Register
Register here for the annual meeting and to begin or renew an ASA membership
Register here to submit a proposal through the ASA's 2012 submission site.
Register here for JHU Press and ASA membership services, including online access to American Quarterly and the Encyclopedia of American Studies Online.Register here to join an ASA community. Only current ASA members may contribute to the community blogs. Registration is not required to submit display or text ads or news and events or to view many pages. We will refuse posts that are not of professional interest to ASA members.
Click here for membership FAQ's
Events
Jun. 30 | 2012 Bode-Pearson Prize
Nominations for the 2012 Bode-Pearson Prize for Outstanding Contributions to American Studies due
Jun. 30 | 2012 Mary C. Turpie Prize
Nominations for the 2012 Mary C. Turpie Prize for Outstanding Contributions to American Studies Teaching, Advising, and Program Development due
Oct. 1 | Travel Grants for Graduate Students
For submission guidelines, click here
Resources: Abstracts of American Studies Dissertations
By University | By Year
Newman, Kathy M. "Critical Mass: Advertising and Consumer Activism in the Age of Radio," Department of American Studies, Yale University, September 1997.
This dissertation examines the relationship between radio advertising and consumer activism from the 1930s to the 1950s. I argue that radio advertising did not produce a passive, listless consuming mass, but, rather, a “critical mass”—-a mass audience that was critical of radio advertising, radio programming, and the corporate sponsorship that supported radio programming. I examine three sets of products, programs, and peoples targeted by radio advertising: 1) household products, soap operas, and housewives; 2) rural products, hillbilly music, and southern white migrant workers; 3) food staples, rhythm and blues music, and African-Americans. I argue that housewives thought of consumption as part of their domestic work, that hillbilly music was used to target what advertisers saw as the “Detroit middle class” after the war, and that radio advertising to African Americans helped to set the stage for the success of the Civil Rights boycotts.
Quick Links
American Quarterly [official journal site]
American Quarterly [editorial site]
Encyclopedia of American Studies
Encyclopedia of American Studies [editorial site]