Overview

Where the Wild Things Were centers on the exploding, contentious national conversation about the nature of childhood and parenting in the postwar US emblematized by Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care. Renowned scholar Henry Jenkins demonstrates that the language that shaped a growing field of advice literature for parents also informed the period's fictions--in film, television, and elsewhere--produced for and consumed by children. In particular, Jenkins demonstrates, the era's emblematic child was the boy in the striped shirt: white, male, suburban, middle class, Christian, and above all, American. Weaving together intellectual histories and popular texts, Jenkins shows how boy protagonists became embodiments of permissive child rearing, as well as the social ideals and contradictions that permissiveness entailed. From Peanuts comic strips and TV specials to The Cat in the Hat, Dennis the Menace, and Jonny Quest, the book reveals how childhood and the stories about it became central to Cold War concerns with democracy, citizenship, globalization, the space race, science, race relations, gender, and sexuality. Written by a former boy in a striped shirt, Where the Wild Things Were explores iconic works, from Mary Poppins to Lost in Space, contextualizing them through a critical but respectful engagement with the core animating ideas of the permissive imagination.

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Henry Jenkins is Provost's Professor of Communication, Journalism, Cinematic Arts, and Education at the University of Southern California. He is the author or coauthor of twenty books, including Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture, Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, Spreadable Media: Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture, and By Any Media Necessary: The New Youth Activism. Eric Burgher is an audiobook narrator based in Chicago, Illinois. He is an award-winning actor and a veteran of Chicago's famous storefront theater scene, who has been acting for over twenty years. A storyteller at heart, Eric is an authentic, engaging, and reliable audiobook narrator with experience in multiple genres, including history, business/finance, personal development, and thriller/suspense. He narrates romance/erotica titles under the pseudonym Scott Rose. Eric is a die-hard Chicago sports fan who loves traveling with his family, and is on a quest to find the best chicken wings everywhere he goes. Eric Burgher is an audiobook narrator based in Chicago, Illinois. He is an award-winning actor and a veteran of Chicago's famous storefront theater scene, who has been acting for over twenty years. A storyteller at heart, Eric is an authentic, engaging, and reliable audiobook narrator with experience in multiple genres, including history, business/finance, personal development, and thriller/suspense. He narrates romance/erotica titles under the pseudonym Scott Rose. Eric is a die-hard Chicago sports fan who loves traveling with his family, and is on a quest to find the best chicken wings everywhere he goes.

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