During the tumultuous era of the Great Depression, many memorable films were produced and seen by hundreds of thousands of Americans seeking solace, understanding, or refuge.
In this text/workbook, intended to provide supplementary information about societal issues of that time, many of the era’s notable movies are highlighted. The first year addressed is 1927 so as to provide a foundation on which to compare and contrast the relatively good times prior to the “Crash” of 1929 and the extraordinarily hard times following that disastrous year.
An ideal guide to the period, this volume outlines specific topics for the years 1927 through 1939:
- Quotations
- Radio and Print Advertisements
- Popular Music
- Broadway Theatre
- Popular Novels
- Major Events
Spaces are also left for related topics, allowing the instructor to provide additional lecture material and/or to assign research projects to students in such areas as: Facts and Figures, News Headlines, Literature and the Arts, Science/Medicine/Technology, Sports, Fads and Fashions, Transportation, Economics and Politics, Daily Life, and Disasters.
This volume also contains sections on:
- Film genres, with individual chapters devoted to the major film types prevalent in the 1930s: horror, gangster, musical, romance, and comedy;
- Interviews with people who lived in the 1930s;
- A list of all Academy Award nominees and winners from 1927 through 1939;
- An extensive, selective list of major films released during those years, and an alphabetical listing that includes the names of the actors and directors and a brief description of the plot – a helpful tool for students to use when selecting what films to see outside of class as a course requirement.
The appendix includes detachable analysis forms for students to complete about the films they have seen in or out of class. One form is a guide to conducting an interview with a person who outlived this period.
While intended as an academic textbook, this volume also makes compelling reading for anyone interested in the films produced during the cataclysmic years of the 1930s.
Published/copyright © 1995
Paperback (413 pages)
$24.95
