From Library Journal
Shull (Hollywood War Films: 1937-1945) reworked his thesis for this volume. Of the 20-year period studied, he argues that films made prior to a post-World War I Communist scare often evinced sympathy for liberal causes, while the medium was consistently unfriendly to radicalism after 1918. This painstakingly researched book contains an extensive bibliography and index, as well as a comprehensive filmography with standard production information for individual, thematically coded entries and vital information about surviving film prints and their location. The unique study is valuable for its inclusion of all silent films that have radical themes beyond those films that physically survive. Unfortunately, the often verbose writing style (as in "Its essence centered around an unambiguous linear narrative plot whose development and ineluctable socially positive resolution ") is a distraction. Recommended for large public and academic libraries.-Bruce Henson, Georgia Technical Lib. & Information Ctr., Atlanta Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Book Description
There were 435 American silent motion pictures released between 1909 and 1929 (both shorts and four-reel or longer features from 1909 to 1917) that engaged the issues of militant labor and revolutionary radicalism. The first part of the book contains an introduction and three chapters that examine how the American motion picture industry portrayed labor radicals, capitalists and Bolsheviks during this twenty-year period. The second part of the work is a comprehensive filmography of the 435 silent films themselves organized into three eras: 1909-1917, 1918-1920, and 1921-1929. Each filmographic entry contains a plot synopsis (with an emphasis on how the film reflected and helped shape public attitudes concerning these important social issues), citations to primary film sources, and coding indicating the presence or absence of 14 predominant discernible biases and 64 specific traits of radicalism. Among the major biases noted are anti-and pro-capitalism, socialism, fascism, revolution, and labor. Additional traits include agitators, American icons, anarchism, atrocities, Bolshevism, bombs, campus radicalism, decadence, militias, mobs, nihilism, pacifism, police, political escapees, and unorganized strikebreakers. Total number and percentage statistics for the instances of these biases and traits are given per year, per era, and overall.

About the Author
Film historian and media propaganda specialist Michael Slade Shull is on the faculty of Frederick Community College and is also a lecturer on media and politics for the Washington Center. He is also the coauthor with David E. Wilt of Hollywood War Films, 1937-1945 (1996). He lives in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal

Shull (Hollywood War Films: 1937-1945) reworked his thesis for this volume. Of the 20-year period studied, he argues that films made prior to a post-World War I Communist scare often evinced sympathy for liberal causes, while the medium was consistently unfriendly to radicalism after 1918. This painstakingly researched book contains an extensive bibliography and index, as well as a comprehensive filmography with standard production information for individual, thematically coded entries and vital information about surviving film prints and their location. The unique study is valuable for its inclusion of all silent films that have radical themes beyond those films that physically survive. Unfortunately, the often verbose writing style (as in "Its essence centered around an unambiguous linear narrative plot whose development and ineluctable socially positive resolution ") is a distraction. Recommended for large public and academic libraries.--Bruce Henson, Georgia Technical Lib. & Information Ctr., Atlanta Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\

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