Kathy Merlock Jackson, a professor of media and communication at Virginia Wesleyan University, teaches courses in media studies and children’s culture. She is the author or editor of thirteen books and former editor of The Journal of American Culture. She has served as past president of both the American Culture Association and the Popular Culture Association. Steven M. Emmanuel is a professor of philosophy at Virginia Wesleyan College, where he specializes in the history of philosophy and comparative moral and religious thought.

“the book returns us to the world of a long-running children’s television show hosted by a quiet and unassuming man”—Communications Booknotes Quarterly.

• Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroductionThe Performance of the Pastoral (Chris Buczinsky)Social Activism for the Small Set (Kathy Merlock Jackson)Good Neighbors, Moral Philosophy and the Masculine Ideal (Sue Matheson)Grown-Up Work and the Work of Growing Up (Valerie H. Pennanen)Dis-Alienating the Neighborhood: The Representation of Work and Community (Tim Libretti)Fantasy as Free Space: Mister Rogers’ Neighborhoods (Susan Larkin)The Presence of Mister Rogers (Steven M. Emmanuel)A Different Voice: Mister Rogers and the Ethic of Care (Richard L. Bilsker)Community as Emotional Education: Fred Rogers and Edith Stein (Peter R. Costello)Structure and Story in the Operas (Maura Grady)Fred Rogers and the Early Use of Puppetry on American Children’s Television (Mark I. West)ChronologyA Selective Bibliography of Works by and About Fred Rogers (Camille McCutcheon)About the ContributorsIndex