The American Civil War on Film and TV: Blue and Gray in Black and White and Color

by Cynthia J . Miller (Editor), Douglas Brode (Editor), SheaT.Brode (Editor)

New
Hardcover
2017
$139.89

Whether on the big screen or small, films featuring the American Civil War have provided the setting, ideologies, and character archetypes for cinematic narratives of morality, race, gender, and nation. Nineteen essays explore all these issues; spanning a wide range of films, from the silent era to the present, as well as several television mini-series, this volume provides a critical conversation about the Civil War on film.

Synopsis

Whether on the big screen or small, films featuring the American Civil War have provided the setting, ideologies, and character archetypes for cinematic narratives of morality, race, gender, and nation. Nineteen essays explore all these issues; spanning a wide range of films, from the silent era to the present, as well as several television mini-series, this volume provides a critical conversation about the Civil War on film.

$139.89

Quantity

20+ in stock

More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 294
Publisher: Lexington Books
Published: 15 Oct 2017
ISBN 10: 149856688X
ISBN 13: 9781498566889

Media Reviews

A collection's merit hangs on the skill of its editors, whose task it is to commission essays on meaningful topics and then edit those essays to meet the overall needs of the collection. Douglas Brode, Shea Brode, and Cynthia Miller succeed beautifully in this excellent volume. The timeliness of the book is noteworthy: recent events such as Charlottesville and the controversy over Confederate memorials are very much in the public consciousness. Most of the essays are well written and creatively engage media portrayals of the Civil War and its aftermath. Particular standouts are Guerric DeBona's history of John Huston's adaptation of The Red Badge of Courage (1951), Susan Aronstein and Jeanne Holland's overview of Disney Civil War-themed productions of the 1950s and 1960s, and Miller and A. Bowdoin Van Riper's take on alternate history and the othering of the Civil War (Kevin Wilmot's C.S.A would have worked nicely here). Arranged in rough chronological order of the release dates of the films discussed, the essays take readers through US popular culture of the past 120 years as they look at the breadth and impact of the American Civil War. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty. * CHOICE *
This excellent collection of essays insightfully analyzes most of the important films about the Civil War. Moreover, it sheds new light on the evolution of American attitudes toward the Civil War and its significance. -- John G. Cawelti, author of Adventure, Mystery, and Romance: Formula Stories as Art and Popular Culture
Douglas Brode, Shea Brode, and Cynthia Miller's The American Civil War on Film and TV: Blue and Gray in Black and White and Color not only offers a great study of a specific genre of popular film and television, it is also highly informative about the popular culture reception of one of the great, turbulent times in American history. This book is a `must have' for anyone interested in the Civil War or in popular film and television. It is both discerning and entertaining. -- Gary Hoppenstand, Michigan State University

Author Bio

Douglas Brode developed and taught courses for several decades at Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Public Communications until his recent retirement. Shea T. Brode is an independent scholar who has collaborated with his father as editor on several previous collections. Cynthia J. Miller is senior faculty at Emerson College's Institute for the Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies.