The Reel Civil War
Mythmaking in American Film
Published on 19. August 2009
384 pages
978-0-307-49008-7 (ISBN)
Description
During the late nineteenth century, magazines, newspapers, novelists, and even historians presented a revised version of the Civil War that, intending to reconcile the former foes, downplayed the issues of slavery and racial injustice, and often promoted and reinforced the worst racial stereotypes. The Reel Civil War tells the history of how these misrepresentations of history made their way into movies.
More than 800 films have been made about the Civil War. Citing such classics as Birth of a Nation and Gone With the Wind as well as many other films, Bruce Chadwick shows how most of them have, until recently, projected an image of gallant soldiers, beautiful belles, sprawling plantations, and docile or dangerous slaves. He demonstrates how the movies aided and abetted racism and an inaccurate view of American history, providing a revealing and important account of the power of cinema to shape our understanding of historical truth.
More than 800 films have been made about the Civil War. Citing such classics as Birth of a Nation and Gone With the Wind as well as many other films, Bruce Chadwick shows how most of them have, until recently, projected an image of gallant soldiers, beautiful belles, sprawling plantations, and docile or dangerous slaves. He demonstrates how the movies aided and abetted racism and an inaccurate view of American history, providing a revealing and important account of the power of cinema to shape our understanding of historical truth.
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Book
12/2002
Vintage Books
€21.00
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Book
10/2001
Alfred A. Knopf
€45.30
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Person
Bruce Chadwick, Ph.D., lectures on history and film at Rutgers University in New Jersey. He also teaches writing at New Jersey City University. Previously, he had a long career in journalism, writing on arts and entertainment, a column on trends in American culture-including literature, film, dance, theatre and opera-and features and many columns on sports. Eventually he became an editor at the New York Daily News. He lives in New Jersey with his wife.
Content
- Intro
- About the Author
- Other Books By This Author
- Title Page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: Blue, Gray and Technicolor
- Chapter One: I Wish I Was in the Land of Cotton: America Rewrites Its History
- Chapter Two: Lights . Camera . Action: Moonlight and Magnolias
- Chapter Three: Weeping Mothers, Southern Belles and Nan, the Girl Spy: The Civil War Film Family and the American Family
- Chapter Four: South of the Mason-Dixon Line: Political Distortions
- Chapter Five: Rastus Loves His Pork Chops: African Americans from Sambo to Mammy
- Chapter Six: The Birth oí a Nation: The Greatest Motion Picture Ever Made .
- Chapter Seven: The Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth?
- Chapter Eight: Birth: Titanic Box Office and Tattered Legacy
- Chapter Nine: Abe Lincoln in Hollywood
- Chapter Ten: The War Comes to Tara
- Chapter Eleven: Absolution for the Old South
- Chapter Twelve: Home on the Range: The Civil War Movie Goes West
- Chapter Thirteen: Kunta Kinte's Civil War
- Chapter Fourteen: The Modern Era
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Copyright
