Alan Nadel

Flatlining on the Field of Dreams: Cultural Narratives in the Films of President Reagan's America.

Rutgers University Press, 1997. First edition. 0813524407 xii/238 pages.

Softcover volume, measuring approximately 6.25" x 9.25", displays very light shelfwear. Binding is sound. Pages are clean and bright.

""Flatlining on the Field of Dreams" demonstrates, with witty prose and careful analysis, how the overindulgent, image-conscious years of the Reagan administration are reflected in sundry aspects of American films produced during that era. Discussing dozens of films, including "Home Alone", "Beetlejuice, Ghost", "The Little Mermaid", "Working Girl", "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?", and "Trading Places", Alan Nadel identifies narratives about credit, deregulation, gender, race, and masculinity that defined "President Reagan's America." Linking the way Hollywood films work to the stories they tell, he explains how the ideas and values of Reaganism became the symbolic food of a hyper-consumptive society. The book provides hard-to-ignore demonstrations of the extensive synergy between politics, history, and popular culture. "