history and criticism

The history of jazz from its beginnings in the red-light district in New Orleans to Harlem during the depression years documented in personal interviews, letters, tape recorded and telephone conversations with famous jazz musicians like Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Billie Holiday.

Collection of nine essays that explore the roots of poetics, the writer's role in creating a sense of community, the nature of originality, poetry's roots in oral memory, the various strategies by which meaning enfolds itself in language, and other topics in poetics.

Presents an annotated edition of Benjamin Franklin's autobiography, edited directly from the manuscripts; and includes backgrounds, excerpts from other writings by Franklin, critical essays, and a bibliography.

Explores how films have been made and used as a way to record and remember history, evaluating the many ways filmmakers, promoters, viewers, and scholars understand films as history.

A collection of essays in which leading scholars explore the role that cinema and television play in altering and complicating society's understanding of historical events.

Studies the way in which the makers of commercial movies have dealt with history, focusing on eight films about real people and real situations from America's past, including "Mississippi Burning," "JFK," "Bonnie and Clyde," and "Norma Rae.".

A collection of essays that explore how Hollywood films have been used to highlight key events, themes, and policies that have influenced American culture.