Read American Plastic: A Cultural History

American Plastic: A Cultural History

Jeffrey L. Meikle

4.9/5 (20111 ratings)

Description:Early twentieth century promoters of the Plastic Age envisioned a neverending flow of miracle materials conjured up by modern alchemy out of air, water, and coal. By World War II, celluloid, invented in 1869 as a substitute for ivory in billiard balls, had been eclipsed by such synthetic materials as Bakelite, Plexiglas, vinyl, and polystyrene. As plastic continued expanding into everyday life, it embodied the promise and the threat of limitless material abundance.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.We have made it easy for you to find a PDF Ebooks without any digging. And by having access to our ebooks online or by storing it on your computer, you have convenient answers with American Plastic: A Cultural History. To get started finding American Plastic: A Cultural History, you are right to find our website which has a comprehensive collection of manuals listed.
Our library is the biggest of these that have literally hundreds of thousands of different products represented.

Pages: 424

Format: PDF, EPUB & Kindle Edition

Publisher: Rutgers University Press

Release: 1997

ISBN: 0813522358

Description: Early twentieth century promoters of the Plastic Age envisioned a neverending flow of miracle materials conjured up by modern alchemy out of air, water, and coal. By World War II, celluloid, invented in 1869 as a substitute for ivory in billiard balls, had been eclipsed by such synthetic materials as Bakelite, Plexiglas, vinyl, and polystyrene. As plastic continued expanding into everyday life, it embodied the promise and the threat of limitless material abundance.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.We have made it easy for you to find a PDF Ebooks without any digging. And by having access to our ebooks online or by storing it on your computer, you have convenient answers with American Plastic: A Cultural History. To get started finding American Plastic: A Cultural History, you are right to find our website which has a comprehensive collection of manuals listed.
Our library is the biggest of these that have literally hundreds of thousands of different products represented.

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American Plastic: A Cultural History

American Plastic: A Cultural History

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