1st Edition
Myths of Masculinity and American Film From Generation X to Trumpism
Introduction: The American Myth of White Cinematic Manhood 1: Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory: Cinematic Manhood in the Carter Years 2: Blasts from the Past—and Present and Future: The Reagan Revolution and Movie Masculinity, 1981–86 3: Land of Confusion: Presidential Patriarchy and American Films from Reagan to the New World Order 4: Touched: Singular Cinematic Heroism and the Rise and Fall of New American Manhood in the Clinton Era 5: In a World…: Superheroes, Saviors, and Paranoid Cinematic Universes in the Age of Terror 6: Waiting…and Waiting... for Superman Conclusion: American Dreams, or American Carnage?
Biography
Stephen R. Duncan is a Professor of History at Bronx Community College–CUNY who specializes in US cultural and intellectual history.
"Sharply written and eminently accessible, Duncan’s book brings history and film into dynamic dialogue, using each to illuminate the other. It stands as a spirited contribution to the cultural history of gender and identity in the United States."
Saverio Giovacchini, Professor of US Cultural and Intellectual History, University of Maryland, College Park
"Combining in-depth discussions of key films with broader cultural analysis, Myths of Masculinity and American Film illuminates a long history of cinematic presidential patriarchy from the post-Watergate era to today. Drawing from a wealth of popular film examples, Duncan traces fantasies of male empowerment through redemption, hope, monstrousness, and violence in films as disparate as Star Wars, The Shining, Patriot Games, Forrest Gump, Gladiator, and Iron Man. In casting these films as indicative of larger economic, societal, and political shifts, this book breaks new ground by bringing together disparate eras and films to understand the cultural underpinnings of our current era."Christina G. Petersen, author of The Freshman: Comedy and Masculinity in 1920s Film and Youth Culture
