The Prettiest Woman: Nostalgia for Late Industrial Capitalism [Paperback]

Uncovering Hollywood’s perpetual longing for a lost industrial America

“We don’t make things in America anymore”: like clockwork, this refrain resurfaces in political discourse, a reflection of yearning for a bygone era of industrial productivity. In his latest work, Grant Farred uses the 1990 filmPretty Womanto expose and critique this lingering nostalgia for late-industrial capitalism.

SituatingPretty Womanalongside Reagan-era films includingWall Street,Farred examines the congealment of such a pervasive romanticized view of the United States as a fading industrial powerhouse. Drawing on an eclectic range of thinkers—from Raymond Williams and Slavoj Žižek to Mick Jagger—The Prettiest Womanoffers a unique analysis of the ways Hollywood perpetuates the myth of a lost “productive America,” highlighting the seductive power of this fantasy despite its disconnect from economic and political realities.

Grant Farred is author of several books, includingWhat’s My Name: Black Vernacular Intellectuals;Martin Heidegger Saved My Life; andAn Essay for Ezra: Racial Terror in America(all from Minnesota).

Like Clockwork: Bring the Jobs Back to America

Shes a Pretty Woman

Nostalgia

A Hollywood Genealogy

Cold Calling Is a Mugs Game

Wall Street

You Are the Suit You Wear

Raymond Williams: A Brief Word

The Patient Is on Life Support but Is Not Yet Dead

The Baseness of/in the Superstructure

Working Women

Late Industrial Capitalism 1: Making Things in America

Late Industrial Capitalism 2: Nostalgia and Grievance

On Morality: A Brief }i~ekian Word

Its Big in Japan

TheBoroAesthetic

Bastard 1

A New Economy of the Prostitute and Its Dangers

My Fair Lady,Beverly Hills Style

All a Pretty Prostitute Needs lC‘