Bibliograph

American plastic, a cultural history, Jeffrey L. Meikle

Type

Label

American plastic, a cultural history, Jeffrey L. Meikle

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references (pages 307-380) and index

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

American plastic

Nature of contents

bibliography

Oclc number

32389743

Responsibility statement

Jeffrey L. Meikle

Sub title

a cultural history

Summary

Jeffrey Meikle traces Americans' ambivalent involvement with plastic from Bakelite radios and nylon stockings to Tupperware and polyester suits. He moves easily from the rise of the plastics industry to plastic's symbolic hold on style and the popular imagination. Meikle shows how America's enthusiasm for everything plastic has been complicated by environmental doubts and by the plasticity of postmodern existence. Throughout this witty, compelling history of material and metaphor, Meikle raises crucial issues in science and technology, manufacturing and marketing, design and architecture, and American consumer culture. A provocative conclusion suggests that plastic, endlessly malleable in the face of material desire, merges into the immaterial reality of future electronic media

Table Of Contents

Introduction : A matter of definition -- Celluloid : from imitation to innovation -- Bakelite : defining an artificial material -- Vision and reality in the plastic age -- An industry takes shape -- Nylon : domesticating a new synthetic -- Growing pains : the conversion to postwar -- Design in plastic : from durable to disposable -- Material doubts and plastic fallout -- Beyond plastic : the culture of synthesis

Classification