| Description |
x, 290 pages ; 24 cm |
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text txt rdacontent |
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unmediated n rdamedia |
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volume nc rdacarrier |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Contents |
Introduction -- The man in the middle -- The liberal education of John Updike -- The poorhouse fair: The liberal state and Its discontents -- Family matters: Therapeutic liberalism, consumer capitalism, and the decline of the family in Rabbit, Run -- Sleeping together, bowling alone: Couples and the decline of civic engagement -- Things don't mix: Rabbit redux and the unraveling of postwar liberalism -- Conclusion: Liberalism redux. |
| Summary |
"One of the most pressing questions to arise in the aftermath of the 2016 US presidential election concerned the white working class's so-called "abandonment" of the Democratic Party, especially in the Rust Belt, and their surprising embrace of Donald Trump. To better understand this development, The Moderate Imagination turns to an unlikely source: the writings of the novelist John Updike (1932-2009), which reveal Updike's insightful political imagination and shed light on the decline of New Deal liberalism. Updike has long been viewed as a gifted writer, poet, and essayist whose sensitivity to the quotidian combined with an extraordinary talent for realism enabled him to gracefully chronicle the postwar experience. But just as much as he was a man of letters, this book advances the counterintuitive notion that he was also an ardent man of ideas-political ideas. According to Yoav Fromer, Updike's fiction should not be read merely as a reflection of the postwar era but also as an investigation into the liberal political culture that helped define it"-- Provided by publisher. |
| Subject |
Updike, John -- Political and social views.
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Politics and literature -- United States -- History -- 20th century.
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Updike, John. (OCoLC)fst00031348
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Political and social views. (OCoLC)fst01353986
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Politics and literature. (OCoLC)fst01069960
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United States. (OCoLC)fst01204155
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| Chronological Term |
1900-1999
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| Genre/Form |
History. (OCoLC)fst01411628
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| ISBN |
9780700629527 hardcover |
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0700629521 hardcover |
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9780700629534 ePUB |
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