Blue Collar Pop Culture

This two-volume collection of essays on American popular culture presents current scholarship surrounding media representations of blue-collar culture in a variety of contexts. Beginning with an essay exploring the blue-collar media industry in general the text is arranged thematically with Volume One covering film, music and sports, and Volume Two discussing television and the culture of daily life. Topics discussed in Volume One include gender, labor and class in blue-collar films of the late twentieth century; Bruce Springsteen as American icon; music and patriotic responses to 9/11; sports movies and class in American cinema; NASCAR and the American South; and mixed martial arts and combat sports. Volume Two continues with discussions of Homer Simpson, Archie Bunker and Roseanne Barr and their meaning in working class television; poor southern white people as the Other in mainstream television; and populism, class and the election of Barack Obama. Contributors are academics in media studies, English, history and other disciplines from a wide variety of US institutions. Annotation Ac2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

M. Keith Booker is the James E. and Ellen Wadley Roper Professor of English at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, where he also directs the program in comparative literature and cultural studies. He has written or edited more than 40 books on literature, literary theory, and popular culture.