Showing titles in History & Criticism

From the New York Times bestselling author of How to Read Literature Like a Professor comes an indispensable analysis of our most celebrated medium, film. No art form is as instantly and continuously gratifying as film. When the house lights go down and the lion roars, we settle in to be shocked...

*Vulture's Best Comedy Book of 2023* From the author of Generation Friends, featuring brand-new interviews with Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, a surprising, incisive, and often hilarious book about the film that changed comedy, Anchorman. It’s been nearly twenty years since Ron Burgundy burst...

Even 150 years later, we are haunted by the Civil War---by its division, its bloodshed, and perhaps, above all, by its origins. Today, many believe that the war was fought over slavery. This answer satisfies our contemporary sense of justice, but as Gary W. Gallagher shows in this brilliant revisionist history, it is an anachronistic judgment.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, there were only three major television networks. And there was only one Harlan Ellison taking them all to task in a series of weekly essays he wrote for the countercultural, underground newspaper, the Los Angeles Free Press, a.k.a. “The Freep”. For nearly four years, he channel-surfed through the mire of ABC, CBS, and NBC, finding little of value but much to critique. No one offered a more astute analysis of the idiot box’s influence on American culture, or its effects on the intelligence and psyche of viewers.

The study of classic and contemporary films can provide a powerful avenue to understand the experience of mental illness. In Madness at the Movies, James Charney, MD, a practicing psychiatrist and long-time cinephile, examines films that delve deeply into characters’ inner worlds, and he analyzes moments that help define their particular mental illness.

'This book took me right back to my formative years. It was as if I was back there on the sets, watching Ramu with his magic wand and a band of outsiders. A lot of nostalgia and a whole lot of perspective' - ANURAG KASHYAP 'An enchanting and detailed look at the making of one of the finest...

John Ford and John Wayne, two titans of classic film, made some of the most enduring movies of all time. The genre they defined—the Western—and the heroic archetype they built still matter today. For more than twenty years John Ford and John Wayne were a blockbuster Hollywood team...

24 and Philosophy is a book you just can't do without. It's all here, folks: the reason presidents trust him; how Jack cuts through the lies and ambiguities; why he puts his life on the line for others; and how he knows which knee cap to blow out to get that all-important next lead. With the help of 20 "24 crazed" philosophers, you'll figure out what makes this guy tick, and much much more.

In The Wicked Witch of the West: The Enduring Legacy of a Feminist Icon, Lona Bailey explores the radical feministic undertones of one of the most enduring characters in popular culture. This book traces her transformation over the past century, highlighting how she has evolved through countless adaptations from The Wizard of Oz to the film adaptation of Wicked while maintaining her core identity as a powerful, defiant figure.

"Io ho viste cose che voi umani non potreste immaginare: navi da combattimento in fiamme al largo dei bastioni di Orione, e ho visto i raggi B balenare nel buio vicino alle porte di Tannhäuser. E tutti quei momenti andranno perduti nel tempo, come lacrime nella pioggia. È tempo di morire."

The legend Newsweek once dubbed “Superflack,” Bobby Zarem knows all of Hollywood’s secrets, and he’s not afraid to share them all. Even if you don’t believe all his dish, you’ll never look at the movie business the same. In light of Peter Bogdanovich’s January 6 death, The Originals releases a never-before-heard 2019 interview in which the Oscar-nominated director narrates his own story. Candid, shocking, and often hilarious, Bogdanovich shares tales of the mistakes that bedeviled his career.

For 75 years, Wonder Woman has served as an inspiration to people everywhere. Wonder Woman Psychology: Lassoing the Truth examines this powerful superhero - who was created by famous psychologist William Moulton Marston - through 20 chapters, including some very special interviews and the previously unpublished memoir of Elizabeth Holloway Marston.

In 1947, the House Un-American Activities Committee rudely interrupted the successful career and life of Edward Dmytryk, citing him with contempt of Congress. As a result, Dmytryk was fired by RKO and spent three years in England before returning to the United States to serve a six-month jail sentence and undergo a second round of hearings, during which he recanted and provided evidence against several of his former colleagues.

From this comprehensive, yet critically measured wealth of material, Rollyson offers a distinctive and insightful portrait of Marilyn Monroe, highlighted by new perspectives that depict the central importance of acting to the authentic aspects of her being.

Jessica Lange: An Adventurer's Heart, the first full-length biography of Lange, presents a comprehensive study of the life and work of an exceptional actress. Beginning with her upbringing in Minnesota, author Anthony Uzarowski traces Lange's formative years as a restless soul who found solace in art and a life on the road before turning to acting.

A must-listen for movie buffs, The Trouble with Love in the Movies is a painfully honest account of labouring in the fields of film production, of loving and losing, living and learning. Through six movies, across three continents, in clashes on and off the set: It's a romance.

Whether it is a director insisting on a final cut, a star demanding a bigger motor home, a producer holding the line on a budget, or a grip with a gripe, it seems that the world of moviemaking is nothing but Sturm und Drang. Shoot Out presents a raucous look at how movies get made and the players involved, from writers, producers, directors, and stars to agents and marketers. For film buffs, aspiring filmmakers, students, and anyone else intrigued by the inner workings of Hollywood, this is the quintessential take on the how, who, what, and why of the film business.

The CIA in Hollywood offers the first full-scale investigation of the relationship between the Agency and the film and television industries. Tricia Jenkins draws on numerous interviews with the CIA's public affairs staff, operations officers, and historians, as well as with Hollywood technical consultants, producers, and screenwriters who have worked with the Agency, to uncover the nature of the CIA's role in Hollywood.

Gidget: Origins of a Teen Girl Transmedia Franchise examines the multiplicity of books, films, TV shows, and merchandise that make up the transmedia Gidget universe from the late 1950s to the 1980s. The book examines the Gidget phenomenon as an early and unique teen girl franchise that expands understanding of both teen girlhood and transmedia storytelling, providing an invaluable insight into this iconic franchise for students and researchers in film studies, feminist media studies, and youth culture.

गुप्त तळघराचा माग सांगणाऱ्या कोळ्यांना बघून घाबरण्यासाठी रॉन झालेल्या रूपर्ट ग्रिंट याला अजिबातच अभिनय करावा लागला नाही! कारण नुसत्या कोळ्याच्या कल्पनेनेसुद्धा रुपर्टला घाम फुटतो! हॅरी पॉटर चित्रपटात काम केलेल्या कलाकारांची रहस्य जाणून घेण्यासाठी ऐका - मेकिंग ऑफ क्लासिक्स' .