Details
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Title
Movie-Made America: A Cultural History of American Movies
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Author
Sklar, Robert
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Binding
Paperback
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Edition
[ Edition: Repri
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Condition
Used - Good
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Pages
432
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Volumes
1
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Language
ENG
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Publisher
Vintage, New York, New York, U.s.a.
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Date
1994-12-05
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Illustrated
Yes
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Features
Bibliography, Illustrated, Index
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Bookseller's Inventory #
A14B-01921
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ISBN
9780679755494 / 0679755497
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Weight
1.36 lbs (0.62 kg)
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Dimensions
9.14 x 6.12 x 1.14 in (23.22 x 15.54 x 2.90 cm)
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Library of Congress subjects
Motion pictures - United States - History
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Library of Congress Catalog Number
95130897
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Dewey Decimal Code
791.430
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Summary
Here is a lively, highly informative history of American movies that, as Professor Frank Freidel of Harvard writes, combines "social history, economics and a precise and effective sense of film criticism."
Movies were the first twentieth-century mass medium, and largely by chance, the first big American movie audiences and moviemakers came from the immigrant, working-class segments of the population. Movies therefore became a challenge to American big business and American culture, both of which had been controlled by the Establishment. This, Sklar suggests, is one reason why, from their very beginning, movies have been hounded by censorship.
This book does three things: it traces the influence movies had on American society during the years when innumerable Americans young and old modeled themselves and their behavior on their favorite movie stars and movies; it shows the effect of the movie industry on the American economy; and it offers fresh and provocative interpretations of such movie milestones as D. W. Griffith's early epics, silent comedy (Charlie Chaplin, Fatty Arbuckle, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd), the two golden ages of 1930s movies, Walt Disney cartoons and Frank Capra's social comedies. It explains the movies' downfall in the 1950s, which, Sklar contends, was not due solely to television, and it suggests the movies' possible future. Exploring simultaneously Hollywood aesthetics, economics and culture, it offers a fascinating, comprehensive picture of the role that movies have played in American life.
From the rear cover
This vastly readable and richly illustrated volume examines film as art form, technological innovation, big business, and cultural bellwether. It takes in stars from Douglas Fairbanks to Sly Stallone; auteurs from D. W. Griffith to Martin Scorsese and Spike Lee; and genres from the screwball comedy of the 1930s to the "hard body" movies of the 1980s to the independent films of the 1990s. Combining panoramic sweep with detailed commentaries on hundreds of individual films, Movie-Made America is a must for any motion picture enthusiast.
Media reviews
"THE history of the American movie, combining social history, economics, and a precise and effective sense of film criticism."--Frank Friedel, Harvard University
"One of the best popular works we have in the field of media ecology....There is hardly a single question regarding the transforming power of movies that [Sklar] leaves untouched."--Neil Postman
Citations
- Library Journal, 03/01/1995, Page 0
- Publishers Weekly, 11/07/1994, Page 0
About the author
Robert Sklar was born in 1936 and was educated in the public schools of Long Beach, California, and at Princeton University. After working as a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, he received his Ph.D. in the history of American civilization from Harvard University of 1965. He was a professor of cinema at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts for more than thirty years, served on the selection committee of the New York Film Festival, and was a member of the National Film Preservation Board. Mr. Sklar's other books include Film: An International History of the Medium and City Boys: Cagney, Bogart, Garfield. He died in 2011.
