Ian Gordon earned his PhD in History at the University of Rochester. He revised his dissertation "Envisioning Consumer Culture" with additional material for publication by the Smithsonian Institution Press as Comic Strips and Consumer Culture. In addition to his book he has published two co-edited books Comics & Ideology and Film and Comic Books and numerous articles.

Gordon uses comic strips to make an argument about American culture. He says that comic strips were one of the first forms of truly national culture, by which he means people all over the country read them on the same day, and so had shared experiences, and that this happened on a wide spread basis as early as 1908. He also ties comic strips to transformations in advertising styles, and not just the comic strip advertising style of the 1930s but the generalized use of more images in advertising as the twentieth century progressed. The book even has a chapter on the beginnings of comic books which is a useful short overview and has good information on the early Superman.

The Journal of American History said: "Gordon has done historians a service by recognizing the importance of popular visual sources as important clues to understanding American culture. And the book is not only informative but fun to read."

American Journalism said: "a must read for any scholar interested in the question of popular culture."

Books

• Comic Strips and Consumer Culture, 1890-1945. (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998). Paperback edition 2002.
• Comics and Ideology. co-edited. (New York: Peter Lang, 2001).
• Film and Comic Books. co-edited. (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2007)