Mad Men: The Illustrated World

Summary (from the publisher): As swingin' as the 1960s - an officially licensed tie-in to the wildly popular hit television series Mad Men.

By turns fun, sophisticated, and celebratory, this is an eye-popping and inventive companion to the hit show Mad Men, as well as a salute to the era of cocktails and Camelot. Inspired by the artistic styles that defined 1960s advertising, Dyna Moe creates a candy-colored record of the time, exploring such topics as:

•-The office culture, including secretary etiquette and hangover workarounds
•-The cocktail craze, with Sally Draper's cocktail menu
•-Pastimes and fads, such as Pete and Trudy's dancing lessons and Bert Cooper's art
• -'60s icons from Jackie to Marilyn
•-Boardroom and bedroom shenanigans
•-The burgeoning suburban lifestyle
•-Fabulous fashion, including hairstyle how-tos and bonus paper dolls of Joan

Review: This book is an official companion book to the hit television series and is beautifully illustrated in the artistic style of the 1960s advertising featured in the show. This book features brief essays on multiple topics including tongue-in-cheek references to the show, the history behind aspects of the time period (such as the layout of the office space itself), recipes for drinks and meals of the period, behind the scene essays written by characters from the show, and beautiful paper doll drawings of Joan's famous style.

It was fun reminiscing about the show and the iconic time period it featured by browsing through this book. Sections I particularly enjoyed include the section detailing the history of the office as we know it; it was originally "modeled on the factory: rows and rows of identical desks of workers who plugged away at figures the way their downstairs equivalents plugged rivets into tractors or electric fans or whatever consumer goods they were mass-producing" (12). I also enjoyed the section giving a brief bio on Conrad Hilton, the directions to make mixed drinks that were popular during the time, the actor Rich Sommer's write-up on learning to tie a tie for the show, and the image of Americans in Europe. At the end of World War II, "most Europeans viewed Americans as liberators. [...] It took only two decades for boorish American tourists to overrun the slowly rebuilding Continent and destroy that goodwill forever. However, the most significant aspect of this book are the beautiful illustrations throughout.

I did feel like this book struggled to set a unified tone. The topics and feel to each of the written pieces didn't always mesh well. They moved from historical to satirical to purely informational without notice. However, I think the artwork tied everything together and all topics were entirely relevant to the show.

Stars: 3