Tony Osborne

"Greed Is Good" and Other Fables (eBook, ePUB)

Office Life in Popular Culture

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

This book spans three centuries of popular entertainment and everyday culture, showcasing both mainstream and submerged channels and voices to examine how once reviled business values gained supremacy and poisoned the American spirit.

The office in popular culture is often depicted as a topsy-turvy parallel universe where psychological disorders are legitimized as "managerial styles" and comically depraved bosses torment those who do the actual work. During the 1950s, the Beats chose denim and the open road over gray flannel suits and office jobs, but today their grandchildren-Generation Y-aggressively covet desk jobs.

"Greed Is Good" and Other Fables: Office Life in Popular Culture examines how office life is both extolled and lampooned in popular culture. The book tracks how business values ascended to cultural dominance in the United States today, revealing our incessant struggle between financial and spiritual goals in the pursuit of "freedom" and the fulfillment of the American dream. By drawing upon sources as varied as books, newspapers, magazines, television shows, movies, blogs, message boards, documentaries, public speeches, corporate training films, and employee newsletters, the author provides compelling insights into the range of competing values and ideals interwoven throughout office life.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Bloomsbury Publishing Inc
• Seitenzahl: 216
• Altersempfehlung: ab 7 Jahre
• Erscheinungstermin: 13. April 2012
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9798216040385
• Artikelnr.: 68331790

Autorenporträt

Tony Osborne, PhD, teaches courses in rhetoric, leadership, and mass communication at Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA, and writes and speaks about popular culture. He has worked as an investigative reporter and feature writer for a daily newspaper, an account executive and speech writer for AT&T Communications, and an independent business consultant and trainer.

Inhaltsangabe

Chapter 1. The Great American Dilemma: Conformity or Rebellion? Chapter 2.
My Approach and Some Reflections on Pop Culture and Such Chapter 3. Early
Mass Culture: Print from the Victorian Era to the Roaring Twenties Chapter
4. Sponsored Films: Quaintness with a Radical Bite Chapter 5. The
Organization Man and His Kin: Preachers and Salesmen Chapter 6. The Office
in Drama and Comedy during the 1950s and 1960s Chapter 7. Greed Is Good:
The 1980s to Present-Day America Chapter 8. Scaling the Pyramid: Common
Types and Office Games Epilogue Notes Bibliography Index