Poverty in American Popular Culture

Essays on Representations, Beliefs and Policy

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Edited by Wylie Lenz

Type: Studies
Subject: Sociology
Keywords: social aspects
Publishing date: 2020
Publisher: McFarland & Co
Language: English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Paperback • 282 pages
6 x 9 inches (15 x 23 cm)

ISBN

978-1-4766-6422-4

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Book Presentation:
In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson declared an “unconditional war” on poverty in the form of sweeping federal programs to assist millions of Americans. Two decades later, President Reagan drastically cut such programs, claiming that welfare encouraged dependency and famously quipping, “Some years ago, the federal government declared war on poverty, and poverty won.” These opposing policy positions and the ideologies informing them have been well studied. Here, the focus turns to the influence of popular art and entertainment on beliefs about poverty’s causes and potential cures.

These new essays interrogate the representation of poverty in film, television, music, photography, painting, illustration and other art forms from the late 19th century to the present. They map when, how, and why producers of popular culture represent—or ignore—poverty, and what assumptions their works make and encourage.

About the Author:
Wylie Lenz is an assistant professor of English in the humanities and social sciences department at Florida Polytechnic University in Lakeland, Florida.

Press Reviews:
"Lenz’s thesis that purely fictional narratives may influence our view of poverty just as strongly as fact-based ones do is well supported by the scholarship gathered here."—Journal of Popular Film and Television

See the publisher website: McFarland & Co

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