Blue-Collar Happiness: The Political Theory Of The Honeymooners eBook

This book considers political ideas in the groundbreaking television show of the 1950s, The Honeymooners, which contains messages about social mobility, feminism, the battle of the sexes, and post-World War II America. The Honeymooners was one of the few depictions of blue-collar life in America. Most American sitcoms of the 1950s portray middle-class and even upper middle-class families that achieve social mobility-such as I Love Lucy, Leave It to Beaver, etc. However, The Honeymooners portrays a family that, while not achieving social mobility, does achieve happiness; that is what makes it unique in television history. This book considers ideas of success, elitism, and the American dream while also exploring the insights of philosophers, such as Plato, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Rousseau, Marx, Adam Smith, Simone de Beauvoir, and de Tocqueville, to understand The Honeymooners and 1950s America.