Winner of the 2008 Cawelti Award for the Best Textbook and Primer in Popular Culture.
"This book collects interesting and illuminating commentaries on the relationships between popular culture and politics, and shows that popular culture can in fact provide pathways to discussion and better understanding of political phenomena."—Timothy M. Dale, coauthor of Political Thinking, Political Theory, and Civil Society
"This book offers a wide-ranging set of essays that document the vitality of American popular culture and its continuing relevance to our understanding of American politics. Looking at everything from movies and television to popular music and folk songs, the contributors explore the intersection of and the interaction between culture and politics in the modern American media."—Paul A. Cantor, author of Gilligan Unbound: Pop Culture in the Age of Globalization
"In this informative and entertaining essay collection, Foy largely succeeds at breaking down the 'artificial barriers' between American politics and popular culture.""Foy has compiled an energetic assortment of analyses that convincingly argue that an interest in popular culture can counterbalance the growing tide of political apathy in the United States."—Publishers Weekly
"In a society where more people are interested in voting for their favorite American idol than their next president, it is essential to have increasingly more literature and entertainment that is both interesting and educational."Jon Morris, The Forum
"Homer Simpson Goes to Washington accentuates the positives of what used to be called "low culture."— Thomas Allen Heald, The Rapid City Weekly News
"The text would make an excellent supplement or resource in any number of popular culture and similar courses. Highly recommended."—Choice
"Homer Simpson Goes to Washington as a study of popular culture, as a barometer, disseminator and replicator of values and ideas is a useful and important exercise."—Megan Yarrow, MCreviews
"Will entice readers— an audience of political science scholars, popular culture critics, and the average citizen looking to bridge the gap between the reality and the ideal of America."—Journal of Popular Culture
"Maybe those people who get all of their political news from The Daily Show aren't so far off track."—Politics