This book is an eclectic and insightful collection of essays predicated on the hypothesis that popular cultural documents provide unique insights into the concerns, anxieties and desires of their times. 1950s popular culture is analyzed by leading scholars and critics such as Christopher Frayling, Mark Jancovich, Kim Newman and David J. Skal.

Darry L Jones is Head of the School of English Trinity College Dublin Ireland where he teaches Popular Literature and Culture He is author of a number of books and many articles in this field His most recent publications include an edition of M R James s Collected Ghost Stories (2011). Elizabeth McCarthy is a Lecturer at Trinity College Dublin Ireland She has published critical studies on a wide variety of subjects including Romantic aesthetics and the serial killer, the politics of the guillotine in the French Revolution and propaganda and advertising in post-World War One America She has also co-edited the book Fear Essays on the Meaning and Experience of Fear (2007) and is currently compiling-and editing the book Jack the Ripper Early Fictional Accounts of the Whitechapel Murderer (2012). Bernice M. Murphy is a Lecturer in Popular Literature in the School of English Trinity College Dublin, Ireland She has previously published The Suburban Gothic in American Popular Culture (2009) and edited the collection Shirley Jackson Essays on the Literary Legacy (2005).