Hollywood's America: United States History Through Its Films, 3rd Edition

by Editor: Steven Mintz (University of Houston); Editor: Randy W. Roberts (Purdue University)

• ISBN13: 9781881089681
• ISBN10: 1881089681
• Edition: 3rd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-08-01
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

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.

Author Biography

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

The Silent Era

Introduction

Silent Film as Social Criticism

Silent Cinema as Historical Mythmaker

Silent Comedy as Cultural Commentary

Primary Sources

Hollywood's Golden Age

Introduction

Depression America and Its Films

The Depression's Human Toll

Depression Allegories

African Americans on the Silver Screen

Oson Wells as Poet and Historian

Primary Sources

Wartime Hollywood

Introduction

Wartime Films as Instruments of Propaganda

Casablanca as Propaganda

Bureau of Motion Pictures Report

How WW II Affected Women

Primary Source

Postwar Hollywood

Introduction

The Red Scare in Hollywood

A Perverse Tribute to Hollywood's Past

The Morality of Informing

Science Fiction as Social Commentary

The Western as Cold War Film

Primary Sources

Hollywood Since Vietnam

Introduction

A Shifting Sensibility

Films of the Late Sixties and Early Seventies

Reaffirming traditional Values

Coming to Terms with the Vietnam War

Films of the Eighties

Our Movie-Made President

Primary Source

Presenting African Americans on Film

Bibliography

Acknowledgments

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.