From Dead Ends to Cold Warriors: Constructing American Boyhood in Postwar Hollywood Films

Peter W.Y. Lee

Published by Rutgers University Press 2021

From Dead Ends to Cold Warriors

Constructing American Boyhood in Postwar Hollywood Films

Peter W.Y. Lee

https://doi.org/10.36019/9781978813502

Overview
Contents

About this book

After World War II, studies examining youth culture on the silver screen start with James Dean. But the angst that Dean symbolized—anxieties over parents, the “Establishment,” and the expectations of future citizen-soldiers—long predated Rebels without a Cause. Historians have largely overlooked how the Great Depression and World War II impacted and shaped the Cold War, and youth contributed to the national ideologies of family and freedom. From Dead Ends to Cold Warriors explores this gap by connecting facets of boyhood as represented in American film from the 1930s to the postwar years. From the Andy Hardy series to pictures such as The Search, Intruder in the Dust, and The Gunfighter, boy characters addressed larger concerns over the dysfunctional family unit, militarism, the “race question,” and the international scene as the Korean War began. Navigating the political, social, and economic milieus inside and outside of Hollywood, Peter W.Y. Lee demonstrates that continuities from the 1930s influenced the unique postwar moment, coalescing into anticommunism and the Cold War.

Author / Editor information

PETER W.Y. LEE is an independent historian specializing in American history and youth culture. He has published widely on comic books, film, and television. His most recent edited volume is Peanuts and American Culture: Essays on Charles M. Schulz’s Iconic Comic Strip.

Reviews

"A specter was haunting mid-twentieth century Hollywood – the specter of the rebellious boy. Peter W.Y. Lee ably shows how US filmmakers of the period created a cast of culturally potent boy characters to arbitrate conflicts of age, gender, race, class, and political ideology at the dawning of the American Century. From Dead Ends to Cold Warriors is required reading for historians of youth, film, and the early Cold War."

— Mischa Honeck, author of Our Frontier Is the World, The Boy Scouts in the Age of American Ascendancy

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Foreword Claude Jarman Jr Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Abbreviations Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Chronology Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
Introduction: Are the Kids All Right? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1 The Family in Trouble, 1920–1945 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	10
2 Gable Is Able: Re-creating the Postwar Family Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	31
3 Curbing Delinquency: Hot Rodding and Hot Rods Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	55
4 Whitewashing the Race Cycle in 1949 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	88
5 The International Picture Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	117
Conclusion Revising the “Deanlinquent" Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	147
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	161
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	163
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	209
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	233
About the Author Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	241

Language: English
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Audience: College/higher education;
Pages
- Main content: 257
Illustrations
- Other: 35 b-w images, 4 color images, 2 tables
Keywords: Hollywood; Film; Media; Culture; War Culture; World War II; James Dean; Citizens; Soldiers; Great Depression; Cold War; America; Film Culture; Cinema; Militarism; Family; Politics; Society; 1930s; Postwar; Anticommunism; Movement; Youth; Nationalism; History

eBook

Published: February 12, 2021
ISBN: 9781978813502