In The Post-Liberal Imagination , Bruce Baum approaches American liberalism 'in a critical spirit' by examining the relationship between popular culture and politics. The book analyzes movies, television, and popular music to rethink the liberal views of democracy, equality, racism, dissent, and animal rights in the Bush-Obama era.

PART I: INTRODUCTION1. Keep on Rockin' in the Free World 2. 'Humpday,' 'Soul Power,' and the Politics of Hip 3. The Hero America Deserves? The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises, and the Liberalism of Fear 4. Apes, Humans, and Other PART II: ANIMALS: PROJECT NIM AND RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES5. Hollywood's Crisis of Capitalism: 'Inside Job' and 'The Company Men' 6. Occupy Wall Street, Steve Jobs's 'Genius,' and Mad Men: Reflections on the DemocraticPART III: IMAGINATION 7. Hollywood on Race in the Age of Obama 8. President Obama and the White Problem Conclusion

"Here comes the boom! That's what happens when Bruce Baum brings political theory to popular culture. He deftly analyzes the un-utterable subtext of today's cinema, TV and more, to highlight how they participate in the death of the social, the erasure of structural causes of our current inequitable society and misguided valorization of individual ability and effort as the prime forces why class, race and gender disparities exist. Going to the movies has never been so politically edifying! The Post-Liberal Imagination: Political Scenes from the American Cultural Landscape is an important work of political scholarship." - Sanford Schram, Professor of Political Science and Public Policy, Hunter College, CUNY, USA