Cop Knowledge: Police Power and Cultural Narrative in Twentieth-Century America

This introduction historicizes cinema’s relationship to policing and particularizes that relationship beyond familiar questions of regulation and censorship, while also revisiting those very questions in the context of a broader study of police power. How did the institution of law enforcement interact with the studio system? How was classical Hollywood shaped by—and how, in turn, did it shape—specific police activities? To what extent and in what ways did cinema serve the emergent public relations needs of police agencies, and vice versa? Police departments were not passive beneficiaries of Hollywood’s fiscal and ideological investments but active and self-interested contributors to various cinematic projects, many of which they themselves initiated. The relative fragility of police legitimacy—its disputability, particularly in the face of obvious abuses of power—necessitated this constant advocacy in twentieth-century America, as did Hollywood’s generic, formula-driven, reiterative commercial character.

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Carceral Fantasies: Cinema and Prison in Early Twentieth-Century America

Canadian Journal of Film Studies ◽

10.3138/cjfs.27.1.br3 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 27 (1) ◽

pp. 115-118

Author(s):

Michael Litwack

Keyword(s):

Twentieth Century ◽

Early Twentieth Century ◽

Twentieth Century America

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The Straight State: Sexuality and Citizenship in Twentieth-Century America

Public Voices ◽

10.22140/pv.76 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

pp. 139

Author(s):

Jason Pierceson

Keyword(s):

Twentieth Century ◽

Twentieth Century America

Reviewed by Jason Pierceson

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Introduction

10.1093/oso/9780198777359.003.0001 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Melinda Powers

Keyword(s):

Twentieth Century ◽

Greek Drama ◽

Early Twentieth Century ◽

Historical Moment ◽

Twentieth Century America

The Introduction begins by providing a brief overview of the reception of Greek drama by under-represented communities in nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century America. After situating the book’s topic within this historical timeline, it proceeds to explain the development of the project, the focus on live theatre, the choice of productions, and the reasons for them. It defines terms, provides disclaimers, explains the methodology used, clarifies the topic, situates it within its historical moment, summarizes each of the chapters, describes the development of the ‘democratic turn’ in Greek drama, and finally speculates on the reasons for the appeal of Greek drama to artists working with under-represented communities.

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