In this Book
- Discipline and Indulgence: College Football, Media, and the American Way of Life during the Cold War
- Book
- 2013
- Published by: Rutgers University Press
summary
The early Cold War (1947–1964) was a time of optimism in America. Flushed with confidence by the Second World War, many heralded the American Century and saw postwar affluence as proof that capitalism would solve want and poverty. Yet this period also filled people with anxiety. Beyond the specter of nuclear annihilation, the consumerism and affluence of capitalism’s success were seen as turning the sons of pioneers into couch potatoes.
In Discipline and Indulgence, Jeffrey Montez de Oca demonstrates how popular culture, especially college football, addressed capitalism’s contradictions by integrating men into the economy of the Cold War as workers, warriors, and consumers. In the dawning television age, college football provided a ritual and spectacle of the American way of life that anyone could participate in from the comfort of his own home. College football formed an ethical space of patriotic pageantry where men could produce themselves as citizens of the Cold War state. Based on a theoretically sophisticated analysis of Cold War media, Discipline and Indulgence assesses the period’s institutional linkage of sport, higher education, media, and militarism and finds the connections of contemporary sport media to today’s War on Terror.
In Discipline and Indulgence, Jeffrey Montez de Oca demonstrates how popular culture, especially college football, addressed capitalism’s contradictions by integrating men into the economy of the Cold War as workers, warriors, and consumers. In the dawning television age, college football provided a ritual and spectacle of the American way of life that anyone could participate in from the comfort of his own home. College football formed an ethical space of patriotic pageantry where men could produce themselves as citizens of the Cold War state. Based on a theoretically sophisticated analysis of Cold War media, Discipline and Indulgence assesses the period’s institutional linkage of sport, higher education, media, and militarism and finds the connections of contemporary sport media to today’s War on Terror.
Table of Contents
Download Full Book
- Title Page, Copyright Page
- pp. 1-6
- Acknowledgments
- pp. ix-xii
- 1 • Introduction
- pp. 1-16
- 2 • Fortifying the City upon a Hill
- pp. 17-31
- 3 • Duck Walking the Couch Potato
- pp. 32-56
- 4 • The Best Seat in the Ballpark
- pp. 57-72
- 5 • Fordism in the Airwaves
- pp. 73-92
- 6 • From Neighborhood to Nation
- pp. 93-112
- 7 • Conclusion
- pp. 113-130
- Appendix: Note on Methodology
- pp. 131-132
- References
- pp. 143-166
- About the Author
- pp. 175-176
Additional Information
ISBN
9780813561288
Related ISBN(s)
9780813561271
MARC Record
OCLC
859537568
Pages
188
Launched on MUSE
2013-10-21
Language
English
Open Access
No