Description
Book SynopsisA study of the efforts of the Warner Bros film studio to promote anti-Nazi activity before the outbreak of World War II. Through a score of films produced in the 1930s and early-1940s the studio marshalled its forces to influence the American conscience and push towards intervention in the war.
Trade ReviewContributes significantly to our understanding of how Warner Bros. crusaded against fascism from the middle 1930s to Pearl Harbor. Drawing on extensive archival research, Birdwell provides particularly lively discussions of Alvin York's conversion to interventionism during the making of Sergeant York and of the 1941 Nye-Clark Committee investigations of 'premature anti-fascism' in Hollywood. -- Charles Maland,University of Tennessee
This study of the Warner Bros. Studio in relation to the coming of World War II will be a lasting contribution, not only on the impact of media on our nation's policiesa topic of concern for most thoughtful peoplebut also for academics in popular culture studies. -- Peter Rollins,Editor-in-Chief, Film & History:An Interdisciplinary Journal of Film and Television Studies
Celluloid Soldiers contributes significantly to our understanding of how Warner Bros. crusaded against fascism from the middle 1930s to Pearl Harbor. Drawing on extensive archival research, Birdwell provides particularly lively discussions of Alvin York's conversion to interventionism during the making of Sergeant York and of the 1941 Nye-Clark Committee investigations of ‘premature anti-fascism' in Hollywood. -- Charles Maland,University of Tennessee
A compact, compelling, and controversial as a Warner Bros. classic. . . . A strongly executed tour de force. * Journal of American History *
Birdwell fruitfully charts the film company's laudable and outspoken stance against Nazism amid the politically charged yet divided loyalties of 1930s' Hollywood. * History (The Journal of the Historical Association),Oct. 2001 *
