One World, Big Screen: Hollywood, the Allies, and World War II

by M. Todd Bennett

Overview

World War II coincided with cinema's golden age. Movies now considered classics were created at a time when all sides in the war were coming to realize the great power of popular films to motivate the masses. Through multinational research, One World, Big Screen reveals how the Grand Alliance--Britain, China, the Soviet Union, and the United States--tapped Hollywood's impressive power to shrink the distance and bridge the differences that separated them. The Allies, M. Todd Bennett shows, strategically manipulated cinema in an effort to promote the idea that the United Nations was a family of nations joined by blood and affection.
Bennett revisits Casablanca, Mrs. Miniver, Flying Tigers, and other familiar movies that, he argues, helped win the war and the peace by improving Allied solidarity and transforming the American worldview. Closely analyzing film, diplomatic correspondence, propagandists' logs, and movie studio records found in the United States, the United Kingdom, and the former Soviet Union, Bennett rethinks traditional scholarship on World War II diplomacy by examining the ways that Hollywood and the Allies worked together to prepare for and enact the war effort.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807837467
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	11/01/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	384
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

M. Todd Bennett is associate professor of history at East Carolina University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Abbreviations xiii

Introduction 1

1 The "Magic Bullet": Hollywood, Washington, and the Moviegoing Public 24

2 "Pro-British-American War Preachers": Internationalism at the Movies, 1939-1941 53

3 One World, Big Screen: The United Nations and American Horizons 89

4 Kissing Cousins: How Anglo-American Relations Became "Special," 136

5 Courting Uncle Joe: The Theatrics of Soviet-American Matrimony 169

6 Negotiating the Color Divide: Race and U.S. Paternalism toward China 217

Conclusion 256

Notes 275

Selected Bibliography 321

Index 343

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

In prose unfettered by academic jargon and grounded in a scrupulous mastery of the secondary material, Bennett's deft study illuminates both the filmic and geopolitical theaters of World War II. The result is an eye-opening excursion into the Hollywood-Washington axis.—Thomas Doherty, Brandeis University

Editorial Reviews

A must read for those interested in wartime propaganda and diplomacy. Highly recommended. All levels/libraries.—Choice



Provides many new insights into an already well-researched field of study. By doing so, [Bennett's] book provides a very welcome and valuable addition to the current scholarship.—Register of the Kentucky Historical Society



Bennett gives us not only an excellent book on film as propaganda and its effect on the war effort, but also provides an interesting insight into Hollywood and an often overlooked chapter in its history, what is now considered a part of its Golden Age.—speedreaders.info



One World, Big Screen vividly captures the days when many on the home front watched the war unfold at their neighborhood shows and envisioned the Allies' triumph. . . . Bennett's meticulous study, a wonderful breath of fresh air, illuminates everything.—Journal of American History



Undoubtedly constitutes a valuable contribution to the historical literature. . . . Well researched and clearly written, the book well deserves a space on the bookshelves of anyone studying propaganda, mass media, or the United Nations during the Second World War.—H-War



Bennett tells his story well and shows a mastery of sources.—American Historical Review



An excellent look at how a democratic government can shape and sustain public support in wartime.— StrategyWorld.com



[Bennett] demonstrated in his book a thorough knowledge of the voluminous secondary material, and most impressively his knowledge of the films.—Diplomatic History



Richly researched, accessible, and compelling. . .One World, Big Screen is an invaluable contribution to the wider and ongoing study of the uses and influence of popular culture in the process of globalization.—Journal of American Culture

From the Publisher