The Prime-Time Presidency: The West Wing and U.S. Nationalism (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780252073120)

Contrasting strong women and multiculturalism with portrayals of a heroic white male leading the nation into battle, The Prime-Time Presidency explores the NBC drama The West Wing, paying particular attention to its role in promoting cultural meaning about the presidency and U.S. nationalism. Based in a careful, detailed analysis of the "first term" of The West Wing's President Josiah Bartlet, this criticism highlights the ways the text negotiates powerful tensions and complex ambiguities at the base of U.S. national identity--particularly the role of gender, race, and militarism in the construction of U.S. nationalism. Unlike scattered and disparate collections of essays, Trevor Parry-Giles and Shawn J. Parry-Giles offer a sustained, ideologically driven criticism of The West Wing. The Prime-time Presidency presents a detailed critique of the program rooted in presidential history, an appreciation of television's power as a source of political meaning, and television's contribution to the articulation of U.S. national identity.


Author: Shawn J. Parry-Giles
ISBN-10: 0252073126
ISBN-13: 9780252073120
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Language: English
Published: 03/22/2006
Pages: 248
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.89lbs
Size: 9.00h x 5.96w x 0.60d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 11/01/2006 pg. 476
Reference and Research Bk News 11/01/2006 pg. 285