Policing Cinema: Movies and Censorship in Early-Twentieth-Century America

Book Description

White slave films, dramas documenting sex scandals, filmed prize fights featuring the controversial African-American boxer Jack Johnson, D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation--all became objects of public concern after 1906, when the proliferation of nickelodeons brought moving pictures to a broad mass public. Lee Grieveson draws on extensive original research to examine the controversies over these films and over cinema more generally. He situates these contestations in the context of regulatory concerns about populations and governance in an early-twentieth-century America grappling with the powerful forces of modernity, in particular, immigration, class formation and conflict, and changing gender roles.
Tracing the discourses and practices of cultural and political elites and the responses of the nascent film industry, Grieveson reveals how these interactions had profound effects on the shaping of film content, form, and, more fundamentally, the proposed social function of cinema: how cinema should function in society, the uses to which it might be put, and thus what it could or would be. Policing Cinema develops new perspectives for the understanding of censorship and regulation and the complex relations between governance and culture. In this work, Grieveson offers a compelling analysis of the forces that shaped American cinema and its role in society.

Radical Hollywood: The Untold Story Behind America's Favorite Movies

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Hollywood's Travels -- and Travails
A fascinating journey
Man the pumps, it's too thin to shovel
Encyclopedic

Radical Hollywood: The Untold Story Behind America's Favorite Movies
Paul Buhle , and David Wagner
Manufacturer: New Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Hide in Plain Sight: The Hollywood Blacklistees in Film and Television, 1950-2002
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ASIN: 1565847180

Book Description

A revealing and affectionate account of the personal and political lives of the left-wing screenwriters, directors, and actors behind Hollywood's Golden Age. The first comprehensive book about Hollywood's future blacklistees and the hundreds of films they wrote or directed from the dawn of sound movies to the early 1950s, Radical Hollywood traces the political and personal lives of the activists along with the often-decisive impact of their work upon American film's Golden Age. A highly readable, anecdotal history, featuring an insert of classic film stills, , Radical Hollywood describes the story-behind-the-story of such famous films as Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Casablanca, and Woman of the Year, alongside such campy items as The Adventures of Captain Marvel, Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror, and Kiss the Blood off My Hands. Genres like crime and women's films, family cinema, war, animation and, above all, film noir are reconsidered here, with fresh evidence drawn from interviews and recent archival breakthroughs. A long-awaited rediscovery of an overlooked intellectual-artistic milieu, , Radical Hollywood will interest all film-lovers and devotees of political culture. 16 pages b/w photographs.

Films discussed include: The Adventures of Captain Marvel • The Big Clock • Body and Soul • Back Door to Heaven • Blues in the Night • Cabin in the Sky • Caged • Casablanca • Champion • Deadline at Dawn • Destry Rides Again • The Devil-Doll • Diplomaniacs • Dynamite • Frankenstein • G. I. Joe • Give Us This Day • Gun Crazy • High Noon • Hitler's Children • Hold That Ghost • Honky Tonk • Keeper of the Flame • Kiss the Blood off My Hands • Kitty Foyle • Lassie, Come Home • The Lawless • Life with Father • The Long Night • The Maltese Falcon • The Man Who Reclaimed His Head • Marked Woman • Mayor of Hell • Meet the People • Mission to Moscow • Monsieur Verdoux • Mr. Smith Goes to Washington • None but the Lonely Heart • Our Vines Have Tender Grapes • Phantom Lady • The Philadelphia Story • A Place in the Sun • The President's Mystery • Pride of the Marines • The Public Enemy • Ruthless • The Sea Hawk • Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror • Stella Dallas • Stormy Weather • The Story of G.I. Joe • Talk of the Town • Theodora Goes Wild • The Thin Man • Thirty Seconds over Tokyo • A Tree Grows in Brooklyn • Watch on the Rhine • The Wizard of Oz • Woman of the Year

Customer Reviews:

Hollywood's Travels -- and Travails.......2004-03-29

Radical Hollywood, by Paul Buhle and David Wagner, is an exhaustively (if at times exhaustingly) comprehensive and, as far as I can tell, mostly accurate (if at times chronologically confusing) catalog of the many U.S. motion pictures created during the brief cinematic "Golden Age" from roughly the beginning of the New Deal to the onset of the Cold War by what could loosely be called the Hollywood Left -- or the Left in Hollywood, such as it was.

The fact, though, that Buhle and Wagner had to write a book largely to explain the alleged "radical" subtext in these films by their non-monolithic screenwriters illustrates how the "threat" posed to U.S. society (read: the capitalist class) by such pictures was wildly exaggerated by right-wing anti-communists for political reasons. (Was Lassie Come Home, for example, going to undermine the foundations of capitalism simply because it was adapted for the screen by a Communist?) And yet, maybe that perceived subtlety (where present, enforced perhaps at least as much by studio economics and cultural restraints as by national politics) was the kind of "subversion" the inquisitors found so dangerous to the interests of the social class they actually represented.

Or maybe it was a case of guilt by either membership or association, with the work of any Communist -- or anyone associated however remotely with a Communist or the Communist Party -- being cast under suspicion, whatever the nature of his or her work. But just as Freud is reputed to have said that sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, sometimes, say, an expressly comedic film is just that, and nothing more. And even from a Leftist perspective, that is not necessarily bad. Consider, though, Sullivan's Travels, which oddly political yet intriguing picture instead of self-consciously being "an answer to communism," actually makes a case for it in spite of itself, and which despite its intentions (or perhaps because of them), may be more politically effective than many a more tendentiously political piece of cinema, even when the title character keenly observes that, "There's a lot to be said for making people laugh," it being "all some people have." (Curiously, the opening scene-within-a-scene of this 1941 comedy -- written and directed by Preston Sturges, who, like this film, is not mentioned by Buhle and Wagner nor is he identified by them as being a part of the Hollywood Left community -- anticipated the ending of the 1948 drama Ruthless, co-scripted by one of the Hollywood Ten and discussed by the authors.) Indeed, there is nothing inherently wrong or reactionary with making people laugh, provided one sees that culture can and should be for the edification as well as the entertainment of the public. And this is where skilled and honest Leftist cultural workers are in their element. But just as an artist must elect to fight for freedom or slavery, according to the great Paul Robeson, so, ultimately, must an artist's audience.

However, Buhle and Wagner betray a kind of not so much discernibly anti-communist as anti-Communist (or anti-Communist Party) subtext of their own throughout the book -- typical of that tendency of neo-Left thought developing in the 1960s which, by intent or in effect, sought the very break with the historical continuity of the Communist Left that Buhle and Wagner see as a consequence of the Hollywood blacklist, as when they blame "Party bureaucrats" for the demise of the Hollywood Left (or what passed for it), when were it not for the (albeit imperfect) agency of the Communist Party (often in the midst of internal struggle as well as external attack, the effect of the former evidently not sufficiently and fairly understood or appreciated by the authors), most of those who became the radical screenwriters and filmmakers of Hollywood would likely never have even thought of attempting what they somehow managed in some form to bring to the movie screen.

A fascinating journey.......2003-10-03

"Radical Hollywood" is both fabulously entertaining and enlightening. For movie fans (who isn't) and students of American history, it provides a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the radical politics of the directors, screen writers, and actors who were part of the Hollywood mainstream until McCarthyism drove them out. When you reflect on the greatness of their work, you realize that the witch-hunt was our loss as well as theirs.

The cover photo of "Radical Hollywood" suggests that many of these figures were not ordinarily associated with the left. With James Cagney placing his hand somewhat menacingly on Jean Harlow in "The Public Enemy", you have to wonder what the connection is. As it turns out, the script was written by William Bright, who was one of the first left-wing innovators in Hollywood. Hailing from Chicago, he was part of a group of youngsters around Dr. Ben Reitman, Emma Goldman's longtime lover. During the Great Depression, he worked for a time as a smalltime bootlegger and was inspired by this experience to write about criminal life, emphasizing how social relations are distorted by capitalism.

Cagney threw his support to the burgeoning labor movement in the 1930s on Bright's prompting. He signed on to a support committee for strikers in the San Joaquin Valley in 1934. When the Hearst press began to redbait Cagney, he pulled back from future involvement with the left. If witch-hunting had not been a factor in Hollywood from the beginning, it is not too difficult to imagine much more willingness on the part of movie stars to speak out on social and political questions.

To see how figures such as Ed Asner, Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn are stigmatized in the equivalent of the Hearst press today for having the temerity to speak out about US foreign policy, you can only appreciate the scholarly effort that went into "Radical Hollywood". For in the final analysis its authors demonstrate that radicalism is very much a phenomenon that grew out of the American soil and was not imported by agents of a foreign power.

Man the pumps, it's too thin to shovel.......2003-01-17

It's quite true that the authors' knowledge of Hollywood film history is encyclopedic, and this alone makes the book an indispensable reference to the stories behind the stories of innumerable great and less-than-great films. Described elsewhere as "the Abbott and Costello of film studies," these two spew forth gallons of embarrassingly wrongheaded and outmoded leftie humbug; nevertheless this is exactly what makes their work so useful. Yes, all those "paranoid" right-wingers were right all along about the real motives and agendas in Hollywood "back then." And not much has changed...it's still "Fantasyland" in more ways than one, which ought to be an important clue to the etiology of leftism. My only real objection to this work is that being so thoroughly deluded by their own political fantasies as they are, the authors attempt to claim almost everyone in Hollywood as a real, potential, or lapsed leftie, whether or not there was ever much actual evidence of it...a kind of triple-reverse McCarthyism. One final tip: buy this book second-hand. I'd hate to think I'd given one red cent (no pun intended) to either of these authors or their publisher.

Encyclopedic.......2002-07-19

This is a good look at the often ignored early radicals of hollywood. It gives a good history of the time leading up to and the aftermath of the Blacklist and it's antisemitic tendencies. Paul Buhle, et al seem to have an encyclopedic knowledge of the subject but I found their method of sharing the information a little overwhelming and pedantic. Every page is dotted with references to very obscure films, many with alternative titles, that are impossible to find. It's difficult to envision many of the situations and influential aspects of the films when you can find no more information on them much less see them. Taking all of the authors information on faith is not the usual film studies method. In contrast to many books about hollywood this one dosn't have many salacious details about harlets and moguls. I would recommend this book to serious film/hollywood history buffs only.

Breaking in to the Movies: Film and the Culture of Politics

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Breaking in to the Movies: Film and the Culture of Politics
Henry A. Giroux
Manufacturer: Blackwell Publishing Limited
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

Breaking in to the Movies brings together Henry A. Giroux's best-known essays from the last twenty years, centering on important subjects on the cultural studies and pop culture agenda, including violence, race, class, gender, identity, politics, and children's culture. The volume charts his career as one of the most astute observers of the Hollywood tradition, from early reflections on Norma Rae and Looking for Mister Goodbar to ground-breaking analyses of more recent movies such as Pulp Fiction, Dead Poets Society, Dangerous Minds, and Fight Club. By addressing the profound pedagogical role of film in contemporary society, Giroux demonstrates how it dramatically shapes the way young people come to terms with today 's most charged social issues.

Defining Cult Movies: The Cultural Politics of Oppositional Tastes (Inside Popular Film)

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Defining Cult Movies: The Cultural Politics of Oppositional Tastes (Inside Popular Film)

Manufacturer: Manchester University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Cult Film Experience: Beyond All Reason

ASIN: 071906631X

Book Description

This collection concentrates on the analysis of cult movies, how they are defined, who defines them and the cultural politics of these definitions. The definition of the cult movie relies on a sense of its distinction from the "mainstream" or "ordinary." This also raises issues about the perception of it as an oppositional form of cinema, and of its strained relationships to processes of institutionalization and classification. In other words, cult movie fandom has often presented itself as being in opposition to the academy, commercial film industries and the media more generally, but has been far more dependent on these forms than it has usually been willing to admit. The international roster of essayists range over the full and entertaining gamut of cult films from Dario Argento, Spanish horror and Peter Jackson's New Zealand gorefests to sexploitation, kung fu and sci-fi flicks.

Operation Hollywood: How the Pentagon Shapes and Censors the Movies

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An inside look at government propaganda
Great subject, poor execution
Critics Pay Taxes Too
Buyer beware...
Viewer Beware

Operation Hollywood: How the Pentagon Shapes and Censors the Movies
David L. Robb
Manufacturer: Prometheus Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1591021820

Book Description

This is the most important book ever written about Hollywood. It uncovers a secret collaboration between Hollywood and the military that has been going on for more than fifty years. Based on thousands of pages of Pentagon documents and interviews with filmmakers and military officials, OPERATION HOLLYWOOD reveals that many of your favorite movies and television shows have been shaped, sanitized, and censored by the Pentagon. David L. Robb takes you behind the scenes - and behind the closed doors of the Pentagon - as military officials and movie producers wheel and deal with the First Amendment. Robb reveals a world where filmmakers bow to pressure from admirals and generals, where movies are turned into propaganda, and where free speech is thrown out the window.

We may think that movies are free from government interference, but OPERATION HOLLYWOOD shows how the world's most powerful military has been placing propaganda into the world's most powerful medium for decades. This is investigative journalism at its best.

"Robb's book should outrage most Americans and lead to hearings in Congress. Congress has never given the military the authority to use public funds and resources to engage in its own self-serving efforts to shape its public image. In the very least, it is a misuse of public funds. At worst, it is a new variation on censorship, crafted to operate in the shadow of the First Amendment.

"What is clear is that the system will not end without a public outcry." by Jonathan Turley, Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law, George Washington University Law School

Customer Reviews:

An inside look at government propaganda.......2005-07-23

One of the principles the USA was founded upon was the freedom of speech; no government entity can restrict the freedom of expression of a private individual. This however does not preclude government agencies from sponsoring their own speech, or supporting those whose speech reflects favorably on the actions of said agency. This latter intrusion of government into the mass media can be as harmful to society if not more so than outright censorship, primarily because it is less overt and more excusable.

This book deals with one form of such government - sponsored speech; the US military providing support to movie producers to make movies as long as the movies reflect favorably on the US military. The book gives a thorough and carefully-cited history of how Hollywood works with various branches of the US military to help get movies made. In turn, the military branch(es) in question have a say over the movie script, including the right to censor or rewrite entire scenes. The US military helps by providing access to military hardware, installations, and sometimes personnel to movie makers working on military movies. The result is often movies biased towards the US military, with a subtle goal of increasing recruitment. Products of this arrangement include Top Gun, Black Hawk Down, and Stripes. The unfortunate result is that parts of military life or military history that should be known are rewritten, whitewashed, or sometimes ignored altogether. This includes abuse of war prisoners by US servicemen, rapes of innocent women in and around battlefields by US servicemen, and substance abuse within the military.

This arrangement is supported at multiple levels in both Hollywood and the US government. In Hollywood, directors, producers, studio companies, and actors and actresses take part in this symbiosis. In the US government, soldiers, field officers, staff officers, and presidential administrative staff also take part in this symbiosis.

There are however, those who refuse to play by these rules. Two examples cited in the book are Kevin Costner and Oliver Stone. The military refused to support Costner's production of Dances With Wolves because the script shows US soldiers killing Native Americans...during the 1800s! This shows how ridiculous the censorship process has become. US soldiers killing Native Americans is a commonly known fact, and should be acknowledged by the federal government. The US military could have taken the initiative, owned up to their actions, sponsored the movie, and at the end of the movie's credits include an apology for their actions. Instead, they refused any help whatsoever unless all the scenes between Native Americans and US soldiers were cleaned up to protect the military's image.

Overall, the primary conclusion I got from the book is that to watch Hollywood movies with a little suspicion. The story you are seeing has probably been tampered with and censored one or more government agencies, often with the purpose of furthering propaganda of one type or another. Another conclusion I got from reading this book is that ever since 1970, the war movies that have done the best in terms of critical acclaim and Academy Awards have been those completed without military support; Platoon and Apocalypse Now are the two best examples. In all, I am glad I read this book. I highly recommend it.

Great subject, poor execution.......2004-09-16

While reading of this book would be a good education in propoganda for everyone, it could have been written in a far more educational manner.

I, like many, I would guess, did not realize that those credits at the end of the movie, thanking the armed forces, are more than a simple thank you. They indicate the Pentagon has approved the movie for propoganda purposes.

Most people realize that propoganda was a prevailing force in the movies of the World War II era. But the same propoganda continues today, in a much more subtle form.

A more interesting book would have covered the history of government propoganda in Hollywood releases, not just centered on mostly movies of the last 20 years. There was not a mention of the Disney movies seen on the DVD release "On the Front Lines", or of other movies of the era (such as Abbott and Costello's "Buck Privates"). This was propoganda at its peak.

Also, it would have been interesting to understand the logic behind how the Pentagon would think movies such as "The Swarm" and "Airport 77" would make individuals want to join the armed forces.

I also continue to wonder, as it wasn't mentioned in the book, why the Pentagon supported movies such as "Run Silent Run Deep" or "The Caine Mutiny", both of which deal with mutiny in great detail.

While I admire the author for tackling such a subject, and in bringing it to the public's attention, I just wish he had tackled it with a bit more fervor.

Critics Pay Taxes Too.......2004-08-31

Robb's book is an invaluable resource for those interested in the mechanics of propaganda from Hollywood. The author shows again and again how the Pentagon sanitizes its image through the raw power of institutional trade-off. Movie and tv producers simply do not get the Pentagon's money-saving goodies unless their scripts conform to the high command's self-serving demands. Unsurprisingly, the result is often a subtle but sometimes dangerous departure from reality which may benefit the Pentagon's recruiting program, but in turn witholds important facts from public scrutiny. In Vietnam, American troops experienced a particularly savage disconnect between the war they expected and the war they got. It's at least an open question whether the disconnect would have been as great had the post-war years featured more of the unsanitized realism of "Attack" or "Paths of Glory" instead of the relentless banality of stereotypes like "Battle Cry", "Operation Petticoat", or scores of other unchallenging recruiting posters for the Pentagon. I'm sure thousands of others like myself were similarly seduced into paying a personal price for Hollywood's deals with the Defense Department. (And In response to the anonymous reviewer from "Heartland"-- the 5th Amendment applies only to legal proceedings, which hardly applies in this case.)

On the downside--and I'm sorry to say there is one--the book would have benefitted from better editing. As far as I can tell, the chapters follow in no particular order, adding up to a loose format that scatters both focus and impact. I don't know whether the chapters could have been grouped around common themes, but some such would have helped sharpen the presentation. Moreover, facts tend to be needlessly repeated as though someone has lost track of the earlier text. In short, the text could use some honing and reorganizing.

Nonetheless, Robb has performed a genuine service by calling attention to this long-standing sweetheart arrangement. The chapters on "The Green Berets", "Battle Cry", and "Lassie", are particularly revealing of how the system works. In the future, I hope some enterprising researcher will go further back to produce a history of Hollywood's relation to the armed services, which would lend valuable perspective to Robb's findings, and perhaps open up options for reforming the process. At book's end, the author lists some Hollywood personalities notable for their resistence to Pentagon pressure, such as Clint Eastwood and Kevin Costner. With this book, Robb shows that his name deserves a place among them.

Buyer beware..........2004-08-17

This is not, per the editorial tag, "the most important book ever written about Hollywood." Nor does it uncover a secret collaboration between Hollywood and the military. As a matter of fact, the collaborative partnerships between Hollywood and the military are no big secret to anyone with an IQ beyond that of a tuna fish sandwich. How else could "Top Gun" be filmed aboard an aircraft carrier? As if the active duty officers of a U.S. aircraft carrier have nothing better to do than to host a Jerry Bruckenheimer production on board their ship? Perhaps fetching them decaf cappucino and warm croissant?

Robb's book is established on the flawed premise that the military has some kind of obligation to support the free market endeavors of film producers who are developing movies that work against the obvious agenda of the military. How and why the military's position in this regard should differ from any private company that negotiates film sponsorship in return for product placement or favorable portrayal of their services in the resulting film is not argued very well by the author. Instead, Robb simply chooses to rant about the military's meddling in the creative "vision" of the film artist. I'd like to ask him to imagine a film location wherein military staff are enthusiastically working on site--with expensive and even classified military resources--to complete a scene that makes them all look like morons. Can Robb really envision such a thing? Perhaps he can similary be led to believe that McDonald's sponsored the production of "Super-Size Me"? Or that George Bush showed up on various locations to film cutaways for "Farenheit 911"? Robb's premise is rather naive, almost child-like...

The book does have two positive attributes. Robb's case by case analysis of failed efforts by various producers and writers to obtain military sponsorship are really good examples of exactly how NOT to approach the military in a negotiation. Secondly, many of the documented examples of various Hollywood scripts--before military editing and after--illustrate the valuable contribution of the military beyond supply and technical advisement: many of the changes actually improved some really crappy dialogue, particularly with regard to the script of "A Clear and Present Danger," and "Air Force One." That really surprised me...

On a side note, I have to agree with a previous reviewer in presenting the fact that this book is not very well edited. It is badly marred by typographical errors, and a lack of logical progression. Further, the emotional state of the author (bitter, enraged) is a bit distracting, and left me completely unsympathetic to his complaint. You can practically see the spit flying out of his mouth as he shouts and rages on, lol...

Read a few chapters before you buy...

Viewer Beware.......2004-07-31

David L. Robb has a bone to pick with the Pentagon. He thinks the Pentagon policy of witholding military cooperation to movie producers who don't portray the military in a positive way is wrong. Operation Hollywood is filled with entertaining examples of how producers have butted heads with the various branches of the military.

While Ivan Reitman practically rewrote his movie comedy Stripes to accomodate the Army, Clint Eastwood refused to give in to the Army's demands for change. Eastwood even wrote to his friend President Reagan for help, but no dice. The Marines did not demand the fundamental changes the Army had, so Eastwood was able to make Heartbreak Ridge with only minor changes, such as making his character a Marine.

Robb's argument is that the military services are for the benefit of the people, not the propagandists at the Pentagon, so they should not be able to exercise so much control over Hollywood. But if the producers don't want to play ball with the Army, they can build their own military sets and buy their own tanks and hire their own soldier extras. It's just a lot more expensive that way, and many producers would like to find a way of making the movie they want (within reason) while taking advantage of the huge cost savings of using military bases and personnel.

What's important for the viewer of movies and television to realize is how much control the producers do allow the military. When you watch Jag on TV or see Saving Private Ryan at the theater, it's a mistake to forget the deal with the devil the producers may have made to save a bundle. It's nothing new - Shakespeare rewrote history to make his plays palatable to those in power.

In the end, what we have is another reminder that what you see on the screen ISN'T REAL. Who would've thought?

Bubba Talks: Of Life, Love, Sex, Whiskey, Politics, Foreigners, Teenagers, Movies, Food, Football, and Other Matters That Occasiona

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SHE FELL OFF

Bubba Talks: Of Life, Love, Sex, Whiskey, Politics, Foreigners, Teenagers, Movies, Food, Football, and Other Matters That Occasiona
Dan Jenkins
Manufacturer: Main Street Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

Among the provocative social phenomena of our time, few have caught the public fancy as profoundly as that quintessentially American species known as Bubba. The conventional notion of Bubba is a Southern redneck who thinks a rented movie and a six-pack are quality entertainment. According to Dan Jenkins, this historical view has been advanced largely by "effete Easterners and West Coast ponytails who claim to like trout pizza and fat novels written by some kind of Ecuadorian". Granted, says Jenkins, there is more than one Bubba from Georgia who has spray-painted his girl's name on an overpass. But there is also more than one Bubba from Chicago who will do his Christmas shopping at Graceland. Bubba, Jenkins concludes, is a state of mind, and he proceeds to let Bubba define himself by speaking on topics ranging from beer to ballet, from haircuts to the homeless.

Customer Reviews:

SHE FELL OFF.......2001-06-23

DAN JENKINS IS DAN JENKINS....HE IS MY PERSONAL TIGER NICKLAUS MEREDITH...I HAVE READ MANY AUTHORS BUT MR JENKINS STRIKES OUT ALL OTHERS ... HE IS MY HOSS BUBBA

Hollywood, the Pentagon and Washington: The Movies and National Security from World War ll to the Present Day (Anthem Politics and IR)

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Hollywood, the Pentagon and Washington: The Movies and National Security from World War ll to the Present Day (Anthem Politics and IR)
Jean-Michel Valantin
Manufacturer: Anthem Press
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Coining For Capital: Movies, Marketing, And The Transformation Of Childhood

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Coining For Capital: Movies, Marketing, And The Transformation Of Childhood
Jyotsna Kapur
Manufacturer: Rutgers University Press
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ASIN: 081353593X

Book Description

"This book is a welcome addition to the literature on children and the media, and a most stimulating application of social theory to questions of the child in contemporary film and consumer culture."—Ellen Seiter, author of The Internet Playground: Children's Access, Entertainment and Mis-Education

Since the 1980s, a peculiar paradox has evolved in American film. Hollywood's children have grown up, and the adults are looking and behaving more and more like children. In popular films such as Harry Potter, Toy Story, Pocahantas, Home Alone, and Jumanji, it is the children who are clever, savvy, and self-sufficient while the adults are often portrayed as bumbling and ineffective.

Is this transformation of children into "little adults" an invention of Hollywood or a product of changing cultural definitions more broadly? In Coining for Capital, Jyostna Kapur explores the evolution of the concept of childhood from its portrayal in the eighteenth century as a pure, innocent, and idyllic state—the opposite of adulthood—to its expression today as a mere variation of adulthood, complete with characteristics of sophistication, temptation, and corruption. Kapur argues that this change in definition is not a media effect, but rather a structural feature of a deeply consumer-driven society.

Book Description

Using the early lives and careers of Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis as theme and framework, two of America's finest historians outline each step in the tragic march to the Civil War. By showing how these two major figures--both Kentucky-born--developed divergent attitudes, the Cattons simultaneously reveal why the North and South became increasingly isolated from each other during the 1850s, and why war became inevitable. Also captured: the epic sweep of the era, with its great new railroads, land-hungry westward expansion, and developing industrial and agricultural empires.

Customer Reviews:

Lincoln and Davis - A Brilliant Study In Contrasts.......2005-10-05

By the Grand Master of American Historians, the late Bruce Catton and his son William.

In "Two Roads to Sumter" the Cattons brilliantly analyze how the Kentucky roots of both Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis molded their character and their Allegiance to the Union, but also why those two great men chose to walk down different roads in the quest of keeping the United States united.

Always thought of as a kind, gentle man - which he indeed was, Lincoln nonetheless emerges from the Catton work as someone in the Sam Waterston (himself a Lincoln admirer of great standing) lawyer role on "Law and Order" - passionate, yet a pragmatist - and someone who was willing to compromise as he was to stand firm on principle. Lincoln detested Slavery, and was willing to do all he could to preserve the Union - but he chose to be pragmatic in those crucial, fatal months between the outcome of the 1860 election and the firing on Fort Sumter - staying quiet up to the inauguration, and appearing to be uncertain in those last two months before Beauregard gave the order to open fire. David Detzer in "Allegiance" has criticized the great man for this approach, submitting to the reader that a Jacksonian approach to the South might have prevented war.

But - it might have forced the "war hawks" hands much sooner, and that point is well taken by the Cattons. Their premise is that the South was ready and willing to go to war - and might have felt that way from the Kansas-Nebraska Act on. Unlike Detzer, the Cattons applaud Lincoln for staying the course, and being the brave and true man he was.

By contrast Jefferson Davis - who was described by Sam Houston as being as "ambitious as Lucifer" - and with his pointed beard even bore a sad resemblance to him, comes off better than he has at the hands of other historians. The Cattons were among the first to show that while Davis was uncompromising in his views on Slavery and state's rights, he was a fervent believer in the Union who unlike Lincoln had actually shed blood in battle for this nation. They describe his outstanding tenure as Secretary of War in Franklin Pierce's administration; his role in the Gadsen Purchase, in establishing the Camel Corps, in urging the building of railroads across the country. In all this Davis took the high road of country first, region second, even if he was also bettering the South.

When push came to shove however, Lincoln chose the Union, while Davis eventually became an uncompromising acolyte of secession and the south as a separate entity, even if his initial decision to leave the U.S. Senate and declare for a Confederacy was a reluctant one.

An immensely readable history of the story of two Americans - Lincoln and Davis, and the events leading up to the Civil War. To be placed alongside the three great titles on Secession and Fort Sumter - Detzer's "Allegiance"; Swanberg's "First Blood", and Klein's "Days of Defiance".

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