American Girls in Popular Media - by Stella A Ress (Hardcover)

About the Book

This book examines the societal impact of preadolescent girls and their depictions in American popular culture from 1924 to 1945 to explore how these portrayals helped address societal anxieties exacerbated by the Great Depression and World War II, including generational conflicts, gender issues, racial tensions, and urban-rural divides.

Book Synopsis

This book examines the societal impact of preadolescent girls and their depictions in American popular culture from 1924 to 1945 to explore how these portrayals helped address societal anxieties exacerbated by the Great Depression and World War II, including generational conflicts, gender issues, racial tensions, and urban-rural divides.

Review Quotes

Stella A. Ress has written a lively, engaging book on the evolution of the perception?and image?of girls at a critical time in US social and cultural development. By using previous historical research, as well as the mass media of the era from 1890 to 1945, she has written a book that is a great addition to the historical field.

Through insightful analysis of comic strips, film, and radio, Ress reveals how portrayals of young girls from the 1920s to the 1940s helped Americans navigate and cope with the uncertainties of a rapidly changing society.

Visible or invisible, ideal or real, girlhood remains the central theme in Stella A. Ress#39;s research concerning American girls within popular media as she examines and reimagines the #39;intertwining#39; concepts of young girls from the turn of the century through the Second World War. Ress stresses the need to explore the complexity of girlhood through imagery, imagination and implacability.

About the Author

Stella A. Ress is associate professor in the Department of History at the University of Southern Indiana.