From My Cold, Dead Hands: Charlton Heston and American Politics (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "CHARLTON HESTON WAS BORN ON OCTOBER 4, 1923, TO RUSS AND LILLA Carter..." (more)
Key Phrases: United States, White House, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Heston was as much a bellwether in real-life politics as he was in Hollywood biblical epics, according to this intriguing biographical study. Historian Raymond surveys Heston's political life from his days as a civil rights marcher, Lyndon Johnson supporter and Screen Actors Guild president to his later turn as a Republican stalwart and National Rifle Association president. She analyzes this trajectory not as a rightward trek but as rooted in bedrock ideals—individualism, equal opportunity, moral responsibility—through shifting ideological tides. Throughout, she pegs Heston as a "visceral neoconservative" unwittingly in tune with neocon intellectuals like Irving Kristol (but without the Trotskyist past). In blockbusters from The Ten Commandments to Planet of the Apes, his resonant baritone, craggily handsome face and muscular, seminude physique glamorized an image of conservative masculinity that would color his offscreen political crusades. Raymond's film commentary is stiffly didactic ("Moses demonstrates his moral brand of individualism when he halts construction to save a slave woman") and her indulgent attitude—she sees no inconsistency between Heston's early union activism and his later stumping for right-to-work laws—can seem obtuse. Still, her well-researched, if somewhat smitten, profile sheds light on conservatism as a mass cultural phenomenon through one of its iconic luminaries. Photos. (Aug.)
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Review

"Emilie Raymond's meticulous research, insightful analysis, and balanced prose convincingly argue that Charlton Heston's legacy as a political activist and cultural warrior rivals his cinematic fame...This book is a must-read for political scientists and political historians." -- Southern Historian

"Heston's political thought and action, and his impact on American politics, deserve careful scholarly treatment. Emilie Raymond has supplied it." -- Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions, Princeton University

"Raymond provides compelling histories of Hollywood unions, federal arts disputes and civil rights debates that Heston got tangled up in... Raymond successfully illuminates Heston's personal philosophy and his relationships with historical figures, and she highlights points of departure for what is now broadly considered the `cultural wars.'" -- Style Weekly

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: The University Press of Kentucky; illustrated edition edition (August 18, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813124085
• ISBN-13: 978-0813124087
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.8 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #200,911 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The making of a cultural conservative, December 31, 2006

By	Tony Williams (Carbondale, Il United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Raymond's book is an excellent example of the study of a star formed by his cultural circumstances and historical forces. Heston has often been unjustifiably vilified in the recent past for his unpopular views to the detriment of his acting achievements. This book reveals that Heston was not alone in his rightward swing since it reveals him, along with Irving Kristol and Gertrude Himmelfarb, as liberal conservatives who belonged to the Democratic Party until historical forces changed their alignment. In many ways, they remained true to their beliefs while the Democratic Party changed from its conservative Eisenhower-Kennedy roots into Johnson Great Society that these people could not accept.

For those interested in social change in American society, this book is a very revealing treatment and explains much of what has happened during the last forty years. My only complaint is that Raymond has focussed on a limited amount of Heston films and has not examined others such as the Cold War western ARROWHEAD (1952) and THE CALL OF THE WILD where the Heston character undergoes a crisis of masculinity in one scene. It is easy to denigrate the actor as Michael Moore did unfairly in his interview in BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE where he appeared oblivious to the actors failing health and his recent operation. During Whoopi Goldberg's unjustly short-lived TV talk show, she did not take the easy option of making the actor look like a fool but spoke to him in a meaningful conversation without having any hidden agenda. It is a shame Raymond does not cite this in the book which is a valuable cultural study of a star who engaged in activist neo-conservative politics. While it is easy to sneer at his now outmoded roles and jeer at his Alzheimer's diagnosis as did George Clooney, it is much more challenging to understand the man and his beliefs in an objective manner. Raymond has risen to the challenge in a book which has several significant insights but could have been much better if more of the star's films had been covered against the background of the changing social and historical forces documented in this valuable work.

9 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A true American who would fit right in with our Founders, November 9, 2006

By	Richard C. Wagener (Dubuque, IA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Anyone who thinks of Himself/Herself a Patriot needs to read this book. Anyone who doesn't needs to read it to find out why they need to be. This is the greatest country in the world, and if we wish it to stay great and free, we have to get involved, or what we take for granted will slip away. The modern media blames America first, finds fault, and betrays all that countless patriots who have given their all that we might live we do today. Why do peoples of the world see us as the beacon of hope, and risk everything to come here? You'll find the answers in Mr. Heston's book, and what we must do to pass what we have, on to our children, and generations to come.

7 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars almost TOO fair, October 1, 2006

By	Jeff Wagner (Asheville, NC) - See all my reviews

Ms. Raymond goes all out to prove Heston a "principled" conservative -- and yes, they do exist, even in this day of Rumsfeld, Cheney, Bush and Foley. Much of the information is very interesting. Amazingly, though, she does not seem to know of the use Michael Moore made of Heston in his film "Bowling for Columbine," which is the indelible image that most of us have in mind when we think of Charlton Heston. Was this ignorance, or just kindness to an old man suffering from dementia?

Indeed, Raymond does not seem to wonder whether Heston's whole NRA shill was a product of early Alzheimer's, a topic that it would seem to me needs addressing, if only to shoot it down.

For the most part, this is a strong book. But the omissions show.