'Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book': the aesthetics of American food in the 1950s

Article Abstract:

An interest in strong color in food aesthetics was prevalent in the early 1950s as reflected in the popularity of 'Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book,' as well as in the advertising and packaging of new products such as cake mixes and frozen foods. Betty Crocker's image provided a link between home cooking and the new convenience foods. Cakes were a symbol of femininity, and the cake mix was originally promoted primarily as a foolproof starting point for individual creativity rather than as a time-saver. Swanson's original TV Dinner exemplified the successful use of packaging and food aesthetics.

Social aspects, Influence, Convenience foods, Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book (Book), Photography of food, Crocker, Betty (Fictional character)

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Prairie prospects: the aesthetics of plainness

Article Abstract:

The American prairie landscape has been seen and described by artists and writers, and have been used by agricultural policy-makers. The processes of perception, description, and use of the prairie are related. They are further complicated by the relation between aesthetic theory and representation, and changes in the historical, economic, artistic and literary methods. The metaphors are paradoxical, and raise questions about the prospects of the prairies, and about the people who define these prospects. These prospects further define the identities of the people who inhabit the prairies.

Authors, Writers, Beliefs, opinions and attitudes, Portrayals, Artists, Prairies, Policy scientists

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The 1950s and 1960: open and hidden relations

Article Abstract:

McCarthyism cast a dark cloud on the cultural and literary life of the 1950s. It was only towards the end of the decade that writers such as Jack Kerouac, Alan Ginsburg and their contemporaries in the Beat movement were able to explore alternatives to the prevailing views of the cultural mainstream. Their work and that of other iconoclasts would help shape popular culture in the 1960s in a manner which in the 1950s would have been considered unthinkable. The lessons of that era remain valid in the 1990s as America once more confronts a wave of stifling mainstream conformity.

Analysis, Political aspects, Literature, Communism, Cold War, 1945-1991, 1950s (Decade), Communism and literature

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