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Focuses on interpretation and theory.
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Philadelphia Neighborhoods: Histories, Plans and Futures is a free, searchable database of neighborhood-based reports issued by the Philadelphia City Planning Commission between 1946 and 1990. The database was created by the University of Pennsylvania Libraries.
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The pathological environment /
Anita Guerrini
1990
Essay review of James Riley, "The 18th-century campaign to avoid disease" (1987).
Ecology, epidemics and empires : J R McNeill
environmental change and the geopolitics of tropical America, 1600-1825 /
Therapeutic landscapes : W M Gesler
medical issues in light of the new cultural geography /
| Title: | Medical geography in historical perspective / |
| Author(s): | Rupke, Nicolaas A., ; ed. |
| Corp Author(s): | Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at University College, London. |
| Publication: | London : Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL, |
| Year: | 2000. |
| Description: | 227 p., [1] leaf of plates : maps (1 col.) ; 26 cm. |
'Fit localities for an asylum': The historical geography of the 19th-century 'mad-business' in England as viewed through the pages of the "Asylum Journal" /
Chris Philo
From miasma to asthma : Gregg Mitman; Ronald L Numbers
the changing fortunes of medical geography in America /
Medicine and magnificence : Christine Stevenson
British hospital and asylum architecture, 1660-1815 /
Call#: Van Pelt Library DR432 .V58 1997
Call#: Van Pelt Library DS51.A93 N68 1989
Call#: Van Pelt Library HT170 .G456 2005
Call#: Van Pelt Library DR727.G74 V96 2005
Call#: Storage: From RECORD page, use Place Request tab STORAGE DR727.G74 V96 2005
Call#: Ctr for Adv Judaic Studies Lib, 4th & Walnut Sts. CJS DS135.T8 R68 2002
Call#: Van Pelt Library DS135.T8 R68 2002
Call#: Van Pelt Library 382.451 B738.2
Call#: Van Pelt Library H31 .J6 v.124 pt.2
Call#: Van Pelt Library DR424 .B677 2007
This article, published a few years after the US release of “Zéro de Conduite,” provides a valuable historical account of Vigo as a person and director, written by a close friend and colleague. It quickly mentions that Vigo, like all geniuses, was shunned by mainstream society before being (posthumously) lauded for his brilliance. Zilzer argues that Vigo’s life of hardship influences his films by creating a “poetry of realism” on the screen, thus taking a much less political and more aesthetic analysis of his work. He mentions how Vigo’s work was never technically perfect, but never suffered from that fact either. He then summarizes Vigo’s political heritage, all the way back to his anti-war grandfather, who was assassinated under similar circumstances as his father was. He describes Vigo’s character as a blend of the energy of his lineage with the “carefreeness” of his Basque relatives in Pyrenees. After discussing the start of his film career, Zilzer makes an insightful observation that, while filming a documentary of Nice, Vigo shot the “boredom of the rich and the enthusiasm of the poor.” Zilzer then describes the public reception of “Zéro de Conduite,” which was controversial to say the least. In fact, during the screening the lights were turned on several times and a few open fights broke out. Most interestingly, the author points out that although parts of the film could be “called surrealistic…Vigo was never considered a surrealist-his search for realism was too deep.” The article ends with a lengthy description of the production of Vigo’s final film, “L’Atalante.”
Much of this article is useful for my thesis, particularly the personal recollection and historical accuracy it presents. By giving a more detailed description of his heritage, he solidifies the notion that Vigo’s works are strongly motivated by his anti-authoritarian upbringing. However, his description of the film as poetic realism (as opposed to surrealism) challenges my thesis. I would argue, however, that poetic realism was a tendency rather than a movement, as many others have said, and that as such, his surrealistic touches simply add to the poetry of the realism that he is portraying, by focusing on school administration from children’s eyes. I believe that “Zéro de Conduite” achieved Vigo’s search for realism by portraying more than simply superficial aspects of the oppression in school; his use of the surreal allows the audience to empathize with the children in a way that enhances their reality, ultimately creating an absolutely-realistic film, by opening up new perspectives on a recognizable institution.
full citation: Zilzer, Gyula. "Remembrances of Jean Vigo." Hollywood Quarterly. Vol. 3, No. 2 (Winter, 1947-1948). 125-128. University of California Press. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/1209357>.
tagged biography history poetic_realism review surrealism by anic ...on 03-DEC-08
Picart, Carolyn Joan S. "Visualizing the Monstrous in Frankenstein Films." JSTOR: Pacific Coast Philology Vol. 35, No. 1 (2000), pp. 17-34. University of Pennsylvania Library, Philadelphia. 27 Nov. 2008.
Picart writes that the production and evolution of a Frankenstein film itself is a Frankensteinian exercise, with the careful sewing together of pieces of scripts, copyright and budgetary considerations, commercial packaging, visual iterations of what the monstrous entails, directorial prerogatives, and actor interpretations. In the process she argues, the novel itself becomes radically reworked, particularly in the way the monster is visually presented to the audience. Unlike the novel, he can no longer deprives us of the sight of him and his monstrosity.
Picart argues that the myth of male self-birthing underlying Mary Shelley's Frankenstein has undergone many filmic transformations that "hyperbolize, exaggerate, or radicalize" the myth itself. She argues that the film adaptations constitute an evolving "dystopian shadow myth," which "lays bare many suppressed anxieties we have towards technology." She goes on to argue that the myth of male self-engendering can be traced back to Greek mythology, including the birth of Dionysus from the thigh of Zeus.
Later, Picart claims that Frankenstein's monster is the ultimate tool, and the replication of our bodies and our intelligence through scientific technology. Humans, she writes, approach the Frankensteinian myth and the "machine" in two ways. They either view the creature as a monstrous Other that they must harness, or as a part of themselves they must acknowledge, recognizing that the Other is part of the Self.
Picart engages in a lengthy discussion of female monstrosity and other gender-based issues. She states that within the Frankenstein film category, female monsters usually live short lives, functioning as servants such as Nina the hunchbacked nurse in House of Dracula. These female monsters, she argues, are infused with masculine spirits that are trapped in female bodies.
With regards to the 1931 film, Picart writes that Whale's film and other Universal products of the era contain many elements of German Expressionism in terms of atmosphere and symbolism. She writes that Whale's films employ the aesthetics of black and white film, using techniques of chiaroscuro and symbolic framing. She notes that the film relates the creature's suffering to that of Jesus Christ through a close-up shot of the monster being strung up on a pole, with its body presented in a painful pose resembling a crucifixion. Ultimately, Picart analyzes many other Frankenstein films over the years as a way of arguing about the problematic nature of Frankenstein narratives, and the presence of the "ruthless repression of the monstrous feminine and the feminine-as-monstrous." Although much of the article is about gender, there is a lot of useful information about Whale's cinematic strategies. Her argument that the production and evolution of a Frankenstein film is itself a Frankensteinian exercise is particularly interesting and relevant to the question at hand.
tagged 1931 film frankenstein history james whale by aaroneh ...on 02-DEC-08
White, Dennis L. "The Poetics of Horror: More than Meets the Eye." JSTOR: Cinema Journal Vol. 10, No. 2 (Spring, 1971), pp. 1-18. University of Pennsylvania Library, Philadelphia. 27 Nov. 2008.
In this article, White is interested in analyzing the pieces that make up what most people consider to be a good film, regardless of genre. He writes that it is not simply the pieces themselves, but something within those pieces and the way those pieces are constructed that make a film good or bad. He writes that horror films are typically B-movies, making their analysis typically superficial and mostly limited to a summation of plot. There is little possibility for a horror film to be considered a work of art. Nonetheless, White links art and horror, tracing the link back to Greek tragedy. He talks about the word "horror" being found in Aristotle's Poetics.
With films in the Frankenstein franchise, White calls the films "nothing more than a stringing together of every horror cliché from dark castles to mad scientists to the return of the dead." He claims that any film having anything to do with the supernatural, cults, monsters, mad scientists, graveyards, etc. is classified as a work of horror, and is often easily abused due to carelessness and overconfidence from the filmmaker. White acknowledges that these films can be successful because they provoke the emotion of horror, but only if carefully executed.
For films like James Whale's Frankenstein, much of the film's power is generated by its confounding of analysis, much like in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Nosferatu. Later, White writes that although many films since have attempted to duplicate these well-known films in terms of the appearance of characters and the style of sets, duplicating these elements alone does not suggest what gives films like Frankenstein or Caligari its power.
White argues that the two most popular subjects in all films tend to be love and death, which are often linked. The horror film tends to display violent death and bizarre love, and plays upon our fear of death. Audiences not only tolerate this, but also seek out and enjoy horror films. Fear of the unknown also plays a major role in the horror genre. In addition, in films like Whale's Frankenstein, the monsters are typically male. Not only are they male, but their threat is often sexual. The villagers fear a child molester more than they do a murderer. Lastly, White argues for a less obvious fear found in horror films - that of rejection and alienation. This is clearly present in Whale's Frankenstein, and even more so in Mary Shelley's novel.
A successful horror film, White argues, forces viewers to suspend their reliance on a conventional frame of reference of normal life. Instead, viewers are forced to function on the terms dictated by the film itself. The audience leaves real world facts outside the theater temporarily, accepting the film's propositions. In the end, horror is not an exotic emotion, but rather one that arises out of the common fears of everyday life. Overall, the article serves as a useful analysis of the components of horror films, and an interesting evaluation of the Frankenstein series. White's criticism is well argued and effective, and also thought provoking.
tagged 1931 film frankenstein history james whale by aaroneh ...on 02-DEC-08
Sharrett, Christopher. "Haunted by 20th-Century Monsters - two motion pictures offer insights into 20th century." Findarticles.com: USA Today (Mar. 1999). http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1272/is_2646_127/ai_54098993?tag=content;col1. Nov 27, 2008.
Sharrett discusses the somewhat-fictionalized 1998 film Gods and Monsters, which depicts the last years of Frankenstein (1931) director James Whale. Sharrett writes that the film follows Whale's life in its last moments, where Whale, a homosexual, fantasizes about a young handyman who becomes his model and near-protégé. Sharrett claims that the film suggests that Whale is "haunted by memories of the monsters he created for Universal, or rather, by the internal demons these cinematic creatures came to represent for him."
Sharrett discusses Whale's life as a repressed gay man born into a highly class-conscious 19th century British society, where his vision of the world was shaped by the horrors of World War I, which he fought in himself. Gods and Monsters suggests that Whale's version of Frankenstein's monster represented his own "permanent estrangement" from not only Hollywood, but from humanity as well. Whale, in the film, claims he "gave the monster dignity," something not typically present in monster or other horror films.
Sharrett later discusses the way art may or may not function as a type of catharsis. He claims that Whale was unable to find reconciliation with himself or the world around him. In this way, the monster's relation to Whale and his homosexuality becomes apparent. Sharrett relates Whale's struggles to live happily in a repressive, intolerant society to the monster's own struggle, as evidenced in Mary Shelley's novel as well as in the 1931 Whale film. Sharrett argues that Gods and Monsters is not just about the difficulties of homosexuality, but can symbolize the experiences of any oppressed group or individual. He also openly wonders how much of an impact the wars, chaos, and anguish of the early 20th century had on the creation of monsters in film and the horror genre in general. In this respect, this article is very relevant to the main question. Not only do James Whale's own life experiences play a role in the development of Frankenstein as an early horror film, but Sharrett also discusses how the wars and chaos of the early 20th century may have affected the entire horror genre, and thus film history and even the industry itself.
tagged 1931 film frankenstein history james whale by aaroneh ...on 02-DEC-08
Juengel, Scott J. "Face, Figure, Physiognomics: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and the Moving Image." JSTOR: NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction Vol. 33, No. 3 (Summer, 2000), pp. 353-376. University of Pennsylvania Library, Philadelphia. 27 Nov. 2008.
Juengel talks about cinema's fetishization of the face, claiming that the face dominates the visual field, which seals off the viewer from extraneous distractions. This allows for "an intense manifestation of subjectivity." He talks about close-up shots, which transform the face into something gigantic and monstrous, leading to an almost overwhelming sensation.
In James Whale's Frankenstein as well as in the 1935 Whale film Bride of Frankenstein, Juengel writes that the viewer "struggles visually and viscerally with the renunciation of monstrous flesh." He says that Boris Karloff's countenance provides a site of disparity between face and mask, and between human and monster. Using close-up shots reveals the unnatural construction of the monster's face, with the stitches, seams, and folds plainly visible to the viewer. Gazing at Karloff allows the viewer to participate in an endless visual reconstruction of the monstrous body. He eventually calls the myth of Frankenstein a cautionary tale against this sort of unnatural recreation.
Later, Juengel calls Whale's monster a filmic icon that attests to the triumph of technology and reproducibility that is "emblematic of the nascent cinema's cultural efficacy and reflective of a tenuous cohesion at the level of the modern body's signification." For much of the rest of the essay, Juengel does not talk about Karloff's performance as the monster in the James Whale film, but instead analyzes Mary Shelley's original text, discovering what he calls "proto-cinematic techniques" as evidenced by the constant face-to-face "constructions of subjectivity." He claims that these moments of the novel are visual moments, which are marked by detailed descriptions of the monster's physiognomy. Thus, these moments function as cinematic close-ups, forcing viewers to confront and acknowledge the face of the monster.
This article is interesting in that it focuses on one of the interesting aspects that cinema provides to a viewer, which is the fetishization of the face. The make-up and costume work done in James Whale's film is very specific and intentional, making Mary Shelley's monster into a creature fairly different than described in her novel. It is interesting to see how Whale uses close-up shots and a very specific framing strategy in order to capture the novel's face-to-face encounters, and allow the audience to react in a way that Victor himself reacts in the novel. Many of these techniques and art design strategies would be heavily imitated in future science fiction and horror films, making Whale's film an important predecessor to the genres. Juengel's discussion of the cinematic moments in Shelley's text is also particularly interesting, arguing that Shelley's novel is essentially structured for a certain type of cinematic approach, which one can argue Whale effectively achieved in certain respects.
tagged 1931 film frankenstein history james whale by aaroneh ...on 02-DEC-08
Nagl, Manfred. "The Science-Fiction Film in Historical Perspective." JSTOR: Science Fiction Studies Vol. 10, No. 3 (Nov., 1983), pp. 262-277. University of Pennsylvania Library, Philadelphia. 27 Nov. 2008.
Nagl calls the science fiction film the second oldest extraliterary medium, but also the most widespread and popular of all science fiction vehicles, particularly in Japan and the West. He calls the science fiction boom of the 1970's an outcome of new production and marketing strategies, and the boom of the 1950's he credits as an expression of political anxieties and technological developments. Overall, he writes that the science fiction film "should be recognized as the bearer of conservative and irrational ideologies."
Later, Nagl lists the characteristics of science fiction, which include strong stereotyping, few themes, basic models, and even blatant plagiarism. He claims that the genre is closer to comic books than to traditional literature. Film denies viewers the imagination of the fantastic, and instead condemns itself "to visualization and thus to banalization." He discusses the inevitable overlap of science fiction, horror, and fantasy genres, claiming that many titles fall under more than one category.
In terms of history, Nagl traces the science fiction film back to the work of Georges Melies. He discusses Germany's contribution to science fiction in the early 20th century, when Germany's Ufa was Hollywood's only major rival. In particular, Nagl talks about "Caligarism" and the expressionism of German cinema, which influenced the horror variant of the science fiction genre. Fritz Lang he credits as influencing the rise of technological-futuristic based films with works like Metropolis.
With regards to Frankenstein and the primary question, this article is useful in several ways. Nagl discusses the overlap of the science fiction and horror genres, with the James Whale film certainly fitting into both categories in many respects. In his discussion of science fiction literature, Nagl states that in terms of critical reception, science fiction film neither derives nor measures up to science fiction literature. Critics, he writes, label the science fiction film as a popular and therefore less well-developed form of science fiction. This can clearly be seen in Frankenstein, which certainly removes many of the important elements from Mary Shelley's novel in order to achieve its desired effects and audience responses. The film, unlike the novel, leaves little to imagination, forcing the viewer to confront the visual monstrosity of the creature, whereas the novel provides very few details of the monster's appearance. Nagl writes that science fiction films rarely offer new points of view, instead transferring the simplest definitions of science fiction and relying on stereotypes and simple themes.
tagged 1931 film frankenstein history james whale by aaroneh ...on 02-DEC-08
Heffernan, James A.W.. "Looking at the Monster: Frankenstein and Film." JSTOR: Critical Inquiry Vol. 24, No. 1 (Autumn, 1997), pp. 133-158. University of Pennsylvania Library, Philadelphia. 27 Nov. 2008.
Heffernan argues that films such as 1931's Frankenstein and other film versions of Frankenstein receive so little attention from academic critics of the novel because of the "visuality of cinema." He writes that film versions of Frankenstein show viewers less of the monster's inner life that the novel does. In James Whale's 1931 film, the monster, unlike in the novel, is totally silenced, forcing it to make gestures and expressions in order to communicate. Thus, the monster's story is severely altered and shortened. Heffernan argues that filmmakers, Whale included, regularly rip out the heart of Mary Shelley's novel by making the monster speechless or reducing his narrative. Viewers are forced to confront the monster's physical repulsiveness, whereas in Mary Shelley's novel there are only sparse details of the monster's appearance. As readers, our "blindness to his appearance is precisely what enables us to see his invisible nobility." Heffernan even argues that any faithful recreation of the novel's central narrative would never even show the monster at all, and instead only the sound of his voice and the images of what he perceives. Yet, filmmakers constantly objectify the creature using Shelley's brief descriptions, or making their own interpretations based on previous recreations of the monster on stage, in paintings, or on screen.
Whale's 1931 film, for example, invented the monster's stitching among other changes. Jack Pierce's makeup for Boris Karloff in the Whale film reminds viewers that the creature was a "patchwork quilt of flesh cut from dead bodies," and a "paradoxically ugly composite of features." Another significant departure from Shelley's novel is the additional of the abnormal, criminal brain to the monster's makeup, a decision that seems to indicate that the inner nature of the creature will be wicked and monstrous, thus making its later actions appear to be a result of that inner nature. Heffernan does argue, however, that the monster is not unequivocally ugly, and does earn some sympathy from viewers.
Ultimately, Heffernan claims that film versions of Frankenstein "violate the tacit compact made between novel and reader" by showing readers exactly what the novel hides. While the monster in Whale's film has captivated millions, resulting in his image being reproduced and disseminated everywhere, there is a fundamental and vast difference between the "impact of his picture on a viewing audience and the repulsiveness of the figure it represents as seen by those around him." The article is interesting in its comparison of novels and films, analyzing what makes each effective or ineffective. His discussion of Frankenstein's translation to screen is particularly interesting because he argues that the sight of the monster itself, arguably what makes the James Whale film a product of the horror genre, is precisely the opposite of what the novel intends and what makes the novel so frightening.
tagged 1931 film frankenstein history james whale by aaroneh ...on 02-DEC-08
Harrington, Curtis. "Ghoulies and Ghosties." JSTOR: The Quarterly of Film Radio and Television Vol. 7, No. 2 (Winter, 1952), pp. 191-202. University of Pennsylvania Library, Philadelphia. 27 Nov. 2008.
Harrington discusses the early creators and innovators of cinema, who discovered the ability of the camera to present supernatural phenomena and hallucinatory images. One of those early innovators, Georges Melies, created films with fairies, ghosts, and magicians. However, for the most part cinema has been primarily used as a means of constructing "earth-bound reality." Few fantasy films were attempted up until the time of Harrington's article (1952) due to their most likely financial failure. Ultimately, Harrington argues that the camera magic of Melies and others like him was simply too obvious to viewers, reminding them of the mechanical nature of cinema. He also writes about 1910's and 20's cinema. Most often it was the Germans, in films such as The Golem, Chronicles of the Grieshuus, and Siegfried, who would take on the ideas mysticism and of the supernatural. It was also the Germans who would produce the first film version of Bram Stoker's vampire story, Dracula. Also, in F.W. Murnau's Noseferatu, Murnau used sped-up action, double exposures, and other techniques to portray the supernatural, techniques that would later be imitated by hundreds of filmmakers working in the horror and science fiction genres.
Harrington argues that the arrival of sound would help develop and establish the fantastic horror genre in America. Sound, along with the stock market crash of 1929, would lead the horror film to become a staple Hollywood commodity. James Whale's 1931 film Frankenstein would be one of the defining films to help launch the fantastic horror genre. Harrington writes that Whale, a British stage director imported to America, brought to his films "a fine sense of Gothic terror in the English tradition," as well as "an irascible though perhaps less evident sense of humor." By 1939 however, the horror film had virtually disappeared, but would reappear during the World War II years. Harrington argues that the films made during the war years by Universal, the studio that had been considered to be the home of the horror film due to the success of films like Frankenstein, would be ridiculous, formulaic, and lifeless. After the war ended, the popularity of horror films declined drastically. Harrington writes that we have seen too much of the monster in Frankenstein in subsequent horror films, all serving as poor imitations to Boris Karloff's creation in the 1931 James Whale film. He writes of his disappointment that filmmakers haven't been able to think up something different in so many years.
This article is interesting and relevant to the question at hand for several reasons. Harrington's discussion of early cinema and special effects reveals some of the complications of the medium, but also its vast potential to portray the supernatural and mystic. With Whale's Frankenstein, Harrington discusses the arrival of sound and its importance in making Frankenstein a staple commodity of the horror genre. Interestingly, Harrington is very critical of the formulaic and lifeless nature of the horror genre in films that would follow Whale's film, which he blames for the genre's subsequent decline.
tagged 1931 film frankenstein history james whale by aaroneh ...on 02-DEC-08
Carroll, Noel. "Nightmare and the Horror Film: The Symbolic Biology of Fantastic Beings." JSTOR: Film Quarterly Vol. 34, No. 3 (Spring, 1981), pp. 16-25. University of Pennsylvania Library, Philadelphia. 27 Nov. 2008.
Carroll's 1981 article credits horror and science fiction as the most popular film genres of the late 1970's and early 80's, with blockbusters such as The Exorcist and Jaws. He calls the genre's popularity as unstoppable as some of demons and monsters its films depict. He writes about the late seventies, early eighties cycle of science fiction and horror, claiming that the films contain feelings of paralysis, helplessness, and vulnerability. Horror and science fiction films express a sense of powerlessness and anxiety related to the times of "depression, recession, Cold War strife, galloping inflation, and national confusion." The purpose of his article, simply, is to analyze and examine the structures and themes of this cycle of the genres. He states that a good subtitle for this article would be, "How to make a monster."
While Carroll calls himself a connoisseur of science fiction literature, in terms of film he writes that science fiction has evolved as a sub-class of the horror film. In other words, science fiction films tend to be monster films "rather than explorations of grand themes like alternate societies or alternate technologies." His approach is a psychoanalytic one, using psychoanalysis as an interpretive tool. He argues that psychoanalysis is extremely relevant to the horror genre in terms of the genre's themes of repressed sexuality, necrophilia, etc. He ties the horror genre to nightmares and dreams, claiming that many horror stories originated as dreams or nightmares.
In terms of stories caused by nightmares or modeled on dreams, Carroll lists Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, as well as Bram Stoker's Dracula and Henry James's "The Jolly Corner." He writes that these stories are often attributed to fitful sleep, much like Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. With Frankenstein, Carroll calls the monster a "fusion figure," and a composite. He writes that Mary Shelley first dreamed of the creature at a time in her life fraught with tragedies connected with childbirth. Shelley's description of the creature's appearance even resembles that of a newborn in terms of the skin and head.
Later, Carroll discusses James Whale's Frankenstein, which he claims emphasizes the association of the monster with a child. Whale deliberately has the monster walk unsteadily and awkwardly. In terms of appearance, the monster's head is oversized and its eyes are sleepy. Unlike in the novel, the monster in the film is even more like a newborn due to its lack of speech and rudimentary cognitive skills. In many ways the monster is a child, made of waste and filth. Carroll suggests that the monster's rejection by society relates to Shelley's feelings of rejection by her father, William Godwin.
Carroll's article is extremely relevant to the question due to his analysis of the themes and structures of the horror genre, as well as the sources of inspiration behind stories like Frankenstein and others. His argument of science-fiction evolving as a sub-class of the horror genre is particularly interesting, and there is evidence to support his claim found throughout these articles on Frankenstein and both science-fiction and horror.
tagged 1931 film frankenstein history james whale by aaroneh ...on 02-DEC-08
Spadoni, Robert. "The Uncanny Body of Early Sound Film." Project Muse: The Velvet Light Trap 51 (2003) 4-16. University of Pennsylvania Library, Philadelphia. 27 Nov. 2008.
Spadoni discusses how the first synchronized sound films were widely considered by critics to be a drastic leap forward in terms of cinematic realism. Synchronized sound allowed actors to appear more lifelike and three-dimensional, and ultimately more present. In addition to these benefits, Spadoni argues that sound films helped emphasize the various uncanny qualities of cinema, resulting in a ghost-like visual quality. He argues that this attribute influenced film production in the early years of the transition to sound. Spadoni references critic Alexander Bakshy, who believed the success of the talkies was due to the warmth and intimacy that the presence of human voice provided - something clearly absent during the silent era. However, Bakshy writes, the "personal magnetism of the actor has lost its force" in the talking pictures, mainly due to the viewer's awareness of the mechanical nature of cinema as well as film's reliance on stage techniques and sources.
Spadoni discusses Sigmund Freud's theories on the uncanny in order to argue for the uncanny body effect of early sound film. Specifically, Freud's discussion of inanimate objects that temporarily appear to be alive, and animate objects that temporarily to appear to not be alive. He also discusses the uncanny in terms of the "unheimlich," a term that describes anything that ought to have remained secret and hidden but has come to light. Spadoni argues that early sound film marked a return of the repressed, early film era. The mechanical nature of early cinema and viewer sensitivity to that nature returned, disturbing audiences again until they could adjust to the new technology.
Lastly, Spadoni argues that the coming of sound provoked effects that brought to mind various uncanny sensations that other electronic media have historically provoked, creating a perception of unearthly presences. For example, Spadoni writes that wireless radio enthusiasts would claim that they could pick up communications from the dead in a hissing sound. With sound films, some of these beliefs resurfaced. Spadoni quotes Frankenstein director James Whale, who also relates the hissing of a radio to the presence of ghosts or monsters. Universal Pictures would take advantage of this attitude, bringing an adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula to the screen in 1931. Later that year, Universal would make a horror film out of an adaptation of Frankenstein, which used cut-ins and extreme close-ups to frighten viewers. Spadoni asks whether films like Frankenstein were reactivating and codifying viewers' fast-receding emotional memory of the uncanny bodies of the transition cinema." He argues that the coming of sound influenced the development of the horror film as a major genre in American cinema, especially in early films such as Frankenstein. In this respect, this article is extremely useful in that it reveals the importance of sound for not only Whale's Frankenstein, but also for the future of horror and science fiction films and the film industry as a whole.
tagged 1931 film frankenstein history james whale by aaroneh ...on 02-DEC-08
Samuelson, David N. "Frankenstein Unwound." JSTOR: Science Fiction Studies Vol. 26, No. 3 (Nov., 1999), pp. 487-492. University of Pennsylvania Library, Philadelphia. 27 Nov. 2008
In this review of two volumes of cultural criticism, Frankenstein's Footsteps and Screams of Reason, David Samuelson discusses the propagation of the Frankenstein myth over two centuries of popular culture, the topic of this cultural criticism. Although Samuelson focuses mostly on Mary Shelley's novel, he later mentions several Frankenstein films including the James Whale 1931 film. He begins by noting Shelley's foresight, and in particular her fear of Western scientists ignoring the consequences of their quest for knowledge. Her novel, he argues, serves as a cautionary tale that has become very widespread. In literature, film, and beyond, elements can be seen taken directly from her novel, especially allusions to Shelley's creatures, both scientist and monster. Samuelson talks about the modern day fear of genetic engineering and biological research, relating it back to Shelley's novel.
Samuelson notes how Victor Frankenstein, in Shelley's novel, is a forward-looking biological researcher. He dismisses magic and superstition. Thus, the novel is more of a creation myth "based on science as a substitute for God, a surprisingly realistic composite picture of contemporary science, and a refracted image of the dark side of science." He notes that the novel saw many reprintings during Shelley's lifetime, including several theatrical stagings. After Shelley's death, James Whale's 1931 adaptation helped turned the Frankenstein story into big business. Samuelson does say that although the film and other remakes did not particularly respect the artistic integrity of the novel, they did manage to maintain certain elements of science and the quest for creation. Even remakes like Mel Brooks's spoof Young Frankenstein maintained this theme as well.
Later, Samuelson discusses the idea of a "Biological Revolution" that began in the 1960's, when molecular testing became possible, and after the structure of DNA was unraveled. This would lead to genetic engineering, developments in organ transplants, and other innovations. He mentions Gordon Rattray Taylor's 1968 non-fiction book, The Biological Time-Bomb, which highlighted fears of the loss of control over one's body and the "dissolution of the traditional human image." Later, the birth of the first test-tube baby in 1978 led to more widespread acceptance of this new technology after the baby appeared to be normal. With regards to the Frankenstein myth, both of the novel and of the films, DNA experiments turned the debate from a moral argument to a technical argument, pushing the Frankenstein argument further away. He argues that more educated audiences are more accepting of modern technology, and that the Frankenstein fears have shifted into fields of artificial life and the cyborg.
This article is interesting and relevant to the question because of Samuelson's discussion of Mary Shelley's fear of the never-ending quest for knowledge and the dangers of science, themes that would become very emblematic of the horror and science fiction genres. These themes would be even more apparent in films like Whale's Frankenstein, as well many others others in the same genre that would follow for several decades.
tagged 1931 film frankenstein history james whale by aaroneh ...on 02-DEC-08
This case addresses the adaptation of a novel to the big screen. It is between the makers of the 1907 version of Ben-Hur, the Kalem Company, and Lew Wallace's estate, The Harper Brothers.
For us, the piece of this case that is important is "whether the public exhibition of these moving pictures infringed any rights under the copyright law."
If the court were to side with Wallace's estate, then movies would not be created without the author's permission because they "have the exclusive right to dramatize their works." If the Kalem Company were victorious, then any novel could be made into a film based on the current copyright law because no one knew film would exist upon the law's creation. The difference between a stage play and a motion picture is that each shot of a film was a still frame--hence a piece of art in its own.
The Supreme Court said that "drama may be achieved by action as well as by speech," and that "action can tell a story, display all the most vivid relations between men, and depict every kind of human emotion without the aid of a word." With this, the court found "that Ben-Hur was dramatized by what was done" meaning that the Wallace estate was the victor.
For my question, "How can one scene effect a studio?" we can start by saying that this case established that MGM could buy the rights to the novel Ben-Hur. Moreover, this case establishes that all authors' rights are protected in adaptations and led to all studios having to buy rights to make films.
For MGM, seeing the build-up and hype from the novel to the stage play, helped them decide to go forward with the purchase of the rights that would lead to their movie that would end up costing them around $4,000,000. And as mentioned in this bibliography, Ben-Hur led to a series of first in US popular culture. The epic proportions of the chariot race scene are no exception, and because of this case we got to see the 1925 version, the 1959 version, and all of the grandeur of the imitators that followed.
tagged ben-hur cine101 film harper_brothers history kalem_co supreme_court by jantho ...on 01-DEC-08
Call#: Van Pelt Library BM176 .W95 1996
Call#: Van Pelt Library BM176 .W95 1996
In this book, Stephen Wylen explores the history of the Jews and emphasizes the parts of Early Judaism that are significant to Christians who want to understand the state of the race during Jesus' life.
For us, the important part of Wylen's book is the chapter titled "Hellenism." Here he describes the taking over of Judah by the Roman general Pompey. The highlights circle around Pompey going into the Jerusalem Temple and claiming that the Jews' religion was fake because there was no idol to worship. The Jews "thought of themselves as citizens, in every way equal," but they didn't participate in "public civil...ceremonies because all of these things were formally dedicatd to the gods of the city." Wylen says that this fact led to a "constant source of tension between Jews and Gentiles."
The tension remained in Jesus' time. Wylen brings forward the stories of the New Testament to illustrate the feelings the Jews and Gentiles had for one another. In 66-70 AD the Jews failed to rebel and in 115 a "full-scale war broke out between the Jews and Gentiles." This was under the Roman emperor Trajan who was responsible for the expansion of the Circus Maximus.
Relating all of this to my question, "How can one scene effect a studio?" we can start by looking at the basics of Ben-Hur. First off, Judah is a Jew who is friends with a Roman, Messala. The story starts off with the two being friends, but later Judah Ben-Hur is arrested and Messala, who now has power, makes sure Ben-Hur is casted away. This follows the history mentioned above and brings the tension between the Jews and Gentiles into our film. As a side note, Ben-Hur also encounters Jesus--an encounter any Christian would like to see visually through an art form like film.
But back to the tension between Jew and Gentile, being that there was a massive, well-documented war among the two, it would be great for a studio to capitalize on the magnitude of the recorded history. To do so, a film would have to find a way to dramatize the conflict between its two developed main characters--enter the chariot race. As noted in other articles in this bibliography, the chariot race in Ben-Hur was the climax of the film.
So a studio had to decide whether or not to push for an epic scene with grand architecture, massive numbers, intense drama, and a showdown between two former friends who represent two races that historically fought. While the saying goes, down put all of your eggs in one basket, the success of Ben-Hur in both the stage play (mentioned in the bibliography) and the film was based on whether or not the producers had the guts to go a scene that had a lot of positive qualities going for it. The only downsides I see, have already been highlighted--time, money, and resources.
Call#: Van Pelt Library GV715 .G88 1986
In this book, Allen Guttmann takes a look at all aspects of sports' spectators from a historical standpoint. He starts with Ancient Greece and Rome. He then moves through the Renaissance and concludes with modern, professional sports.
For us, the important points come in the chapter, "Greek and Roman Spectators." Here Guttmann describes the importance and popularity of the circus and its arenas. He does this by citing the religious calendar which shows "10 days of gladiatorial games and 66 days of chariot races" in the fourth century A.D. That's right, 66 days of chariot races!
Guttmann then continues and reminds the readers that the "material cost of mounting...[the] games was enormous." Moreover, the "economic factor was more important than moral considerations" when determining what events to hold. And one event, no matter what the economic stance, can be proven popular, as Guttmann says, by simply looking at the architecture. The Circus Maximus, which housed the chariot races, held "five times more spectators than the Colosseum."
Guttmann even found a quote from Ammianus Marcellinus regarding the chariot races: "the mass of the people, unemployed with too much time on their hands...For them the Circus Maximus is temple, home, community center and the fullfilment of all their hopes...They declare that the country will be ruined if at the next meeting their own particular champion does not come first of the starting-gate and keep his horses in line as he brings them round the post."
With all of this popularity among the people of the time, one could only imagine how the hype could be lived out forever on film. So for my question, "How can one scene effect a studio?" we can ponder the thought process of the crew that had to capture all of the historic glory of the chariot race. Pointed out more so by Guttmann, is the cost of the event at the time. If it was expensive to have the games back in Ancient Rome for 66 days, a studio executive could predict that it would also be expensive to stage a race that had to be captured on 200,000 feet of film.
On the other side, the same executive could see all of the excitement generated by the Romans and create an epic scene which would propel his studio into the future. And, as we know, Ben-Hur (1925) succeeded in shooting an amazing chariot race scene that setup MGM for years to come.
tagged ben-hur cine101 film history rome by jantho ...and 1 other person ...on 01-DEC-08
U. C. Knoepflmacher. "Editor’s Preface: Hybrid Forms and Cultural Anxiety." SEL Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 48.4 (2008): 745-754.
In Hybrid Forms and Cultural Anxiety, Knoepflmacher discusses cultural anxieties towards mongrels, half-races, and other forms of hybrids. He analyzes the evolution of attitudes towards “hybrids” from before Darwinian science to the modern day, where the word “hybrid” usually has a positive connotation. He traces the reflections of these anxieties in literature and art in depictions of monstrous violations of the natural order, such as in Dr. Jekyll, Dracula, and other vampires. Knoepflmacher’s interpretation of aspects of Dracula as resonating with cultural anxieties reinforces Phillips’ theory of the film Dracula’s success through appealing to contemporary cultural anxieties.
tagged anxiety cultural_anxiety dracula history hybrid mongrel transgression vampire by prior ...on 01-DEC-08
2006 by The Johns Hopkins University Press.
The article addresses the use of technology in stage plays. Producers needed a way to show "spatial freedom" and a way to simulate depth. Waltz examines the history of the used techniques.
Ben-Hur's chariot race, in the 1899 play, implemented the "panorama-and-treadmill combination...a three-part moving-panorama system: one upstage, placed parrellel to the front of the stage, and two wing panoramas, angled outwards from either side...six cylinders supported and turned the painted canvas." The cylinders were driven by a motor.
More and more detail is delved into by Waltz as she explains how the eight treadmills were operated by the horses, and how the effect of Messala losing a wheel at the end of the race is executed. Scientific American, as quoted by Waltz, tells the reader that "ingenious" methods were used to create the desired effects--the sense of "motion perspective." The scene was successful and created a precedent for later Ben-Hur's.
For my question, "How can one scene effect a studio?" we can start by saying the precedent set effected the audience of the film. Everyone was expecting to see a magnificent chariot race because of all the technology used in the stage play. MGM and the Kalem Company (who made the 1907 version) felt the pressure. MGM especially had to spend money and other resources in order to meet the audience's expectations. Overall, the scene had a lasting effect, and the descriptions outlined by Waltz added more details that a filmed version of the chariot race would have to call their attention too.
Cook, David A. A History of Narrative Film. New York: W. W. Norton, 1996.
In Chapter 8 of A History of Narrative Film, Cook analyzes the effects of the introduction of the sound film into the American studio system. He asserts that the emergence of sound drastically changed the makeup of Western cinema. Cook discusses the development and popularity of the musical film genre that came about during this time as a result of sound film technology. He also discusses the added potential for realism enabled by the sound film, such as in the urban gangster films with their tough vernacular speech and distinctive “rat-a-tat-tat” of the Thompson submachinegun.
Cook maintains that the existing genre of the horror film was the most greatly enhanced by the addition of sound. He alleges that sound not only enabled eerie effects to make the films’ horror elements more effective, but it also allowed horror films to retain the depth of literary dialogue present in so many of their original sources. He attributes the success of Dracula (1931) to the boons offered by the sound film.
tagged 1931 dracula film history horror sound sound_film universal universal_horror by prior ...on 01-DEC-08
Inez Hedges's review of Linda Williams's book Figures of Desire: A Theory and Analysis of Surrealist Film argues that Williams's analysis of only films “that were a historical part of the surrealist movement and were developed in direct contact with surrealist theory” (824) works well as a method of analyzing Surrealist cinema. Williams uses Un chien andalou as a case study for analyzing the relationship between images and desire in Surrealist works and delves into the methods used by Buñuel to “[place] the viewer's experience in the uneasy zone between the imaginary and the symbolic, and [force] a confrontation with the very psychic energy that enables [him or] her to enjoy films," a method she views as common in Surrealist films' attempts to “[break] up the spectator's process of identification with the characters” (825). She goes further in this analysis concluding that the film “sets up a conventional narrative space and then violates it, leaving the spectator especially vulnerable to the surrealist message" (Hedges 825) and then extends this analysis to other films such as Le Fantôme de la liberté, Cet obscur objet du désir, and L'Age d'or.
Hedges's article provides a means of clarifying Linda Williams's theory of Surrealist film goals and practices combined with Flitterman-Lewis's writings on Artaud's intentions enable a better analysis of The Seashell and the Clergyman and its place in Surrealist film history. Flitterman-Lewis argues that Artaud's main objection to Dulac's film was the lack of an experience forced upon the viewer. This experience, in the view of Williams, results from the lack of character identification; without being able to identify with a character in the film and thus experience the thoughts, actions, feelings, and ideas (or as Williams would characterize them, desires) of that character, the viewer is forced into his or her own experience, one which requires the viewer to interpret, experience, and judge events and actions in the film rather than relying on characters to do so. Flitterman-Lewis outlines common techniques used to establish this situation (superimposition, split shots, lighting, etc.) and provides an analysis of how The Seashell and the Clergyman also establishes such a situation. Therefore, by examining Williams's theory and Flitterman-Lewis's evaluations of Artaud and the film, it is possible to construct a framework for evaluating what constitutes a Surrealist film and whether or not The Seashell and the Clergyman fits into that framework (an argument which Flitterman-Lewis makes well when it is placed into Williams's theoretical framework.)
Hedges, Inez. "Review: [untitled]." The French Review 59 (1986): 824-25.
tagged artaud history meaning review surrealist theory by bargman ...on 30-NOV-08
“In keeping with the principal tenets of surrealism, Artaud would claim that art is a real experience that goes far beyond human understanding and attempts to reach a metaphysical truth. The artist is always a man inspired who reveals a new aspect of the world” (Fowlie). Fowlie's biographical account of Artaud's life and his theories of theater reveal much about his beliefs on Surrealism. In addition to seeing the potential for a new type of theatre in the French movements of his time, Artaud also spent a number of years in a sanitorium and while Fowlie makes no connection between this and Artaud's theory of surrealism, an examination of that theory strongly implies a connection to a confusing world where the interpretations of others did not match what Artaud himself must have been experiencing at the time. Artaud's theory of Surrealism centered on dream worlds and the idea that art should be a collaboration between artist and viewer, requiring the viewer to play a role in creating the experience as much as the artist does. Artaud's theory began in theatre and focused on the use of speech and gesticulation as well as the content and scenery of the play: everything played a role in creating the experience.
Thus, it is easy to see the jump between Artaud's theory of Surrealist theatre and Surrealist film, both of which contain not only the spatial elements of other forms of art, but temporal elements and the ability to manipulate them. Film offered one potential advantage over theatre: the ability to control temporal aspects more tightly and cleanly than theatre. Artaud became devoted to his theory, obsessing over a multitude of things, including the theatre. “However one interprets the terrifying obsessions of Artaud, they allowed him to see into unusual depths of the human mind, where he claimed the eternal questions on life and death are clearly visible” (Fowlie). He rebelled against morality and rationality as constructs of humans in a material world and thus obsessed over the dream world where such things did not exist. These obsessions can be seen in The Seashell and the Clergyman: a priest erotically obsessed with a woman consistently sees her in various situations in his blurred, dimly lit, and confusing dream world. The obvious immorality of a man sworn to celibacy obsessing over a woman is combined with the irrationality of a dream wherein the man seemingly has no control over the course of events and is subjected to a number of random, inexplicable visions and experiences.
Dionysus in Paris. Wallace Fowlie. New York: Meridian Books, Inc., 1960. p. 203-209.
tagged artaud history meaning primitive representation surrealist theatre by bargman ...on 30-NOV-08
Linda William's article reviews Steven Kovàcs's book From Enchantment to Rage: The Story of Surrealist Cinema and offers a method of examining the history of Surrealist cinema, namely “a return to the history of Surrealism proper: how the Surrealist poets and artists in the main phase of the movement (1923-1930) turned their talent and energy to film; how their painting, photography, and poetry found new forms of expression in this emerging art; the development of this new aesthetics of film from the 'enchantment' of the early twenties to the 'rage' typified by the 1930 L'Age d'or" (Williams 41). William's chastises Kovàcs's lack of significant analysis of the role of dreams in Surrealist film, an element she views as extremely important to understanding the goals of the movement. To illustrate this point, she takes the example of Kovàcs's examination of Dalí and Buñuel: "the issue points out a problem in the book's general approach: an assessment of Surrealist cinema is not a question of sorting out individual personalities and their contributions. If Surrealism deserves its 'ism' then there is something more to Buñuel and Dalí's collaboration than the fortuitous encounter of two individual psychic obsessions. To my mind that something is to be found in the formal procedures of the unconscious which Buñuel and Dalí so brilliantly adapted to the creation of their films" (Williams 42).
Williams's review offers two important tools for the examination of The Seashell and the Clergyman: first, she argues that an examination of the history of Surrealist film should focus on how Surrealist artists turned their ideas into film and how film enabled a method of expression unavailable in other art forms; and second, she highlights the importance of dreams, their structure, and their natural functioning and the role they played in the making of Surrealist films. The first tool lends more analysis to Flitterman-Lewis's examination of Artaud's paradoxical claim that The Seashell and the Clergyman was the first surrealist film despite his insistence that Dulac failed to recreate more than the material appearance of construction of dreams, without expressing an experience of dreaming. William's method of analysis would factor in the exclusion of Artaud from the artistic direction of the film, separating Artaud from the ability to express through film and leaving it entirely up to Dulac. To resolve this seeming paradox, the only logical conclusion must be that Artaud found the film to be an adequate Surrealist expression of the dream, though it was not an interpretation true to his understanding and visualization of the scenario. Williams places the “main phase” of the movement within the period 1923-30, ending just after The Seashell and the Clergyman and Un chien andalou were made, thus reinforcing Flitterman-Lewis's agument that Dulac and Artaud's film was the first Surrealist film due to the amount in terms of technique and means of expression that later movies would borrow from it.
Williams, Linda. "From Enchantment to Rage: The Story of Surrealist Cinema." Film Quarterly 34 (1981): 41-42.
tagged art artaud history meaning review surrealist theory by bargman ...on 30-NOV-08
Grace, Harry A. "Charlie Chaplin's Films and American Culture Patterns." The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. 10 (1952): 353-363.
This article reviews several of Chaplin's films including Modern Times to show how they are relevant to the problems of society at the time. The article reviews the film under the assumption that the major themes of his films are illustrations of American historical events/periods over time. Modern Times (1936) represents the effects of the industrialization period on men. More specifically Modern Times portrays the job situation for men in the age of technological advancement. Industrialization led to a different job experience for he working class man. Large assembly lines became the norm for lower income workers in order to produce mass products by machinery.
This relates to my thesis because it highlights the problem of the job situation workers faced after industrialization. Assembly lines in large factories lead to a loss of indivduality. Everyone is doing the same work at the same time for the same amont of time everyday. We see in the film that assembly lines are monotonous, repetitive, and can lead one to almost go insane (We see Chaplin's character act as though he is working in the assembly line even when he is on a lunch break). Workers are no longer individuals; they are merely an extension of the machines solely there to create products for profit.
tagged chaplin charlie history modern representation times by mikelle ...on 30-NOV-08
Scott W. Hoffman " Ben-Hur". St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture. . FindArticles.com. 30 Nov. 2008. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_g1epc/is_tov/ai_2419100110
This article outlines the history of Ben-Hur. It was written by Lew Wallace and started "an amazing series of first in American popular culture." With its publishing in 1880, Ben-Hur slowly became a very popular book. It only sold 2800 copies in its first seven months, but it sailed over a million in 1911.
In 1907 the Wallace estate ended up suing the makers of a film based on the novel which led to the "first recognition of an author's rights in film adaptations." However, in 1922, the Goldwyn Company purchased the rights to the film and set the epic in motion. The most notable attribute of the epic which was released in 1925 was the chariot race.
The chariot race nearly broke the studio because of its massive budget and demands on both human labor and population. Hoffman says that the race "changed the face of filmmaking," and because of that, the audience of the time flocked to see the premiere. Hoffman further tells us that the critics of the time "praised the film (more for its 'grandeur,' however, than its 'story')."
For my bibilography I'm going to focus on the chariot race scene and how it affected the studio. How its shooting changed the face of filmmaking and why the history of the situation leads to an epic rush of emotion that led to the chariot race being remembered throughout Hollywood's history. Hoffman starts off answering my question of "How one scene can effect a studio?" by telling us that the film was known more for its grandeur and that "its considerable expenditure of money and horses made this sequence a brilliant tour-de-force that established...lavish production values."
tagged ben-hur cine101 film findarticles history by jantho ...and 1 other person ...on 30-NOV-08
Excerpts from this book address intellectual property rights and their protection, compliance, and enforcement in China. After China's entry into the World Trade Organization, which subsequently extended the TRIPs agreement to its borders, China has seen mixed results on its attempts to enforce the standards and statutes outlined in the TRIPs agreement. According to the authors, China's IP law currently offers protection consistent with the minimum requirement of TRIPs. However, the authors suggest that in order to elimanate some of the shortcomings of the TRIPs framework, Article 7 of TRIPS and its role must be enhanced in order to restore balance: "the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights should contribute to the promotion of technological innovation and to the transfer and dissemination of technology, to the mutual advantage of producers and users of technological knowledge and in a manner conducive to social and economic welfare, and to a balance of rights and obligations. However, the landscape of international intellectual property is changing, and the authors point out the diverging trend of multilateral institutions leaning towards securing the access of developing countries to protected content and material on reasonable terms while bilateral trade agreements continue to enforce strict copyright rules in favor of the developed nation. However, we must take TRIPs on facevalue and should be viewed as part of the broader strategy of priority setting, education, and institutional capacity building, regulaory adaptation, FDI marketing, and patent mining. Nevertheless, piracy and counterfeiting are still significant threats to right holders. The Chinese policy of administrative enforcement of copyright law often impedes its very goal due to longstanding local protectionism and cronyism as well as the internal bureaucratic rivalries that prevent the creation of a comprehesive IP strategy. However, the Chinese have instituted judicial review of these administrative decisions, increases in the maximum fines available for IP infringements, and lower thresholds for criminal liability. Although change has come at a sluggish pace and Chinese IP enforcement will never rival that of many Western nations, China has made considerable steps in order to comply with TRIPs legislation.
The general opinion seems to agree that China has come a long way in IPR enforcement, but it still has a long way to go. As the broader themes of this paper come together, this article will serve to point on many of the drawbacks of the Chinese system and what can be done to change this as well as the steps taken by China to meet the minimum requirements of the TRIPs agreement. While enforcement is still an issue, this authors make clear that we must be patient due to the extenuating circumstances of China's robust economy coupled with a lagging administrative stucture and status as a developig nation.
Much like their respective copyright histories, the U.S. response to piracy in China is markedly different than that in Russia. During the last year of the Quing Dynasty, 1910, the Chinese government enacted its first comprehensive copyright law, although it was short-lived and barely enforced. THe rise of the Communist Party after World War II spelled a dramatic change as China closed its doors to foreign influence and banished any Western idea of copyright that lasted until its adoption of the Open Door Policy in the 1970s. Following U.S. pressure for more protective IPR's China enacted the Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China i 1990, granting private rights to authors although still sticking to its socialist principles. However, there was limited protection for foreign works and over subsequent years, sustained pressure and threats of trade sanctions by the U.S. continually beefed of the Chinese laws. Overall, the U.S. placed China on the priority country list under Special 301 and threateed trade sanctions on three separate occasions in the 90's.
The U.S.' notably more aggressive response to Chinese piracy in comparison to Russian piracy illustrates not only the importance of the Chinese market for American goods but also the rampant and blatant copyright infringement in China that the U.S. goverment as attempted to chip away at over the years. This article identifies what tools and sanctions the U.S. government can use in order to enforce its trade agreements. This is important for it will help me further contextualize the role Chinese piracy has played in U.S. foreign trade agreements and the degree to which the United States will go to protect its largest exports, its media and culture. However, its important to note that while the threat of U.S. trade sanctions was often an effective, short term solution to the Chinese piracy problems, eventually these measures deteriorated until further sanctions were threatened. We can therefore see the necessity for foreign cooperation in to enforce international trade agreements and copyright laws.
tagged copyright history ipr trade_sanctions by mitully ...on 25-NOV-08
Call#: Van Pelt Library ML3470 .D69 2005
Call#: Fine Arts Library Fine Arts NA2800 T48 2002
Call#: Van Pelt Library TK7881.4 .S733 2003
Call#: Van Pelt Library TK7881.4 .S733 2003
Call#: Annenberg Library Reserve Ann Res TK7881.4 .S733 2003
Call#: Annenberg Library Reserve Ann Res TK7881.4 .S733 2003
tagged cultural_determinism history by graym ...and 1 other person ...on 07-SEP-08
Call#: Van Pelt Library Reference Stacks REF DA677 .P33 2001
Call#: Van Pelt Library Reference Stacks REF DA679 .L78 1986
Call#: Van Pelt Library Reference Stacks REF DA550 .V53 1988
Call#: Van Pelt Library Reference Stacks REF HT123 .E5 1998
Call#: Van Pelt Library Reference Stacks REF E740.7 .E53 1996
Call#: Van Pelt Library Reference Stacks REF E169.1 .E626 2001
Call#: Van Pelt Library Reference Stacks REF HN57 .E58 1993
Call#: Van Pelt Library Reference Stacks REF HV8551 .E44 2002
This book is a great source if you want to know who has recieved the death chair. It dates back to the 1900's. It also tells you why, when and how the person recieved the death penalty.
This website to shows its view points on the death penalty by using graphic pictures. This website is also very informational, it tells whose recieved the death penalty and what form was used on them.
This website explains the death penalty, how it works, what crimes you have to commit to get the electric chair, etc.

This page describes how the death penalty started and where it began. It also tells how its changed since the 1900's.
Coverage of scholarly articles about the History of the U.S. and Canada. Includes articles relating to American foreign relations, Americans abroad and American interventions in Europe.
tagged essential history resources by okrent ...and 23 other people ...on 21-JUL-08
Call#: Van Pelt Library Reference Stacks REF F158.68.W5 P5
Included here are research papers by Archives Director Mark Frazier Lloyd, by students in the Department of History's Senior Honors Program in American History, and Summer Research Fellows at the University Archives.
Call#: Van Pelt Library Reference Desk REF F158.3 .P5664 1982
Call#: Van Pelt Library Reference Desk REF F158.3 .S4
Call#: Van Pelt Library Reference Desk REF F158.3 .J15
Brief, often one-paragraph entries, some with bibliographic references.
View selected historic maps and aerial photographs, mixed with current data from Google in a Google Maps viewer. The "crown jewel" is a full-city mosaic of the 1942 Philadelphia Land Use Maps.
Title: Logging, Lumbering, & Forestry Museums: A Review
Author(s): Douglas F. Davis
Source: Forest History, Vol. 17, No. 4 (Jan., 1974), pp. 28-31
Publisher(s): Forest History Society and American Society for Environmental History
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4004139
"Historical Collections for the National Digital Library." A project of the Library of Congress.
History of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present.
Holdings: 1964 to present. Updated three times a year.
Call#: Van Pelt Library F157.D4 T9
tagged bay delaware history by katkins ...on 13-JUN-08
Call#: Fine Arts Library Fine Arts HT393.N5 A49
Call#: Van Pelt Library Reference Stacks REF BX7321.3 .E53 2004
Albert Music Hall. Traditional musical gatherings of the NJ Pinelands. An evening of live country, bluegrass, and pinelands music each Saturday night at 7:30 PM. Year round
Call#: Van Pelt Library BX7316 .S76 2002
This site tells the story of the Washington Metro, a 103-mile rapid transit system serving Washington, D.C., and the surrounding areas of Maryland and Virginia. Planning for Metro began in the 1950s, construction began in 1969, and the first segment opened for operation in 1976. Metro is one of the largest public-works projects ever built, and it is the second-busiest rail transit system in the United States. Metro is the creation of thousands of planners, engineers, architects, and builders, and hundreds of thousands of neighbors and riders. Whatever your role, we hope you will share your own experiences as part of the ECHO Science and Technology Memory Bank. This site was researched and written by Zachary M. Schrag, author of The Great Society Subway: A History of the Washington Metro (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006). | ||
Denton, William. "FRBR and the History of Cataloging."
Chapter 4 in Understanding FRBR: What It Is and How It Will Affect Our Retrieval, edited by Taylor, Arlene G.
An explanation of where FRBR (Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records) comes from, given by a look at the work of librarians such as Panizzi, Cutter, Ranganathan, and Lubzetsky, and an examination of four themes in the history of library cataloging: the use of axioms to explain the purpose of catalogs, the importance of user needs, the idea of the "work," and standardization and internationalization.
The chapter begins with Ted Hinton and Bob Alcorn’s efforts’ to catch Bonnie and Clyde. He and a number of other policemen had tracked the couple to Gibsland, Louisiana, the hometown of their then partner in crime, Henry Methvin. Hinton and the others following the group had began to think of a way they could trap the sneaky crooks, “the hunters of Bonnie and Clyde had discovered early of their quarries’ most vulnerable trait: the strong psychological dependence on their families” (195). After the lawmen learned of Methvin, they tracked his family to Gibsland and preceded to arrange an Ambush that would finally put an end to the pair’s spree. Methvin had been separated from Bonnie and Clyde, and Hinton and Alcorn suspected that they would try and rendevue with him at his fathers house in Gibsland. The officers, 4 from Texas and 3 from Louisiana, hid in bushes along the side of a road just south of Gibsland. After two days of tiresome waiting, they finally captured Irvin Methvin, Henry’s father and used his car as decoy for Bonnie and Clyde. However, the arrest of Irivin Methvin was entirely illegal, along with their seizure of his vehicle for the ambush. The officers were almost ready to quit on the ambush when Bonnie and Clyde came rolling down the road. The rest reads just like the movie, with the two being riddled by bullets while they sat in the car, with no time to fire a single shot.
Treherne’s book recounts the actual death of Bonnie and Clyde as described by the officers hunting them and gives truth to the final scene of the Penn’s film. The book, however, is from the policemen’s vantage point and creates an entirely different imagery of the final shootout. Methvin and his father had no intention or previous knowledge of a setup like C.W. Moss and his father did in the movie. The blood soaked shootout in the film, however, seems faithful to its original story, and the scene that set critics aflame was possibly the most loyal to the real account.
tagged account bonnie clyde cops history non_fiction real vantage_point by mrsilva ...on 10-APR-08
Downing, Taylor. Olympia. London: BFI Publishing, 1992.
The chapter “Aftermath” in Taylor Downing’s examination of Olympia describes the reception of the film and its post-release history. Initially the film received generally positive reviews, but as Germany became more threatening, Riefenstahl and the film became less popular, resulting in a boycott of the film in the United States. For the rest of her life, Riefenstahl would have trouble clearing her reputation for her involvement with the Nazi party. The film stands as a major artistic achievement, however, and the author notes its influence on films about future Olympics, although competition with television coverage of the games made a cinematic masterpiece such as Olympia more difficult. Downing argues that Olympia beautifully captured the spirit of the Olympics, and Riefenstahl’s use of retakes in the film aid its artistic vision if they decrease its level of journalism.
The chapter concludes by grappling with the film’s propaganda question. Downing notes that the Berlin Olympics themselves were designed as propaganda to promote Germany as a friendly, peace-loving nation, and hence the Nazi party invested in Riefenstahl’s production to display their propaganda to the world. The author affirms Riefenstahl’s artistic independence during the production, however, and concludes the film is not intentionally propagandistic. Nevertheless, he maintains the film is still political since it was set up for political reasons and documents a political event, but he argues this fact does not and should not detract from its artistic merit.
tagged downing history leni nazi olympia propaganda riefenstahl by holoszyc ...on 10-APR-08
Large, David Clay. Nazi Games: The Olympics of 1936. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2007.
The chapter “Olympia” in David Clay Large’s book on the 1936 Olympics provides a succinct history of the film. It notably refutes some of the claims made by Riefenstahl regarding her independence from the Nazi party in the making of the film. While Riefenstahl claims the film was commissioned by the International Olympic Committee and funded by a firm called Tobis Films, the author contends it was commissioned by the Nazi Ministry of Propaganda and financed by the party. Furthermore, while Riefenstahl claims that Joseph Goebbels, the Minister of Propaganda, was at odds with her, Large asserts that he tolerated her despite his preference for a different director to make the film, although he acknowledges that Goebbels did cause some problems for Riefenstahl such as when he audited her company. The chapter then discusses some of the technical innovations of the film and some of the difficulties the crew encountered during filming, and finally finishes by describing the mixed critical reception Riefenstahl received internationally.
The chapter also devotes some time to discussing the film’s propaganda value. Large argues the film, even the German version, was not explicitly partisan in any particular way. The film gives no sense that the Germany was the winning team, and it includes some of the nation’s defeats as well, although the Ministry of Propaganda did mandate fair reporting of the games. On the other hand, while the author notes that the black Jesse Owens was portrayed very favorably, other black athletes did not receive as much screen time as they probably deserved. Furthermore, many of the most dramatic moments are of German athletes, and some events featured disproportionately more footage of Germany and her allies Japan and Italy. Additionally, the German version contained more shots of Hitler and swastikas and placed a greater emphasis on the games as a national battle. And finally, the film’s glorification of physical perfection and the communitarian togetherness depicted in the Olympic Village are reminiscent of Nazi values. The author concludes by suggesting the film’s late release lessened its political potential as propaganda to foreigners, however, since by then Germany was well into its path of aggression, undermining any sense of international good will the film could evoke.
tagged history large leni nazi olympia olympics propaganda riefenstahl by holoszyc ...on 10-APR-08
Call#: Van Pelt Library DG467 .D84 1994
Call#: Van Pelt Library cat on bib 4043492
Duggan, Christopher. A Concise History of Italy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
The Republic, a chapter in A Concise History of Italy, serves to understand the time period in which Divorzio all’Italiana was filmed. In the 1960s, Italy was caught between an economic miracle and the rise of social protests. However, this miracle was not achieved without severe costs – the South was “left almost untouched,” and the gap between the two halves of the peninsula widened (264). Duggan states that part of the problem for why the South benefited so little from the attempts at industrialization was due to the “corrupt character of much of the Southern society” (269). Economic modernization is many times accompanied with social unrest. The Church helped the government by denouncing modern culture, and waging a propaganda war against the left. The Church’s influence in politics was soon to end. John XXIII’s death in 1963 “marked the start of a profound reappraisal of the Church’s character and role in society […] and the Vatican looked to distance itself from party politics”(266). Finally, revolts in the late 1960s “were the judgment of a generation on the Republic and specifically on the failure of politicians to meet the needs and expectations of a society that had undergone such rapid changes in the preceding decade” (269). According to Duggan, these represented a critique of the whole of Italian society and its values.
Understanding Italy in the 1960s is crucial for understanding the backdrop of in which Pietro Germi’s Divorzio all’Italiana was filmed. Characteristics of the poor, agricultural and corrupt South are observed in the movie. The Cefalu family is a rich, traditional Sicilian family, and when the main character, Baron Fefè Cefalu, first introduces himself, he makes the distinction between his family’s social class and the proletariat quite obvious. Fefè also points out who is who in Agramonte: he alludes to the fact that his father was corrupt and squandered money, and he introduces Don Ciccilo Matara, the head of the mafia, as well as the priest and some members of the Gentleman’s club. Furthermore, the audience notices at once how the Sicilian society circles around the church. Throughout the movies, we listen to snippets of sermons in which not only are the leftist parties denounced, but Fellini's La Dolce Vita is criticized as well. Lastly, Germi was among the first directors to voice the desires and struggles of the public through film. By making a comedy centered on the fact that divorce is not yet allowed in Italy, Germi truly offered a critique of traditional Italian society in Divorzio all’Italiana.
tagged history italy by cgholmia ...on 10-APR-08
Hinton, David B. The Films of Leni Riefenstahl. Filmmakers Series, No. 74. Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 2000.
David B. Hinton provides a succinct history and analysis of Olympia in his chapter of the same title in his collection of works on Riefenstahl’s films. He holds it to be the first truly successful film about the Olympics, having been a massive undertaking that captured the spirit and beauty of the games in ways that previous newsreel footage could not. He praises the prologue of the film, set in the Greece, which connects the games to their ancient roots and implies the unchanging nature of beauty. He spends some time detailing the meticulous preparations Riefenstahl made for shooting the film such as devising innovative camera techniques that influenced how sports would be shot from then on. He goes on to describe Riefenstahl’s perfectionist quality, as she controlled every aspect of production to the minutest detail. The end result of her toils was that the film did not just record the games but rather illustrated the essence of each event, such as the physical strain of the marathon and the beauty of the divers.
The chapter discusses some of the accusations of propaganda leveled against the film but discredits most of them. Hinton notes that Riefenstahl’s use of retakes made the film less of a historical documentary but more of an artistic vision, which could potentially aid any propaganda aims. Still, he rejects the presence of Hitler in the film as evidence of propaganda because his appearance is brief and unspectacular. Furthermore, Riefenstahl’s choice to give the black Jesse Owens significant credit for his athletic accomplishments instead of downplaying them undercuts any support for racist Nazi ideology. The Germans are not portrayed as a “master race,” but rather internationalism is honored, as the Olympic flag is the dominant symbol, not the swastika. Some critics have contended that the glorification of competitiveness and strength reflects fascist ideals, but Hinton argues that this is an inherent quality of the Olympics themselves and not the film.
tagged hinton history leni nazi olympia propaganda riefenstahl by holoszyc ...on 10-APR-08
Mandell, Richard D. The Nazi Olympics. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1971.
Richard D. Mandell’s work on the 1936 Olympics provides a notably positive overview of Olympia in his chapter “The Olympics Preserved.” The chapter begins with background information about Riefenstahl, her career, and her close relationship with Hitler. Mandell then turns to the film itself and notes its technical achievements in areas such as editing and its use of zoom lenses and slow motion, which ultimately contributed to a dramatic cinematic experience that was unprecedented in sports film. Mandell likens Riefenstahl in the editing process of the film to composing a masterpiece more than a documentary film. He then spends some time analyzing particular scenes to reveal their drama and beauty, but notes that the second part of the film, “Festival of Beauty,” is less successful than the first because it is more disjointed and varied. The chapter ends with a discussion of Riefenstahl’s disgrace after World War II for her associations with the Nazi party, a fate the author considers lamentable given her artistic genius.
Mandell’s appraisal of Olympia is mostly positive, and he considers the film to be largely non-political and lacking in propagandistic content. He points out the prominence of black and Asian athletes in the film as evidence of the film’s disassociation with racist Nazi beliefs. He acknowledges that the mass exercise scene is reminiscent of the grand and awe-inspiring shots of Triumph of the Will, but contends that it is nonpolitical and only meant to convey beauty. Mandell does admit, however, that the film does capture the Nazis’ promotion of nationalism through the games’ intense communal competitiveness.
tagged history leni mandell nazi olympia olympics propaganda riefenstahl by holoszyc ...on 10-APR-08
Overy outlines the main factors essential to understanding the outbreak and
subsequent character of the Second World War. He presents the political, social, economic,
military, and imperial contexts of each of the major powers that would enter World War Two
and analyzes them for the domestic and international spheres. He divides the book into chapters
on: the crisis in international politics especially within diplomacy and international
relations, the economic and imperial rivalries between the nation-states, armament policies,
the conflict over Poland, the outbreak of the war, and a final assessment on the role
that Adolf Hitler played in causing the start of World War Two. Overy does not present a
particular argument or controversial analysis of the factors that set the stage for the Second
World War but rather seeks to provide a comprehensive overview of the world in the 1930s
that can serve as a guide to more in-depth study of the war itself.
Overy's review of America in the pre-World War Two period is helpful in understanding "The
Philadelphia Story" in its historical context. The film was made in 1940 when World War Two
had already been going on in Europe and Japan for a year but before the United States
entered the conflict. The points that Overy highlights that best contribute to an understanding
of the film are America's public opinion and foreign policy in these years. He explains that
the United States had a staunchly isolationist attitude towards foreign relations in this
period. America was a strong and significant player on the world stage however because of its
industrial power which translated into economic might. The topic of financial security and
how it is linked to fear of change is one that is also pervasive throughout "The
Philadelphia Story". The Lords' and Havens' are established families of the American cultural
elite that have flourished for generations in their familiar hometown, Philadelphia. They
enjoy the comforts of an economically secure lifestyle; but they and their entire class
are wary of changes to the social conventions in their community. Overy's explanation
of the American public in the 1930s and 1940s helps extend the attitude exhibited
by the Lord's to the U.S. population. Just like Dexter hates to see Tracy change in a marriage
to George, the United States did not want to see its lifestyle changed by involvement
in a war; they did not want to experience it in real life and they certainly did not
want to see representations of these kinds of major changes on screen when they went to the
movies.
Call#: Van Pelt Library F3431 .K53 2000
In looking at social structures at the time, one finds that the oligarchical system of government in Lima parallels the emergence of a class of wealthy rubber barons that Herzog portrays in Fitzcarraldo. The rubber boom, while separated from the rest of the economy falls into a period of growth in Peru, making the growth in the Amazon similar to that of the rest of the county. By knowing the rest of the political and economic climate of turn of the century Peru, one can understand why so many foreigners had come to be in Peru at the time. One can also better understand why the fictional Fitzcarraldo stayed in Peru after the failure of his railroad. Lastly the perpetuation of the myth of an Amazonian El Dorado likely influenced Herzog in his decision to film there, particularly in his earlier film Aguirre.
Palmer, A. (2000). 20th century treatment of mental illness. Mental Health World, 2, Retrieved April 8, 2008, from http://www.mentalhealthworld.org/29ap.html
This article by Ann Palmer investigates the history of the treatment of mental illness. It begins by looking at the view of mental illness in the 19th century. In those times, the insane were viewed as incurable and subhuman, condemned to life in jail cells or almshouses. As time went on, however, professionals dealing with the mentally ill were expected to treat them with respect and compassion. This led to the rise of the asylum system, whose main goal was to isolate “lunatics” in hopes that this would be therapeutic and enable them to return to the “normal” community. These asylums employed such techniques as wrist and ankle restraints, and stupor-inducing drugs, to force the mentally ill into docility. After the conditions of asylums were made known, responsibility for the mentally ill moved to the state. It was hoped that this would ensure better conditions for the inmates. Even so, these new state mental hospitals were far from ideal. Misguided treatments included untested drugs, electroconvulsive therapy, induced seizures, and, perhaps more horrifying of all, lobotomies.
In the 50s and 60s, and most notably with President Kennedy's Community Mental Health Centers Act, there began a movement towards shifting the treatment of the mentally ill from an asylum system to a community-based mental health system. Though this tended to ignore the more severely and chronically ill patients, it did enable many patients to live independently within a community, and was a vast improvement to the mental hospitals of before. Films such as Cuckoo's Nest also served to persuade the public against the use of electroconvulsive shock therapy, and led to the focus of the medical community on antipsychotic drugs instead.
This article is significant to the film because it describes the difficulties in mental health care that the movie illuminates. One of the most powerful aspects of the film is its portrayal of a psychiatric ward. Though on the surface the ward is clean, well-kept, and tightly run, there is an undercurrent of repression and cruelty. Cuckoo's Nest serves just as well as an eye-opener as it does a critique of mental hospital conditions. The film takes place in the 60s, after the archaic asylum system was demolished, but before the community-based system firmly took hold. We can see evidence of this transition phase in the film. The laughable “group therapy” sessions, and Nurse Ratched's tireless insistence that the inmates behave in a manner compliant with the entire ward's desires are signs of the effort to move toward community mental health care. This system is even parodied in the film. When McMurphy attempts to change the TV schedule for a day in order to watch the World Series, Nurse Ratched demands a majority vote. She claims that schedule changes are to be made only if they are accepted by the whole community, even though only one more vote would enable McMurphy to win. This mocks the idea that there is even such a thing as a communally beneficial system.
There are signs, too, of the older, more barbaric mental health care facilities. When a few of the inmates cause an uproar during one of the group meetings, they are all sentenced to a round of electroconvulsive therapy. The procedure is shown with dramatic realism, and presents it as a form of brutality. In the powerful ending, McMurphy is shown after having undergone a lobotomy: a blank, mindless drone devoid of any of the human nature and individuality he came in with.
tagged history mental_illness mental_ward by ksam ...and 1 other person ...on 09-APR-08
A blast from the past (including good old electric erasers ;)
Now updated to include preservation and circulation artifacts, and other misc. library 'technology'
tagged arson history investigations wtc by laallen ...on 19-MAR-08
tagged history neighborhoods pcpc philadelphia places planning by laallen ...and 1 other person ...on 08-FEB-08
tagged addresses history philadelphia streets by laallen ...and 3 other people ...on 08-FEB-08
tagged architecture buildings history philadelphia by laallen ...and 3 other people ...on 08-FEB-08
tagged history philadelphia photos by laallen ...and 3 other people ...on 08-FEB-08
tagged history maps pennsylvania philadelphia by laallen ...and 2 other people ...on 08-FEB-08
tagged atlases census history maps philadelphia by laallen ...and 2 other people ...on 08-FEB-08
tagged GIS census history stats tracts by laallen ...and 6 other people ...on 08-FEB-08
tagged census genealogy history hspv philadelphia schedules by laallen ...and 7 other people ...on 08-FEB-08
tagged essential history resources by okrent ...and 1 other person ...on 04-FEB-08
tagged essential history resources by okrent ...and 63 other people ...on 04-FEB-08
tagged essential history resources by okrent ...and 39 other people ...on 04-FEB-08
tagged essential history resources by okrent ...and 55 other people ...on 04-FEB-08
Call#: Van Pelt Library AS32 .A5 no.215B
History of manufactures in the United States : 1607-1860
by Victor S Clark
| Type: | Book |
| Language: | English |
| Publisher: | Washington, D.C. : Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1916. |
| Editions: | 12 Editions |
| OCLC: | 20302798 |
Call#: Storage: From RECORD page, use Place Request tab 609 B54
tagged essential history resources by okrent ...and 39 other people ...on 15-JAN-08
tagged essential history resources by okrent ...and 1 other person ...on 15-JAN-08
tagged essential history resources by okrent ...and 63 other people ...on 15-JAN-08
tagged essential history resources by okrent ...and 16 other people ...on 15-JAN-08
tagged essential history resources by okrent ...and 23 other people ...on 15-JAN-08
tagged essential history resources by okrent ...and 55 other people ...on 15-JAN-08
Call#: Van Pelt Library GE155.O7 R63 2004
Call#: Van Pelt Library GE155.O7 R63 1997
Call#: Van Pelt Library E99.N5 J6
Call#: Van Pelt Library F851.5 .G684 1992
Call#: Van Pelt Library HD9757.A5 C69
Call#: Van Pelt Library GE155.W47 S46 1998
tagged buildings geohistory gis hexamer history maps philadelphia phillymaps places by laallen ...on 30-NOV-07
tagged history neighborhoods pcpc philadelphia places planning by laallen ...and 1 other person ...on 01-NOV-07
tagged aerials historic_maps history maps philadelphia places by laallen ...on 01-NOV-07
Call#: Van Pelt Library HB3583 .D44 2000
Call#: Van Pelt Library DA125.I7 I76 2002
Call#: Van Pelt Library R498.6 .F37 2004
Call#: 314.15 G792 Ind
Call#: Van Pelt Library HB3589 .D35 2006
By Edward Weiner
Published 1999 Praeger/Greenwood
247 pages
ISBN 0275963292
Summary
The development of U.S. urban transportation policy over the past 50 years illustrates the changing relationship between federal, state, and local governments. This comprehensive text examines the evolution of urban transportation planning from early developments in highway planning in the 1930s to the concern for sustainable development and pollution emissions. Focusing on major national events, the book discusses the influence of legislation, regulations, conferences, federal programs, and advances in planning procedures and technology. The book offers an in-depth look at the most significant event in transportation planning--the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1962. Creating a federal mandate for a comprehensive urban transportation planning process carried out cooperatively by states and local governments with federal funding, this act was crucial in the spread of urban transporation. Claiming that urban transportation planning is more sophisticated, costly, and complex than its highway and transit planning predecessors, the book demonstrates how urban transportation planning evolved in response to changes in such factors as environment, energy, development patterns, intergovernmental coordination, and federal transit programs. It further illustrates how broader concerns for global climate change and sustainable development have braided the purview of transportation planning.
tagged architecture geohistory history maps philadelphia places by laallen ...and 2 other people ...on 12-JUL-07
Curb Job
By PETE HAMILL
Taxi drivers are the most enduring oppressed minority in New York City history. Race, ethnicity and religion are not sources of the oppression. It lies entirely in the nature of the work. Trapped for about 12 hours each day in the worst traffic in the United States, taxi drivers must suffer the savage frustrations of jammed streets, double-parked cars, immense trucks, drivers from New Jersey - and they can't succumb to the explosive therapy of road rage. Their living depends on self-control.
At the same time, they face many other hazards: drunks behind them in the cab, fare beaters, stickup men, Knicks fans filled with biblical despair, out-of-town conventioneers who think the drivers are mobile pimps. Some seal themselves off from the back seat with the radio, an iPod or a cellphone. All pray that the next passenger doesn't want to go from Midtown to the far reaches of Brooklyn or Queens. They hope for a decent tip. They hope to stay alive until the next fare waves from under a midnight streetlamp.
In this informative, solid history, Graham Russell Gao Hodges traces the story of the cabdrivers from 1907, when the first metered taxis appeared on New York streets, to the present. He writes with obvious sympathy, having driven a hack himself before moving on to academic labors as a historian at Peking University and Colgate. Loneliness is a running theme in "Taxi!": if the title were not already taken, Hodges could have called his compact history "One Hundred Years of Solitude.
tagged american film history korea korean_war by mangano ...and 1 other person ...on 03-APR-07
tagged addresses history philadelphia streets by laallen ...and 3 other people ...on 07-MAR-07
Call#: Van Pelt Library P90 .G4776 2006
p. 78 "The cultural data of phonograph records was importantly a matter of representation....In many respects it was their physical quality as standardized, mass-produced goods taht helped to enforce their quality as specific cultural data, even as the culture they representd proved variable and unspecific in the extreme....What I am suggesting is that phonograph records frequently proved transgressive of the very cultural categories that they helped to represent as distinct or specific."
on "ethnic" records see Lizbeth Cohen (1990, 105), Victor Greene (1992)
Call#: Van Pelt Library F548.9.A1 W37 2005
Architecture
Rehabilitating Robert Moses
By ROBIN POGREBIN
FOR three decades his image has been frozen in time. The bulldozing bully who callously displaced thousands of New Yorkers in the name of urban renewal. The public-works kingpin who championed highways as he starved mass transit. And yes, the visionary idealist who gave New York Lincoln Center and Jones Beach, along with parks, roads, playgrounds and public pools.
This is the Robert Moses most of us know today, courtesy of Robert A. Caro's Pulitzer Prize-winning biography from 1974, "The Power Broker," which charts Moses' long reign as city parks commissioner (1934-60) and chairman of the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority (1946-68). A 1,286-page book that reads like a novel, it won a Pulitzer Prize and virtually redefined the biographical genre by raising the bar for contemporary research. Today it remains the premier text on the evolution of 20th-century New York, a portrait of a man who used his power without regard for the human toll.
Call#: Lippincott Library HE5623 .G63 1994
tagged history periodicals by okrent ...and 1 other person ...on 05-DEC-06
tagged books history by okrent ...and 7 other people ...on 04-DEC-06
tagged History books by okrent ...and 12 other people ...on 04-DEC-06
tagged books history by okrent ...and 8 other people ...on 04-DEC-06
Major works in historical scholarship. A project of the American Council of Learned Societies.
tagged history by okrent ...and 2 other people ...on 01-DEC-06
tagged history by okrent ...and 2 other people ...on 01-DEC-06
from publisher...
What is the magic formula for turning a place into a high-tech capital? How can a city or region become a high-tech powerhouse like Silicon Valley? For over half a century, through boom times and bust, business leaders and politicians have tried to become "the next Silicon Valley," but few have succeeded. This book examines why high-tech development became so economically important late in the twentieth century, and why its magic formula of people, jobs, capital, and institutions has been so difficult to replicate. Margaret O'Mara shows that high-tech regions are not simply accidental market creations but "cities of knowledge"--planned communities of scientific production that were shaped and subsidized by the original venture capitalist, the Cold War defense complex.
At the heart of the story is the American research university, an institution enriched by Cold War spending and actively engaged in economic development. The story of the city of knowledge broadens our understanding of postwar urban history and of the relationship between civil society and the state in late twentieth-century America. It leads us to further redefine the American suburb as being much more than formless "sprawl," and shows how it is in fact the ultimate post-industrial city. Understanding this history and geography is essential to planning for the future of the high-tech economy, and this book is must reading for anyone interested in building the next Silicon Valley.
Margaret Pugh O'Mara teaches history at Stanford University. The dissertation this book is based upon won the Urban History Association's award for Best Dissertation in Urban History completed in 2002.
from publisher...
What is the magic formula for turning a place into a high-tech capital? How can a city or region become a high-tech powerhouse like Silicon Valley? For over half a century, through boom times and bust, business leaders and politicians have tried to become "the next Silicon Valley," but few have succeeded. This book examines why high-tech development became so economically important late in the twentieth century, and why its magic formula of people, jobs, capital, and institutions has been so difficult to replicate. Margaret O'Mara shows that high-tech regions are not simply accidental market creations but "cities of knowledge"--planned communities of scientific production that were shaped and subsidized by the original venture capitalist, the Cold War defense complex.
At the heart of the story is the American research university, an institution enriched by Cold War spending and actively engaged in economic development. The story of the city of knowledge broadens our understanding of postwar urban history and of the relationship between civil society and the state in late twentieth-century America. It leads us to further redefine the American suburb as being much more than formless "sprawl," and shows how it is in fact the ultimate post-industrial city. Understanding this history and geography is essential to planning for the future of the high-tech economy, and this book is must reading for anyone interested in building the next Silicon Valley.
Margaret Pugh O'Mara teaches history at Stanford University. The dissertation this book is based upon won the Urban History Association's award for Best Dissertation in Urban History completed in 2002.
Episode #6 of the Boing Boing Boing podcast is ready for downloading. Our guest for this edition is author Steven Johnson, whose new book "The Ghost Map" my blog-mate Pesco describes as:
An account of an 1854 cholera outbreak on London's Broad Street [and] a magnificent combination of science thriller, cultural history, and celebration of cartography as a powerful tool to help us understand the dynamics of urban life.
Call#: Van Pelt Library HN13 .D5 2005
Cited by Susan McClary in OHWM review.
-from PubMed Central
tagged clinical examination history icm laboratory medicine physical by rodrigue ...on 03-SEP-06
Call#: Van Pelt Library Reference Stacks JF1001 .M17 1991
Call#: Van Pelt Library Reference Stacks JF1001 .E37 1989
Call#: Van Pelt Library JN94.A95 H69 1998
Call#: Van Pelt Library 324 SE991 V.1
Call#: Van Pelt Library HN80.P5 D58
Call#: Portfolio G1264.P5 G46 1895 B7
Call#: Fine Arts Library Reference NA6830 .G578 1994
Call#: Van Pelt Library Rosengarten Reserve PN1998.3.L82 E34 1997
Call#: Ctr for Adv Judaic Studies Lib, 4th & Walnut Sts. PN1998.A3 L833 1984
Call#: Van Pelt Library Reference Stacks PN1993.45 .E53 2005
Call#: Van Pelt Library Rosengarten Reserve F158.3 .P5664 1982
Call#: Van Pelt Library Reference Desk F158.18 .I58 1995
Call#: Van Pelt Library F158.3 .J15
Call#: Van Pelt Library BS1485.3 .N5313 1998
The Postillae of Nicholas of Lyra was the first biblical commentary to be printed. His Postillae on the Song of Songs was very widely read; it was reprinted in 34 editions by 1550. The word "postilla" apparently derives from the Latin post illa [verba], "after these words" used in medieval sermons; it refers to comments on biblical texts. Nicholas's Literal Postilla explained the Biblical text word by word.
Nicholas was a Franciscan. He read Hebrew and used Rabbinic sources such as Rashi. He knew that דדיך ddyk in Song 1:2 should be translated "amores" instead of "ubera". In his view, the first six chapters of the Song recount the history of Israel from the Exodus to the return from Babylonian Exile, and the last two chapters recount the history of the Church to Constantine.
tagged canticles history interpretation song_of_songs by jtreat ...on 21-JUN-06
Call#: Van Pelt Library G3824.P5 1966 D3
Call#: Van Pelt Library PN1991.2 .R33 2002
Excellent chapter 4 (pp. 63-88) Derek Vaillant, "Your Voice Cam in Last Night....but I thought it Sounded a Little Scared": Rural Radio Listening and "Talking Back" during the Progressive Era in Wisconisn, 1920-1932. University-run radio station wanted to program classical music, farmers (for whom the station was largely for) wanted to hear their (fiddler) music.
tagged highbrow_lowbrow history radio technology by dkelly ...and 1 other person ...on 14-JUN-06
Call#: Van Pelt Library HQ503 .S56 2003
History of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present.
Holdings: 1964 to present. Updated three times a year.
The History of Medicine subset of PubMed includes citations to journal articles in the history of the health and biomedical sciences dating back to 1966. New records are added to PubMed daily.
This page shows how to search for historical articles in PubMed.
tagged documentation history medicine nursing_stats by laallen ...on 31-MAY-06
Reproduces decennial census schedules and forms, 1790 through 2000. Provides history of decennial census and specific questions.
tagged census documentation history nursing_stats united_stats by laallen ...on 31-MAY-06
Population and housing data for all U.S. states and counties, 1790 to 1960, based on decennial census of population and housing. Provides basic counts of population and housing, including race, gender, and some measure of household size and composition. For 1840 to 1960, economic characteristics such as education and occupation are included. Later decades have many variables, including ancestry, literacy, and income variables.
tagged census history nursing_stats stats united_stats by laallen ...on 31-MAY-06
PDF-format versions of historic US decennial census volumes, 1790 to present. Topics covered include basic counts of population and housing, with race and gender, for the nation, states, counties, townships and municipalities, and some small areas (e.g., wards). From 1840 to present, social and economic information is provided.
Holdings: 1790 to present (backfile in progress: 1790-1860, 1990-2000 available)
tagged census history nursing_stats stats united_stats by laallen ...and 1 other person ...on 31-MAY-06
REQUIRES FREE REGISTRATION. Census microdata from historic national censuses, U.S. and worldwide. Only provides microdata data sets, with data subsetting and extraction, and documentation. Frequency distributions and crosstabulations not provided.
tagged census data history nursing_stats united_stats by laallen ...and 2 other people ...on 31-MAY-06
USE OF ICPSR DATA REQUIRES STATISTICAL PROCESSING SOFTWARE AND GZIP DECOMPRESSION SOFTWARE. Direct-download access to social science quantitative data sets archived by ICPSR. Subjects covered include political science, sociology, demography, history, economics, communication, international relations, gerontology, public health, criminal justice, and education. The ICPSR archive includes almost all major studies in the social sciences, including the General Social Survey and International Social Survey Program, decennial Census of Population and Housing, American National Election Study, Eurobarometer, Voter News Service exit polls, US Congressional and UN roll call votes, National Crime Victimization Survey, and public opinion polls. Special topic archives, with limited interactive tabulation and extraction capability, cover health and medical care, international education, aging, criminal justice, and substance abuse and mental health.
Holdings: 1962-present.
tagged data history nursing_stats united_stats by laallen ...and 3 other people ...on 31-MAY-06
REQUIRES FREE REGISTRATION. Question-level data from public opinion polls. Almost 400,000 questions from polls, 1935 to present, based upon Roper Center-archived surveys with US national adult samples or samples of large subnational populations. Links to Roper Center data catalog holdings are provided. RPOLL provides a less functional interface to iPOLL through LexisNexis Academic.
Holdings: 1935 to present. Updated daily.
tagged history nursing_stats polling united_stats by laallen ...and 5 other people ...on 31-MAY-06
The best starting-place for statistical information on the United States, for the colonial era and 1790-2000 (including the Confederate States of America). Presents 37,339 data series on population (including vital statistics, immigration and emigration), work and welfare (including labor, slavery, education, health, economic inequality and poverty, social insurance and public assistance), economic structure and performance (includuing national income and national product, business cycles, prices, consumer expenditures, savings, capital, and wealth, business organization, and financial markets and institutions), business sectors and industries, and governance and international relations (including government finance, elections and politics, crime and law enformcement, wars, armed forces, and veterans, and international trade and exchange rates).
tagged history nursing_stats stats united_stats by laallen ...and 3 other people ...on 31-MAY-06
Call#: Van Pelt Library ML3795 .K82 1996
tagged history technology by dkelly ...on 11-MAY-06
Call#: Van Pelt Library ML1055 .D37 2000
Call#: Van Pelt Library DS777.55 C446729 1988
Call#: Van Pelt Library TK6545.A1 G37 1994
tagged history radio technology by dkelly ...on 08-MAY-06
tagged film history by okrent ...and 1 other person ...on 05-MAY-06
tagged film history by okrent ...and 1 other person ...on 05-MAY-06
Call#: Van Pelt Library SF336.W475 H68 2005
As the 132nd running of the Kentucky Derby approaches, the Times's Joe Drape recalls the legacy of African-American jockey Jimmy Winkfield.
Call#: Fine Arts Library NK5106 .G56 2003
Call#: Van Pelt Library DS777.55 C446729 1988
Call#: Van Pelt Library UA646.3 .S794 1987
tagged Cold_War History NATO Nuclear_Weapons United_States by bfields ...on 10-APR-06
Call#: Van Pelt Library JX1974.7 .S417 1987
tagged Cold_War History Nuclear_Weapons United_States by bfields ...on 10-APR-06
Call#: Van Pelt Library UA646.3 .S38 1983
tagged Cold_War History NATO Nuclear_Weapons United_States by bfields ...on 10-APR-06
Call#: Van Pelt Library U43.G3 L526 1986
tagged Cold_War Federal_Republic-of_Germany Germany History Nuclear_Weapons by bfields ...on 10-APR-06
Call#: Van Pelt Library UA23 .M67
tagged Cold_War History NATO Nuclear_Weapons Soviet_Union United_States by bfields ...on 10-APR-06
Call#: Van Pelt Library D845 .K5
tagged Cold_War Germany History NATO Nuclear_Weapons United_States by bfields ...on 10-APR-06
Call#: Van Pelt Library HD9698.G42 K44
tagged Cold_War Federal_Republic-of_Germany Germany History NATO Nuclear_Weapons United_States by bfields ...on 10-APR-06
Call#: Van Pelt Library DD258.8 .H34 1985
tagged Cold_War Federal_Republic-of_Germany Germany History NATO Nuclear_Weapons by bfields ...on 10-APR-06
Call#: Van Pelt Library U263 .F698 2003
tagged Cold_War History NATO Nuclear_Weapons by bfields ...on 10-APR-06
Call#: Van Pelt Library UA646.3 .D33 1991
tagged Cold_War Federal_Republic-of_Germany Germany History NATO Nuclear_Weapons United_States by bfields ...on 10-APR-06
Call#: Van Pelt Library UA646.3 .B767 1983
Call#: Van Pelt Library UA23 .B786 1988
tagged Cold_War History NATO Nuclear_Weapons United_States by bfields ...on 10-APR-06
tagged Cold_War History NATO Nuclear_Weapons United_States by bfields ...on 10-APR-06
Call#: Van Pelt Library U162.6 .B66 1988
tagged Cold_War History NATO Nuclear_Weapons United_States by bfields ...on 10-APR-06
Call#: Van Pelt Library JX1974.7 .B3
tagged Cold_War Federal_Republic-of_Germany Germany History NATO Nuclear_Weapons United_States by bfields ...on 10-APR-06
tagged film history prostitution by philipjm ...on 07-APR-06
Zorzi gives a vivid account of the rise of the Venetian Empire and its eleven-hundred year ‘Golden Age,’ using historical quotations, pictures, diagrams, etc. He traces the history of Venice, from its beginnings as a refuge for Romans, escaping from the barbarians that destroyed their Empire, to its own imperial dominance and mastery of overseas trade. Venice has an almost mythic quality to it, which it why Daphne du Maurier chose to set her short story, Don’t Look Now, in Venice. Zorzi writes of Venice’s beginnings, “Tradition and legend […] surrounds the founding of Venice in a mythology which is almost reminiscent of the Biblical account of the origins of the world” (10). The mysterious quality of the city makes it a perfect setting for Don’t Look Now, which toys with reality and makes us question our historical vision. Zorzi explains that Venice was seen as an “overbearing entity, which aroused hatred suspicion, worry and fear” (7). He describes Venice as an ominous figure, menacing those around it. Roeg captures this negative character of Venice in the film, making the city complicit in the death of John Baxter.
Zorzi explains that the Venetians were “descendants of the Romans that had opted for the freedom of the seas and lagoons rather than bend to the will of barbarian monarchs” (68). Venice is described as a safe-haven, a place for people to escape to (from the crumbling Roman Empire). Don’t Look Now captures this aspect of Venice, because John and Laura are refugees in a way. They are attempting to escape from their pain and sorrow over the death of their daughter by ‘escaping’ to Venice.
Understanding the history of Venice also illuminates certain moments of dialogue in the film. For example, when John says, “The deeper I go, the more Byzantine it gets,” he is referring both to the difficulties that arise as his renovation of the church progresses and the fact that Venice was built by Byzantines (i.e. citizens of the Roman Empire). The devotion of the police officers is also better understood, because, “An extremely strong sense of justice permeates Venetian civilization right from its beginnings” (137)...
tagged Italy Romans Venice city_state history islands lagoon merchant_fleet trade by dhm ...on 06-APR-06
tagged Chaucer Christopher_Nolan Memento Ruth_Evans Troilus film history identity memory by mpopova ...on 06-APR-06
Call#: Van Pelt Library 355.115 K968
This experience is epitomized by the story of Fred Derry (Dana Andrews) in The Best Years of Our Lives. Fred, a simple soda jerk in the service, rose to the rank of Captain during the war and was heavily decorated. Upon his return home, he does not wish to return to his old job, not after all that he experienced in the war. However, he soon finds that his adept skill at accurately dropping bombs and surviving enemy fire does not translate to a good job at home, and finally is forced to accept a job at the drugstore. His retention of his military clothes, in particular his bomber jacket, is representative of his difficulty adjusting to ordinary, civilian status. His inability to adjust to his new life at hom is linked to his inability to give up the prestige and honor the war lent him. In this way, The Best Years of Our Lives was able to recreate a nationwide phenomenon which verterans were experiencing themselves and to which they could relate.
tagged history veterans world_war_II by adesai2 ...on 06-APR-06
Beidler also examines how the use of cinematography serves make The Best Years of Our Lives as true to life as possible. Most notabely, he delineates the production of “democratic shots,” in which innovative camera techniques allow for the focusing on all subjects and actions taking place in a given scene, allowing the audience to decide what to focus on. These “democratic shots” that encompass all action taking place within a given scene also lend the film the feeling of a home video. This point in particular is emphasized in the wedding scene at the end, where the guests’ mingling beforehand, the feeling of close quarters and sense of intimacy in Homer’s family’s small living room and anticipation of the bride are all conveyed through the filming. These insights into efforts to humanize the film and make it as accessible to audiences as possible plays a large role in understanding how the film was able to suceed in allowing people to relate to it, from plot to prop to filming. These less obvious qualities of the film, though small, contribute to audience’s ability to connect with it and its message, rendering it an effective tool in remembering of Word War II, specifically the profound way it changed everything.
tagged america culture film history literature world_war_II by adesai2 ...on 06-APR-06
Call#: Van Pelt Library PN1995.2 .S6 1980
Sorlin defines a historical film as one that “includes dates, events and characters known to all members” of the community of the audience. Even a subset of these details is enough for the audience to read the film as part of the historical genre. The historical film requires an understanding that “something real and unquestionable exists, something which definitely happened and which is history.” Even though this is the general understanding, it is not always the main concern of the filmmakers to reproduce the past accurately, and Sorlin believes that historians should accept this and not worry about mistakes made in the representation of past events. In this sense he agrees with Toplin that minor exaggerations or reconfigurations of the past are excusable. Indeed, as Toplin states, "historical films are all fictional."
The Valley of the Shadow is a digital archive of primary sources that document the lives of people in Augusta County, Virginia, and Franklin County, Pennsylvania, during the era of the American Civil War. Here you may explore thousands of original documents that allow you to see what life was like during the Civil War for the men and women of Augusta and Franklin.
This section shows the routes of battles of union and confederate soldiers in the area.
Call#: Van Pelt Library RA644.A25 G7613 1990
Brief history of the Penguin publishing house, including statement on Lolita and censorship:
1958: Putnam publishes Lolita by Vladimir Nabakov, unleashing a storm of controversy. Banned by public libraries in some American cities—and officially banned by the government of France--the book becomes a best-seller. Along with Norman Mailer's Deer Park, published by Putnam in 1955, Lolita is a landmark victory against the threat of censorship.
tagged Censorship History Lolita Penguin_Publishing by oliviajl ...on 25-JAN-06
On this website, one can find in-depth information pertaining to some of the biggest films ever produced. However, I am going to focus on the 1970s section because Jaws can be found on the page where the movies from 1975 are located. In addition to critiquing the film, reviewer Tim Dirks gives a detailed explanation of major scenes and key dialogue.
Dirks describes Steven Spielberg’s Jaws as a “…masterful, visceral and realistic science-fiction suspense/horror-disaster film” and even compared it to Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. Additionally, there is a list of five sources that Dirks tells us both Benchley and Spielberg used in the writing of the book and the making of the film. With these resources, one can easily draw parallels to Moby Dick or even 19th-century literature.
Furthermore, there is a section that includes information and notes on how the production schedule was delayed and other such details. Along with these facts, Dirks also writes about the setting in which Jaws takes place – Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.
Perhaps one of the best features of the article on the film is that Dirks includes the historical significance of how Jaws was released nationwide with the aid of prime-time television advertising. He also states that the film was an impetus for future “blockbusters” that were to be released in the summer. The film Jaws is obviously an important Hollywood film, and this website gives one an excellent starting point from which to begin collecting information or data.
The book also has relevance to the film in its analysis of the immutability of the bureaucratic system, Jacoby writes, “the attempt on the part of democratic movements to break out of this bureaucratic closed sphere always ends by leading back into it;” evidence of this comes from both the women who are unable to make any progress in fixing the cesspool in their neighborhood and Kimura, who rises in an attempt to follow Watanabe’s example, but ends up right back at his desk where he started.
A possible explanation for the two-part structure of the films if that, as a bureaucratic, “the individual must […] undertake an essential schism within himself.” Jacoby is saying that the bureaucrat must make a distinction between the ‘bureaucratic’ self and the ‘social’ self, which is what Watanabe has been unable to do. The two selves are one and the same in Watanabe, and when he separates the two, by deciding to do something about the cesspool (which is in contrast to what his ‘bureaucratic’ self would do), the film separates in two. Now this might be inferring too much, but the text does offer many insights into the film that none of the other authors have made. While the book deals neither with cinema nor Ikiru, it provides an understanding of the process of bureaucratization and the bureaucratic system that allows for applications to the film. By applying these concepts and theories to the film, one comes away with a unique understanding of the film.
tagged Europe Ikiru Max_Weber Russia bureaucracy bureaucratization history by dhm ...on 29-NOV-05
Lichtenstein traces a history of the Southern antebellum labor economy, focusing on its convict labor penal system. Lichtenstein cites LeRoy's film specifically, arguing that the film (and Burns’s autobiography) position southern chain gangs against modernity. However, chain gangs represented the South’s attempt to participate in northern economic industrialism. Chain gangs developed roads and infrastructures, enriching the south’s economy and expanding its participation in American culture and accelerated networks of communication. Thus, Lichtenstein "joins a growing number of studies that reject the dichotomy between a modern and antimodern South, and instead seek to link the region’s most appalling features to the process of modernization itself” (xvi). Chain gangs facilitated the South's response to economic and cultural pressures posed by the nation's dominant industries. Thus, the financial corruption and penal brutality which the chain gangs made conspicuous to the nation represent the South’s efforts to progress and to modernize.
If mounting Depression social anxieties also threatened Hollywood's cultural and economic dominance in 1932, then Warner Brothers' total vilification of the chain gangs, which it depicts as embodying a barbaric and regressive South, suggests a financial motivation for the studio's misreading of the Southern penal system. Of course, markets incentives motivated every aspect of Hollywood production, from Warner Brothers’ propagandization of Chain Gang as a uniquely subversive film – to lure audiences who tended to shy away from overtly political films in 1932 – to the studios’ collusion with FDR to circumvent antitrust proceedings. However, Lichtenstein’s situation of the film within a more complex modernity dialogue puts pressure on conservative Jack Warner’s selection of this story as a vehicle for conveying to the nation his studio’s radical politics. By denying technology and modern industry’s implication in a variety of problems associated with Great Depression society, WB propagandized commercial cinema as a revolutionary alternative to sites of purported cultural backwardness which are in reality much more complex than a Hollywood film reveals.
tagged South history racism by hennefem ...on 25-NOV-05
I will write an excellent bibliography on this film.
tagged american blacklisting film history mccarthyism mines politics salt_of_the_earth by jarson ...and 1 other person ...on 04-NOV-05
Pfaelzer, J. (1999). Salt of the Earth: Women, Class, and the Utopian Imagination. Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers, 16 (1): 120-31.
This is an article that deals with representations of working women and class in the film.
tagged american blacklisting class film history hollywood mccarthyism politics salt_of_the_earth women by jarson ...on 04-NOV-05
tagged american blacklisting film history hollywood mccarthyism politics salt_of_the_earth screenplay by jarson ...and 1 other person ...on 04-NOV-05
tagged american blacklisting film history hollywood mccarthyism politics salt_of_the_earth by jarson ...and 1 other person ...on 04-NOV-05
seems like a good introduction



