Bücher von Lawrence R. Samuel

The history of our attitudes toward the possibilities of tomorrow:';A fascinating trek through American future visions from the 1920s to the present.' Lori C. Walters, Ph.D., University of Central Florida The future is not a fixed idea but a highly variable one that reflects the values of those who are imagining it. By studying the ways that visionaries imagined the futureparticularly that of Americain the past century, much can be learned about the cultural dynamics of the times. In this social history, Lawrence R. Samuel examines the future visions of intellectuals, artists, scientists, businesspeople, and others to tell a chronological story about the history of the future in the past century. He defines six separate eras of future narratives from 1920 to the present day, and argues that the milestones reached during these yearsespecially related to air and space travel, atomic and nuclear weapons, the women's and civil rights movements, and the advent of biological and genetic engineeringsparked the possibilities of tomorrow in the public's imagination, and helped make the twentieth century the first century to be significantly more about the future than the past. The idea of the future grew both in volume and importance as it rode the technological wave into the new millennium, and the author tracks the process by which most people, to some degree, have now become futurists as the need to anticipate tomorrow accelerates.

';A lively history' of how TV advertising became a defining force in American culture between 1946 and 1964(Technology and Culture). The two decades following World War II brought television into homes and, of course, television commercials. Those commercials, in turn, created an image of the postwar American Dream that lingers to this day. This book recounts how advertising became a part of everyday lives and national culture during this midcentury period, not only reflecting consumers' desires but shaping them, and broadcasting a vivid portrait of comfort, abundance, ease, and happy family life and, of course, keeping up with the Joneses. As the author asserts, it's nearly impossible to understand our culture without contemplating these visual celebrations of conformity and consumption, and this insightful, entertaining volume of social history helps us do just that.

Widely considered the most complex of human emotions, romantic love both shapes and reflects core societal values, its expression offering a window into the cultural zeitgeist. Tracing the history of love in American culture, this book offers insight into both the national character and emotional nature.

Capitalizing on what is arguably the most important social phenomenon of our time and place-the aging of America-this book shows organizations how to market specifically to baby boomers in their third act of life.The graying of America is undeniable, with an estimated 10,000 boomers turning 65 every day. But to dismiss the baby boomer generation as a group no longer worth marketing to would be foolish. According to the Census Bureau, in 2029-the year when the last boomer will have turned 65-there will still be more than 61 million boomers, roughly 17 percent of the projected population of the United States. Boomers will still be the wealthiest generation in the United States until at least 2030, according to the Deloitte Center for Financial Services, with their share of net household wealth to peak at 50.2 percent by 2020.Boomers 3.0: Marketing to Baby Boomers in Their Third Act of Life describes how to market to baby boomers from a cultural perspective, specifically addressing the demographic group of baby boomers in their later adulthood-a period that will continue for the next two to three decades. The author uses the term "3.0" to indicate the baby boomers' third phase of life and explains how this third act of life will differ from earlier periods; accordingly, organizations should take a different approach to marketing to them than in the past. This book offers a way to contextualize business objectives within a culturally based, forward-thinking framework that fully leverages the opportunities presented by what is perhaps the biggest and most affluent customer base in history. Readers will be able to use the strategies described to map territories to stake and mine in targeting boomers, create meaningful relationships with individuals in this group, and communicate effectively with boomers to offer them products and services.

The American writer--both real and fictitious, famous and obscure--has traditionally been situated on the margins of society, an outsider looking in. From The Great Gatsby''s Nick Carraway to the millions of bloggers today, writers are generally seen as onlookers documenting the human condition. Yet their own collective story has largely gone untold. Tracing the role of the writer in the United States over the last century, this book describes how those who use language as a creative medium have held a special place in our collective imagination.

Five seminal events occurred in New York City in the pivotal year 1964: the ""British Invasion,"" the arrival of the Beatles in February; the murder of Kitty Genovese in Queens in March; the World's Fair that ran in Queens between April and October; the ""race riots"" in Brooklyn and Harlem in July; and the World Series in the Bronx between the New York Yankees and the St. Louis Cardinals. Through an exploration of these landmark events--the biggest thing in pop culture since Elvis's appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, a shocking crime that reportedly went ignored, the last great world's fair, a key moment in the Civil Rights Movement, and a legendary championship game that marked the end of an era--readers will have a better understanding of the social turbulence in New York City and the United States in the mid-1960s.

This book is much more than an authoritative and compelling look at the cultural history of the supernatural over the last century in America-it also explains why we want to believe.