Mass-Market Fiction and the Crisis of American Liberalism, 1972–2017
by Michael J. Blouin (Author)

About the Author
Michael J. Blouin is Associate Professor of English and the Humanities at Milligan College, USA. His research interests include critical theory and popular culture. He is author of Magical Thinking, Fantastic Film, and the Illusions of Neoliberalism (Palgrave 2016) as well as a recent guest editor for a special issue of The Journal of Popular Culture entitled “Neoliberalism and Popular Culture” (April 2018).

About this book
Mass-Market Fiction and the Crisis of American Liberalism, 1972–2017 tracks the transformation of liberal thought in the contemporary United States through the unique lens of the popular paperback. The book focuses on cultural shifts as they appear in works written by some of the most widely-read authors of the last fifty years: the idea of love within a New Economy (Danielle Steel), the role of government in scientific inquiry (Michael Crichton), entangled political alliances and legacies in the aftermath of the 1960s (Tom Clancy), the restructured corporation (John Grisham), and the blurred line between state and personal empowerment (Dean Koontz). To address the current crisis, this book examines how the changed character of American liberalism has been rendered legible for a mass audience.

Table of contents
1 Introduction: Popular Paperbacks and the Transformation of American Liberalism 1
Part I The Neoliberal Turn
2 The Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic of Mass-Market Fiction 37
3 Danielle Steel and New Home Economics 75
4 Michael Crichton and the Heritage of Invention 113
Part II Conjunctures
5 Tom Clancy and the Liberal Family Tree 147
6 John Grisham and the New Economy Thriller 177
7 Dean Koontz and the Problem with Power 211
Index 245

Length: 253 pages
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan; 1st ed. 2018 edition (May 11, 2018)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 3319893866
ISBN-13: 978-3319893860