American plastic : a cultural history / Jeffrey L. Meikle.

By: Meikle, Jeffrey L, 1949- [author]
Publisher: New Brunswick, New Jersey : Rutgers University Press, [1995]Copyright date: c1995Description: xiv, 403 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 27 cmContent type: text Media type: unmediated Carrier type: volumeISBN: 081352234X (cloth : alk. paper); 0813522358 (pbk. : alk. paper)Subject(s): Plastics -- History | Plastics industry and trade -- United States -- HistoryDDC classification: 303.483 LOC classification: TP1117 | .M45 1995
Contents:
Introduction : A matter of definition -- Celluloid : from imitation to innovation -- Bakelite : defining an artificial material -- Vision and reality in the plastic age -- An industry takes shape -- Nylon : domesticating a new synthetic -- Growing pains : the conversion to postwar -- Design in plastic : from durable to disposable -- Material doubts and plastic fallout -- Beyond plastic : the culture of synthesis.
Summary: Jeffrey Meikle traces Americans' ambivalent involvement with plastic from Bakelite radios and nylon stockings to Tupperware and polyester suits. He moves easily from the rise of the plastics industry to plastic's symbolic hold on style and the popular imagination. Meikle shows how America's enthusiasm for everything plastic has been complicated by environmental doubts and by the plasticity of postmodern existence. Throughout this witty, compelling history of material and metaphor, Meikle raises crucial issues in science and technology, manufacturing and marketing, design and architecture, and American consumer culture. A provocative conclusion suggests that plastic, endlessly malleable in the face of material desire, merges into the immaterial reality of future electronic media.
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SUBJECT REFERENCE 		303.483 M476 1995 (Browse shelf) Available CITU-CL- 21264
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Includes bibliographical references (p. 307-380) and index.

Introduction : A matter of definition --
Celluloid : from imitation to innovation --
Bakelite : defining an artificial material --
Vision and reality in the plastic age --
An industry takes shape --
Nylon : domesticating a new synthetic --
Growing pains : the conversion to postwar --
Design in plastic : from durable to disposable --
Material doubts and plastic fallout --
Beyond plastic : the culture of synthesis.

Jeffrey Meikle traces Americans' ambivalent involvement with plastic from Bakelite radios and nylon stockings to Tupperware and polyester suits. He moves easily from the rise of the plastics industry to plastic's symbolic hold on style and the popular imagination. Meikle shows how America's enthusiasm for everything plastic has been complicated by environmental doubts and by the plasticity of postmodern existence. Throughout this witty, compelling history of material and metaphor, Meikle raises crucial issues in science and technology, manufacturing and marketing, design and architecture, and American consumer culture. A provocative conclusion suggests that plastic, endlessly malleable in the face of material desire, merges into the immaterial reality of future electronic media.

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