Entrée principale:

Meikle, Jeffrey L., 1949- author.

Titre et auteur:

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

Publication:

New Brunswick, New Jersey : Rutgers University Press, [1995]
©1995

Description:

xiv, 403 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 27 cm

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 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.
Society for the History of Technology Sidney Edelstein Prize, 1996.
Dust jacket.

Résumé:

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.

Ressources:
Table of contents

ISBN:

081352234X (cloth ; alk. paper)
9780813522340 (cloth ; alk. paper)
0813522358 (pbk. ; alk. paper)
9780813522357 (pbk. ; alk. paper)
9780585206936
0585206937

Sujet:

Plastics History.
Plastics industry and trade United States History.
Matières plastiques Histoire.
Matières plastiques Industrie États-Unis Histoire.
51.70 polymers.
21.82 industrial design.
Plastics
Plastics industry and trade
Design
Geschichte
Industriedesign
Kunststoff
Kunststoffindustrie
Kunststoffprodukt
Synthetische polymeren.
Industriële vormgeving.
Ecologische aspecten.
Matières plastiques États-Unis Histoire.
Objets en matières plastiques.
Meubles en plastique.
United States
USA

Classification/genre:

History

Exemplaires:

Localisation: Bibliothèque main 81954
Cote: ID TP1117.M4; ID:95-B2826
Statut: Disponible