and more were all on the screen--along with Don Draper, ad agency star and flawed everyman; plucky women's libber Peggy Olson; sexy secretary Joan Harris; mad housewife Betty Draper; and a stylish, ready-for-a-three-martini-lunch supporting cast. Matthew Weiner and cable network AMC came up with advertising's holy grail--the big idea--when they thought up and launched Mad Men. This homage will appeal to fans and academic readers alike. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates; graduate students; general readers.

Mad Men: A Cultural History offers a stimulating point of view on the role of mass communication products as keys to understanding our society. In addition, the book also presents a great example of a methodological course for conducting popular culture research.

About the Author

M. Keith Booker is professor of English and director of the Program in Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies at the University of Arkansas. He has written or edited more than 40 books on literature and popular culture. His books include Drawn to Television: Prime-Time Animated Series from The Flintstones to Family Guy (2006) and Historical Dictionary of American Cinema (2011).

Bob Batchelor is a cultural historian who has written or edited more than 25 books on popular culture, modern American literature, and mass communications. Among his books are John Updike: A Critical Biography (2013) and Gatsby: The Cultural History of the Great American Novel (Rowman & Littlefield, 2014).