ABSTRACT
First published in 2002. This book explores the philosophical, social, and aesthetic implications of twentieth-century America's obsession with eliminating waste. Through interdisciplinary engagement with fiction and popular culture, William Little traces the way this obsession finds expression in powerful social forces (e.g., the drive to consume conspicuously; the Progressive-era campaign to manage scientifically; the current demand to "reduce, reuse, recycle"), and shows how such forces are governed by an idealism that links proper treatment of waste with the promise of salvation.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part Backfire I|53 pages
Waste Expectations
part Backfire II|85 pages
Melville’s (Un)flinching Faith
part Backfire III|15 pages
Hitting on The Sopranos