INTRODUCTION ; 1. Premiere in Los Angeles ; 2. Thomas Dixon, Jr ; 3. David Wark Griffith ; 4. Making The Birth of a Nation ; 5. Transforming the American Movie Audience ; 6. Fighting a Vicious Film ; 7. Griffiths View of History ; 8. After Birth ; 9. Conclusion ; BIBLIOGRAPHY
Melvyn Stokes teaches American history and American film history at University College London. He has also been a visiting fellow at Princeton, a visiting Fulbright Professor at Mount Holyoke College and a visiting professor at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes in Paris. He has edited or co-edited nine books, including four for the British Film Institute.
"Written with precision, Stokes illuminates both the film's racism
and the aesthetic brilliance of Griffith's filmmaking. By placing
the film into an historic, political, and cultural framework, this
tome shoud attarct film scholars, historians, and cinema
enthusiasts."--The Courier
"Stokes succeeds wonderfully in providing readers with an engaging,
insightful and comprehensive account of how D.W. Griffith created
his epic film, which astonished and outraged moviegoers in 1915 and
has done so ever since. While Stokes examines the film closely, the
breadth of his account extends to the social and cultural currents
that Griffith rode in making it, and analysis of how the film's
meanings have changed over time. This is the go-to volume on a
film whose cinematic and ideological legacy informs and haunts
American film to this day."--Matthew Bernstein, Emory
University
"The Birth of a Nation is well noted for its contribution to the
early aesthetics and narrative form of U.S. commercial cinema.
Simultaneously, however, the film is considerably more notorious
for its iconic and vile racism, and the many conflicts it stirred.
Now, in a clearly argued, thoroughly researched book, Melvyn Stokes
has managed to capture the people, politics and controversies
surrounding the film's production and exhibition. Stokes
portrays
the film's writer, director and stars, as well as its eminent
critics and protestors, with engaging biographic detail. And more,
the author deftly inscribes Birth's twisted path through public
discourse.
Finally, we have a first rate book that places "the most
controversial motion picture ever made" in an in-depth, historic,
political and cultural context, to be enjoyed by film scholar,
historian and cinema aficionado alike."--Ed Guerrero, New York
University
"Stokes succeeds wonderfully in providing readers with an engaging,
insightful and comprehensive account of how D.W. Griffith created
his epic film, which astonished and outraged moviegoers in 1915 and
has done so ever since. While Stokes examines the film closely, the
breadth of his account extends to the social and cultural currents
that Griffith rode in making it, and analysis of how the film's
meanings have changed over time. This is the go-to volume on a
film whose cinematic and ideological legacy informs and haunts
American film to this day."--Matthew Bernstein, Emory
University
"The Birth of a Nation is well noted for its contribution to the
early aesthetics and narrative form of U.S. commercial cinema.
Simultaneously, however, the film is considerably more notorious
for its iconic and vile racism, and the many conflicts it stirred.
Now, in a clearly argued, thoroughly researched book, Melvyn Stokes
has managed to capture the people, politics and controversies
surrounding the film's production and exhibition. Stokes
portrays
the film's writer, director and stars, as well as its eminent
critics and protestors, with engaging biographic detail. And more,
the author deftly inscribes Birth's twisted path through public
discourse.
Finally, we have a first rate book that places "the most
controversial motion picture ever made" in an in-depth, historic,
political and cultural context, to be enjoyed by film scholar,
historian and cinema aficionado alike."--Ed Guerrero, New York
University
"Melvyn Stokes's book, coming on the eve of the film's centennial,
is likely to be its definitive chronicle in the twenty-first
century....no one volume brings together the variety and depth of
research he does here. This is a valuable book for those who want a
highly readable, up-to-date account covering the dismal as well as
the encouraging aspects of the American social and cultural
experience in World War II." -- American Historical Review
"Stokes offers scholars a valuable survey of the diverse body of
literature on The Birth of a Nation even as his own analysis
inspires new directions for inquiry." -- Journal of Southern
History
"Melvyn Stokes excellent new study of D.W. Griffith's abidingly
controversial 1915 film Birth of a Nation situates insightful
readings of the film in a brilliantly conceived and densely
researched historical context."--The Southern Quarterly
"The depth and reach of Stokes's research reveals some true
historical gems, disturbing and clear windows onto the history of
racism, representation, popular culture, and social change in the
twentieth-century United States." --Journal of Social History
Ask a Question About this Product More... |