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In this pioneering work, sixteen historians analyse individual films for deeper insight into US institutions, values and lifestyles. Linking all of the essays is the belief that film holds much of value for the historian seeking to understand and interpret American history and culture. This title will be equally valuable for students and scholars in history using film for analysis as well as film students and scholars exploring the way social and historical circumstances are reflected and represented in film.>
List of contents
Foreword by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr
Introduction
1. The New Woman and Twenties America:
Way Down East (1920)
June Sochen2. The Great War Viewed From the Twenties:
The Big Parade (1925)
Michael T. Isenberg3. 'Race Movies' as Voices of the Black Bourgeoisie:
The Scar of Shame (1927)
Thomas Cripps4. Bullets, Beer and the Hays Office:
Public Enemy (1931)
Garth Jowett5. Will Rogers and the Relevance of Nostalgia:
Steamboat 'Round the Bend (1935)
Peter C. Rollins6. A Reaffirmation of the American Ideals:
Drums Along the Mohawk (1939)
John E. O'Connor7. Our Awkward Ally:
Mission to Moscow (1943)
David Culbert8. The Uncertain Peace:
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
Martin A. Jackson9. Empire to the West:
Red River (1948)
Robert Sklar10. An American Cold Warrior:
Viva Zapata! (1952)
Paul J. Vanderwood11. The Age of Conspiracy and Conformity:
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Stuart Samuels12. The Pentagon and Hollywood:
Dr Strangelove or: How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Lawrence Suid13. Hollywood, Nihilism and the Youth Culture of the Sixties:
Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
Lawrence L. Murray14. The Blue Collar Ethnic in Bicentennial America:
Rocky (1976)
Daniel J. Leab 15. Fragments of War:
Platoon (1986)
Lawrence W. Lichty and Raymond L. CarrollNotes on Contributors
Films
Further Reading
Index
About the author
John E. O’Connor is former Professor of History at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA.Martin A. Jackson is co-founder of the Historians Film Committee and taught history and film studies at the State University of New York and the New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA.
