Why Is There Still So Much Nostalgia for Nuclear Apocalypse?
The popularity of nuclear apocalypse is nostalgia for a time when our worries were wrapped in a single nuclear package, and all we needed was a bunker and a dream.
History
Baby Boomer Optimism and Regret in the Star Wars Trilogies
While the original Star Wars trilogy display George Lucas’ youthful optimism, the prequels reveal his dismay and regret at the world created by the Boomer generation.
It Better Rhyme: ‘The Stasi Poetry Circle’
When historian Philip Oltermann is handed the Stasi file for Uwe Berger, leader of the Stasi Poetry Circle, he gives the GDR’s dark history a poetic twist.
States of (Gay) Liberation in East Germany and West Germany
Samuel Clowes-Huneke’s decades-spanning, groundbreaking history of gay liberation in East Germany and West Germany challenges conventional assumptions about dictatorships and democracies.
The High Price of Gay Life in Washington, D.C.
James Kirchick’s riveting history of gay life in Washington, D.C. is a Cold War epic of hypocrisy, surveillance, and survival.
Alien or Alienated? The Monstrous, the Normal, and the Tragic in Our Borders
Shakespeare, Knut Hamsun, Flannery O’Connor, and the Medieval Icelandic Göngu-Hrolfs saga each explore who is the alien, and who is alienated, within our borders.
Pre-Code Films from Directors Beaudine and Vidor Give Creepy Thrills
Restored pre-code films William Beaudine’s ‘The Crime of the Century’ and Charles Vidor’s ‘Double Door’ thrill with their frightening fearlessness.
Antonio Gramsci Biography ‘To Live Is to Resist’ Is Unrivaled
In Gramscian fashion, Frétigné details the material conditions of Antonio Gramsci’s insight and influence while shirking historical determinism and abstract idealism.
The Smearing of Silent Film Star Mabel Normand
An accomplished silent film star, screenwriter, director, and producer, Mabel Normand’s career ended abruptly and tragically when she was deemed guilty by association.
Color Lines: 1930 Colonial Film ‘Mamba’ in Early Technicolor
Albert S. Rogell’s 1930 Technicolor film Mamba offers a colonial critique that’s sometimes explicit, sometimes implicit, and sometimes contradictory.
The Bunkered Decades: Digging into the Atom Bomb’s Effect on Cold War America
When Americans realized the atom bomb their country created could be turned on them, arts and society alike bunkered down into nightmares of nuclear destruction.
Before and After Hitler: Two Films by German Director Robert Siodmak
German director Robert Siodmak‘s 1930 comedy Farewell is a far cry from 1957’s Nazi-influenced crime thriller, The Devil Strikes at Night.
