Charlie Brown's America: The Popular Politics of Peanuts
- Downloads：8347
- Type：Epub+TxT+PDF+Mobi
- Create Date：2021-06-19 01:19:06
- Update Date：2025-09-07
- Status：finish
- Author：Blake Scott Ball
- ISBN：0190090464
- Environment：PC/Android/iPhone/iPad/Kindle
Reviews
Daniel Castaneda
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Ball's book is an excellent analysis of how popular culture is rarely separated from politics in the United States。 In particular， he explores the Peanuts comic strip and how creator Charles Schulz managed to move both left and right politically from a safe （and， of course， ambiguous） vantage point of middle America。 He shows convincingly that Schulz did not shy away from engaging politics and used his strip to raise questions or ambivalence about an issue in the minds of his readers。 Because Pe Ball's book is an excellent analysis of how popular culture is rarely separated from politics in the United States。 In particular， he explores the Peanuts comic strip and how creator Charles Schulz managed to move both left and right politically from a safe （and， of course， ambiguous） vantage point of middle America。 He shows convincingly that Schulz did not shy away from engaging politics and used his strip to raise questions or ambivalence about an issue in the minds of his readers。 Because Peanuts was a popular comic strip， Ball uses letters sent to Schulz by readers to explore popular reactions， as well as to show that readers were attentive to the issues/subtext addressed in the strip。 However， because Schulz often did not reveal his personal opinion， his comics could be interpreted by his readers， often leading to vastly different conclusions （as seen in the aforementioned letters）。 Ball describes this quality as a "Rorschach [test] for readers" （1）。 Each chapter analyzes a different set of themes in the Peanuts comic， but the chapter I found most fascinating was about Franklin， the "first African American character to integrate a nationally syndicated newspaper comic strip" （65）。 Ball reveals a concerted effort by Harriet Glickman and black families to convince Schulz to introduce an African American character。 In the end， he did， but his inclusion of Franklin was both "revolutionary and restricting" （65）。 While he made a positive first step， he could not figure out how to make Franklin a more significant part of the strip。 I would highly recommend the book to students of pop culture and politics in the United States， as it provides an excellent example of the creative use of a source to evaluate broader political issues in the country。 Often， I found myself wondering how no one had written this book sooner （which is， of course， a testament to Ball's ability to show that his work is useful and important！）。 。。。more
Mark Johnson
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