Comments on: Home Chemistry in the Golden Age of American Science

By: A Century of Southern California Aerospace | Zoonomian

A Century of Southern California Aerospace | Zoonomian — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 16:37:17 +0000

[...] first 50 Years:Historical Perspectives. For cultural insights on the era, see my posts Home Chemistry in the Golden Age of American Science and Buck Rogers – a Copper Clad Lesson from History) [...]

By: Buck Rogers – A Copper Clad Lesson from History – Zoonomian

Buck Rogers – A Copper Clad Lesson from History – Zoonomian — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 10:45:15 +0000

[...] the 1950s and 60s – a ‘Golden Age of American Science ‘ – folk thrilled at the prospect of great wheel-shaped space stations in orbit, and cosmic [...]

By: Ruth Seeley

Ruth Seeley — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 02:00:38 +0000

YouTube to the rescue: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=0DF035CDCF043A24&search_query=Leave+it+to+Beaver

By: Tim Jones

Tim Jones — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 01:25:51 +0000

Thanks for the comment Ruth. Well there you go; these analyses just go on and on. I’ll need to check out Wally and the ‘Beave’ now – maybe quizz my U.S. in-laws a bit too.

It is fascinating finding all the echoes between different texts.

In Hoffman’s film, girls are more prominent. It can all get out of hand though. For another draft of this I actually did a full content analysis, involving counting how many times boys and girls appeared in the ‘Golden Book’ – and what they were doing. Guess there are worse obsessions….

By: Twitted by ruthseeley

Twitted by ruthseeley — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 01:07:45 +0000

[...] This post was Twitted by ruthseeley [...]

By: Ruth Seeley

Ruth Seeley — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 01:01:06 +0000

Great post, Tim – I think I’ve done a semiotic analysis or two without realizing I was doing so (my usual backwards approach to things).

Part of what’s interesting to me about the image with the two boys is their similarity to Wally and the ‘Beave’ from the Leave it to Beaver series that first aired in 1957. The fact that both the children are boys; their ages and the age difference between them is pretty much identical to the TV show. Also significant, I think, is that the chemistry set was being marketed just as the ‘two kids, two cars, and a house in the suburbs’ ethos was becoming a (now obviously temporary) reality. Implicit in that ethos was that one child would be a boy (firstborn preferably); the second a girl. Yet the ideal family reflected in the chemistry set and on Leave it to Beaver doesn’t include any girls at all.