Featured Guest: 
Dr. Elizabeth Fraterrigo
Featured Book:
Playboy and the Making of the Good Life
in Modern America
Date & Location:
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
6:00 p.m.
Richard Klarchek Information Commons, 4th Floor
Lake Shore Campus
1032 West Sheridan
Loyola History Professor Elizabeth Fraterrigo will talk about her latest work, Playboy and Making the Good Life in Modern America . She will share insight on the historical perspectives of how the magazine influenced American culture:
“Launched in 1953, Playboy showcased a free-spirited realm where affluent bachelors luxuriated in plush pads filled with expensive toys, attractive young women, and sexual possibilities. This was the good life envisioned by its founder, Hugh M. Hefner, and it captured the attention of fans and critics alike.
Exploring the world created in the pages of the popular men’s magazine, this talk traces Playboy’s development in the context of a society in transition. Sexual mores, gender roles, family life, notions of consumption and national purpose—all were in flux as Americans adjusted to the prosperity that followed World War II. Initially, Playboy promised only “entertainment for men,” but its vision of abundance, pleasure, and individual freedom placed the magazine at the center of discussions about the nature and direction of postwar society. If we want to understand the nation’s course in the second half of the twentieth century, we must pay close attention to Playboy’s vision of the good life, the debates it inspired and the criticism it drew, for all of these have become bound up in the popular culture and consumer society that surround us.”
RESERVATIONS ACCEPTED
To R.S.V.P. please contact Carol Franklin at 773 508-2641 or cfrankl@luc.edu
