As the New Deal order crumbled in the 1960s and 1970s and conservatism ascended, what happened to American liberalism? My dissertation finds the answer to that question in an unexpected place: Sesame Street. Created in 1969, Sesame Street became a template for a new liberal politics that maintained a fealty to individualism and opportunity, had a desire to be inclusive and represent a diverse body of Americans, believed in merit and social uplift, and was devoted to New Deal-era ideas about the government’s role in promoting social reform. I call this politics “fuzzy liberalism.” Understanding Sesame Street’s production of fuzzy liberalism contributes to an emerging historiography on post-1960s liberalism. My chapters explore how fuzzy liberalism operated by exploring themes of the urban crisis and revitalization, race and colorblindness, nonprofits and commercialism, family values and feminism, the culture wars and heteronormativity, and public television and privatization. Drawing on archival sources, like production documents and viewer mail, and a close reading of popular culture, my dissertation blends the cultural and the political in innovative ways to argue that we cannot understand the history of U.S. political culture since the 1960s without giving serious scholarly attention to the politics of Sesame Street. / History
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TEMPLE/oai:scholarshare.temple.edu:20.500.12613/10307 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Whitaker, Abby, 0000-0002-5963-6682 |
| Contributors | Simon, Bryant, Corwin Berman, Lila, Motyl, Katya, Geismer, Lily |
| Publisher | Temple University. Libraries |
| Source Sets | Temple University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation, Text |
| Format | 364 pages |
| Rights | IN COPYRIGHT- This Rights Statement can be used for an Item that is in copyright. Using this statement implies that the organization making this Item available has determined that the Item is in copyright and either is the rights-holder, has obtained permission from the rights-holder(s) to make their Work(s) available, or makes the Item available under an exception or limitation to copyright (including Fair Use) that entitles it to make the Item available., http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
| Relation | http://dx.doi.org/10.34944/dspace/10269, Theses and Dissertations |
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