The Crowded Prairie: American National Identity in the Hollywood Western (Cinema and Society) [Hardcover]

Michael Coyne (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1997 | ISBN-10: 1860640400 | ISBN-13: 978-1860640407

This text employs the Western as a vital medium for examining the many tensions - political, racial, sexual, social and religious - which have beset modern America from "Stagecoach" and the Depression's last years to the decline of the genre in the 1970s. The book focuses on a group of great Westerns, showing how they engaged covertly with such issues as miscegenation, labour-management relations, generational discord, codes of masculinity, the Cold War, McCarthyism, Vietnam, increasing individual social alienation, and explains why a celebratory genre veered, during a generation of unprecedented power and prosperity, from sagas of national achievement to bleak, virtually asocial visions of life in the United States.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Coyne (history, Univ. of Edinburgh) brings forth a bracing analysis of what he terms the golden age of Hollywood Westerns, from Stagecoach (1939) to The Shootist (1976). As the title suggests, he targets an academic or highly literate audience, for whom lingo such as "patriarchy" and "Manichacan" signifies much. Minimally, readers must be familiar with most grade A Westerns and television miniseries of the era. Coyne is well versed in this material, and the diligent reader will welcome his ability to emphasize his points through the judicious use of dialog, contemporary critics' reviews, and box office receipts. Equally appreciated are reevaluations of Duel in the Sun (1946), The Big Country (1958), and Warlock (1959). Films are placed in context to their times and each other, but more important, combed for subtexts that create or reflect American identity. Race, male supremacy, dysfunctional families, and Vietnam are all stirred into a stimulating soup. For all academic film collections.?Kim R. Holston, American Inst. for Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters, Malvern, Pa.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Michael Coyne...heft[s] his pickax in search of intellectual nuggets...The Crowded Prairie's real strength lies in Coyne's passion. The Washington Post

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 239 pages
• Publisher: I B Tauris & Co Ltd (December 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1860640400
• ISBN-13: 978-1860640407
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,407,719 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting analyses., July 21, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Crowded Prairie: American National Identity in the Hollywood Western (Cinema and Society) (Hardcover)

The author examines the Hollywood Western in its
heyday, from Stage Coach (1939) to The Outlaw Josey
Wales (1976), to view the genre in its social,
political, and cultural dimensions.

His approach is annoyingly Politically Correct (he
finds objectionable the depiction of the West as
having been conquered largely by white males,
which of course it was), and the intrusion of
conventional British class-consciousness may leave
some readers cold, but his connection ,for instance, of
Josey Wales to Vietnam is interesting, if unpersuasive.

The plots of the films are deftly summarized, but
the reader is encouraged to view the films
in conjuction with this text.

With filmography, bibliography, good index, and
some of the poorest photo-reproduction this
reviewer has seen.

(The numerical rating above is a default setting
within Amazon's format. This reviewer does not
employ numerical retings.)

0 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars I'm a fan of the Lone Star state, February 16, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Crowded Prairie: American National Identity in the Hollywood Western (Cinema and Society Series) (Paperback)

The book was dedicated to John Wayne. Most historians dedicate their first book to their parents, but Michael Coyne takes another path.

Is this suggestive, (I think we should be told)

Continued on page 94