Ross Movies And American Society

Ross Movies and American Society

Review"I know from personal experience that historians have often wanted a good book on American film in the twentieth century to assign in their classes. This is it. It combines excellent primary sources, and stimulating commentary by one of the major historians of film, Steven Ross."--Lary May, University of Minnesota"Steven Ross brings together a compelling mix of essays and contemporaneous documents, which provide essential insights into the collective power of the movies from the late nineteenth to the early twenty-first centuries."--Charles Musser, Yale UniversityThis outstanding collection of the best film history scholarship gathers recent essays and supporting documents to illustrate the power of movies to change, and be changed by, American society.From the Back CoverThis outstanding collection of the best film history scholarship gathers recent essays and supporting documents to illustrate the power of movies to change, and be changed by, American society. The book follows movies from their beginnings in nickelodeons to the current state of Hollywood globalism. It illustrates that movies have played an important role in shaping and reflecting how millions of Americans see and think about their world. The essays show to a great extent exactly how and why movies have a unique influence on all aspects of American culture, including ideology, politics, and race relations.Editorial introductions place these readings in historical and ideological context, and lists of recommended readings and screenings give guidance for further research. This is the ideal collection for anyone interested in film history.About the AuthorSteven J. Ross is Professor of History at the University of Southern California. He is co-founder and co-director of the Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities and the author of Workers on the Edge: Work, Leisure, and Politics in Industrializing Cincinnati (1985) and Working-Class Hollywood: Silent Film and the Shaping of Class in America (1998), which won the Theater Library Association Book Award. Ross is a recipient of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Film Scholars Award.