Lexington Books The American Civil War on Film and TV: Blue and Gray in Black and White and Color

Whether on the big screen or small, films featuring the American Civil War are among the most classic and controversial in motion picture history. From D. W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation (1915) to Free State of Jones (2016), the war has provided the setting, ideologies, and character archetypes for cinematic narratives of morality, race, gender, and nation, as well as serving as historical education for a century of Americans. In The American Civil War on Film and TV: Blue and Gray in Black and White and Color, Douglas Brode, Shea T. Brode, and Cynthia J. Miller bring together nineteen essays by a diverse array of scholars across the disciplines to explore these issues. The essays included here span a wide range of films, from the silent era to the present day, including Buster Keaton's The General (1926), Red Badge of Courage (1951), Glory (1989), Gettysburg (1993), and Cold Mountain (2003), as well as television mini-series The Blue and The Gray (1982) and John Jakes' acclaimed North and South trilogy (1985-86). As an accessible volume to dedicated to a critical conversation about the Civil War on film, The American Civil War on Film and TV will appeal to not only to scholars of film, military history, American history, and cultural history, but to fans of war films and period films, as well. Review A collection's merit hangs on the skill of its editors, whose task it is to commission essays on meaningful topics and then edit those essays to meet the overall needs of the collection. Douglas Brode, Shea Brode, and Cynthia Miller succeed beautifully in this excellent volume. The timeliness of the book is noteworthy: recent events such as Charlottesville and the controversy over Confederate memorials are very much in the public consciousness. Most of the essays are well written and creatively engage media portrayals of the Civil War and its aftermath. Particular standouts are Guerric DeBona's history of John Huston's adaptation of The Red Badge of Courage (1951), Susan Aronstein and Jeanne Holland's overview of Disney Civil War-themed productions of the 1950s and 1960s, and Miller and A. Bowdoin Van Riper's take on alternate history and the othering of the Civil War (Kevin Wilmot's C.S.A would have worked nicely here). Arranged in rough chronological order of the release dates of the films discussed, the essays take readers through US popular culture of the past 120 years as they look at the breadth and impact of the American Civil War. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty.--CHOICE Douglas Brode, Shea Brode, and Cynthia Miller's The American Civil War on Film and TV: Blue and Gray in Black and White and Color not only offers a great study of a specific genre of popular film and television, it is also highly informative about the popular culture reception of one of the great, turbulent times in American history. This book is a 'must have' for anyone interested in the Civil War or in popular film and television. It is both discerning and entertaining.--Gary Hoppenstand, Michigan State University This excellent collection of essays insightfully analyzes most of the important films about the Civil War. Moreover, it sheds new light on the evolution of American attitudes toward the Civil War and its significance.--John G. Cawelti, author of Adventure, Mystery, and Romance: Formula Stories as Art and Popular Culture About the Author Cynthia Miller is the Film Review Editor of Film & History: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Film and Television Studies and serves as President of the Literature/Film Association, as well as on the editorial advisory board for The Encyclopedia of Women and Popular Culture.