Presidents in the Movies: American History and Politics on Screen
- Editor(s)
- Iwan Morgan
- ISBN
- 9780230113282
- Publisher
- Institute for the Study of the Americas, Palgrave Macmillan
- Published
- 2011
- Format
- Hardback
- Subject Areas
- Culture, Language & Literature, Politics
- Price
- £55.00
- Description
- Cinematic depictions of real U.S. presidents from Abraham Lincoln to George W. Bush explore how Hollywood movies represent American history and politics on screen. Morgan and his contributors show how films blend myth and reality to present a positive message about presidents as the epitome of America’s values and idealism until unpopular foreign wars in Vietnam and Iraq led to a darker portrayal of the imperial presidency, operated by Richard Nixon and Bush 43. This exciting new collection further considers how Hollywood has continually reinterpreted historically significant presidents, notably Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Franklin D. Roosevelt, to fit the times in which movies about them were made.
- Contents
Transition: The Making of Screen Presidents --Ian Scott * D. W. Griffith’s Lincoln--Melvyn Stokes * The ‘Picture Man:’ The Cinematic Strife of Theodore Roosevelt--Brian Neve * Darryl F. Zanuck’s Wilson (1944)--Mark Wheeler * The “Confidence” President: Franklin D. Roosevelt in Film--Harry Keyishian * The Cinematic Kennedy: Thirteen Days and the Burnishing of an Image--Mark White * The President Impeached: Tennessee Johnson and Nixon--Iwan Morgan * Oliver Stone’s Improbable ‘W.’--Kingsley Marshall
- Reviews
"In its exploration of the murky borderlands between history and fiction, politics and entertainment, Morgan and company offer a thoughtful and fascinating exploration of the complex relationship between Hollywood and the American presidency. In so doing Presidents in the Movies reminds us that films shape, as well as reflect, the spirit of their times.”
Daniel Frick, Franklin and Marshall College and author of Reinventing Nixon: A Cultural History of an American Obsession
