Synopses & Reviews
This anthology of documents and essays teaches students to read films as cultural artifacts within the contexts of actual past events. The films are studied as a reflection of their times and as an influence upon style and belief.
Each major Part consists of essays on particular films or topics, followed by an assortment of primary documents; a 50-page bibliography of film history concludes the volume.
About the Author
Steven Mintz is the John and Rebecca Moores Professor of History and Director of the American Cultures Program at the University of Houston. He is President-Elect of H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online, an international consortium of scholars who use new technologies to advance teaching and research. His twelve books include the standard history of the American family,
Domestic Revolutions: A Social History of American Family Life (1988; co-authored with Susan Kellogg); and a major interpretation of antebellum reform,
Moralists & Modernizers: America’s Pre-Civil War Reformers (1995). His most recent book,
Huck’s Raft: A History of American Childhood (2004), received the Association of American Publishers R.R. Hawkins Award for the Outstanding Scholarly Book of 2004; the Organization of American Historians 2004 Merle Curti Award for the best book in social history; and the Texas Institute of Letters Carr P. Collins Award for the best non-fiction book of 2004. For Blackwell he has edited
African American Voices, Third Edition (2004),
Mexican American Voices (2000), and
Native American Voices, Second Edition (2000).
Randy W. Roberts is Professor of History at Purdue University and specializes in recent U.S. history, U.S. sports history, and the history of popular culture. He is the author of Where the Domino Fell: America and Vietnam, Fifth Edition (with James S. Olson, Blackwell, 2006), Charles A. Lindbergh: The Power and Peril of Celebrity 1927-1941 (with David Welky, Blackwell, 2003), A Line in the Sand: The Alamo in Blood and Memory (with James S. Olson, 2001), My Lai: A Brief History with Documents (with James S. Olson, 1998), and John Wayne American (with James S. Olson, 1996). Among his many sport history publications are (with David Welky) One For The Thumb: The New Steelers Reader (2006), The Rock, the Curse, and the Hub: A Random History of Boston Sports (2005), Jack Dempsey: The Manassa Mauler (2003), The Steelers Reader (with David Welky, 2001), Winning Is the Only Thing: Sports in America since 1945 (with James Olson, 1989), and Papa Jack: Jack Johnson and the Era of White Hopes (1983).
Table of Contents
Preface.
Introduction.
Part I: The Silent Era.
1. Introduction.
2. Silent Film as Social Criticism.
3. Silent Cinema as Historical Mythmaker.
4. Silent Comedy as Cultural Commentary.
5. Primary Sources.
Part II: Hollywood's Golden Age.
1. Introduction.
2. Depression America and Its Films.
3. The Depression's Human Toll.
4. Depression Allegories.
5. African Americans on the Silver Screen.
6. Oson Wells as Poet and Historian.
7. Primary Sources.
Part III: Wartime Hollywood.
1. Introduction.
2. Wartime Films as Instruments of Propaganda.
3. Casablanca as Propaganda.
4. Bureau of Motion Pictures Report.
5. How WW II Affected Women.
6. Primary Source.
Part IV: Postwar Hollywood.
1. Introduction.
2. The Red Scare in Hollywood.
3. A Perverse Tribute to Hollywood's Past.
4. The Morality of Informing.
5. Science Fiction as Social Commentary.
6. The Western as Cold War Film.
7. Primary Sources.
Part V: Hollywood Since Vietnam.
1. Introduction.
2. A Shifting Sensibility.
3. Films of the Late Sixties and Early Seventies.
4. Reaffirming traditional Values.
5. Coming to Terms with the Vietnam War.
6. Films of the Eighties.
7. Our Movie-Made President.
8. Primary Source.
9. Presenting African Americans on Film.
Bibliography.
Acknowledgments.