MACMILLAN Mass-Market Fiction and the Crisis of American Liberalism, 1972–2017

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. Review “This is an exciting endeavor, critically tracing and assessing the fraught state of American liberalism through the novel, useful lens of popular fiction produced during the decades of developing crisis … Given the broad appeal of the texts under study, and the ever-urgent matter of liberalism in crisis, this project should attract both interdisciplinary and international readers.” (Christine Muller, Yale University, USA and author of September 11, 2001 as a Cultural Trauma: A Case Study through Popular Culture, Palgrave 2017) 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).