UMass Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press

Tony Shaw

Examines the role of American filmmakers in the ideological struggle against communism

At a moment when American film reflects a deepening preoccupation with the Bush administration's War on Terror, this authoritative and timely book offers the first comprehensive account of Hollywood's propaganda role during the defining ideological conflict of the twentieth century: the Cold War. In an analysis of films dating from America's first Red Scare in the wake of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution to the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Tony Shaw examines the complex relationship between filmmakers, censors, politicians, and government propagandists.

Movies, Shaw demonstrates, were at the center of the Cold War's battle for hearts and minds. Hollywood's comedies, love stories, musicals, thrillers, documentaries, and science fiction shockers played a critical dual role: on the one hand teaching millions of Americans why communism represented the greatest threat their country had ever faced, and on the other selling America's liberal-capitalist ideas around the globe.

Drawing on declassified government documents, studio archives, and filmmakers' private papers, Shaw reveals the different ways in which cinematic propaganda was produced, disseminated, and received by audiences during the Cold War. In the process, he addresses subjects as diverse as women's fashions, McCarthyism, drug smuggling, Christianity, and American cultural diplomacy in India. Anyone seeking to understand wartime propaganda today will find striking contemporary resonance in his conclusions about Hollywood's versatility and power.

"This is a complex and rewarding book held together with a coherent argument but not afraid to admit the many-sided possibilities when interpreting cultural products. . . . This is a fine, well-researched work."

H-Net Reviews

"A very broad and inclusive history of the interaction between U.S. films and the Cold War, covering the period from 1917 to 1989. Basing his narrative on extensive research, including archival materials, Shaw is objective and analytical in his approach. He deals with a wide variety of genres: documentaries, government, and Hollywood; the repressive atmosphere of the McCarthy era; the Vietnam War; the struggle for civil rights; and government subsidies. The U.S. position during the Cold War influenced and was influenced by Hollywood films. Presidents of both parties, bureaucrats, and security agencies, and military leaders used film to spread pro-American ideas and images, with mixed success. The book has extensive footnotes and an excellent bibliography. Important for political and cultural history. Highly recommended."

CHOICE

"[A] sprightly and very informative volume, which analyzes how Communists and their adversaries were shown on the big screen. Shaw also provides an often intriguing backstory in which particular forces and folks make the artifacts of mass culture that help shape perceptions . . . The extent of Shaw's research in official records and studio files, plus comprehensive trolling of the secondary sources, is bound to satisfy the most exacting standards, but in Hollywood's Cold War he wisely opts for case studies rather than synoptic breadth."

Journal of Cold War Studies

"[Shaw] makes a persuasive case. It is abetted by a levelheaded tone, a crisply informative manner, and an approach more concerned with telling a story than grinding an ax."

American Historical Review

“Politically nuanced, historically contextualized, and internationally informed, Hollywood's Cold War is essential reading for anyone interested in this fascinating subject. Tony Shaw's analysis is both penetrating and comprehensive. The broad range of films he studies will greatly expand conventional understandings of the Cold War's impact on American filmmaking.”

Christian G. Appy, author of Patriots:
The Vietnam War Remembered from All Sides

Tony Shaw is reader in international history at the University of Hertfordshire.

American Studies / Film Studies
352 pp., 42 illus.
$29.95 paper, ISBN 978-1-55849-612-5
$98.00 library cloth edition, ISBN 978-1-55849-611-8
November 2007
For sale in the U.S. and Canada only

A volume in the series Culture, Politics, and the Cold War

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