© Columbia University Press
Hollywood and the Culture Elite: How the Movies Became American
November, 2006
Paper, 272 pages,
ISBN: 978-0-231-13377-7
$24.00
/ £14.00
Cloth, 272 pages,
ISBN: 978-0-231-13376-0
$75.00
/ £44.00
"A clearly written and well-researched historical work that makes a strong contribution to film scholarship." — Heidi Kenaga, The Moving Image
"A frequently profound ethical query into the costs of patronage." — Kevin Hagopian, Film Quarterly
"Thought-provoking." — The American Historical Review
"Decherney does an excellent job exploring the individual players… and exposing how our current cinematic institutions and assumptions regarding film were founded." — Erin Hills-Parks, Film & History
"A very significant work that demands attentive and critical engagement." — Tom Crosbie, Screening the Past
"Hollywood and the Culture Elite provides a major contribution to our understanding of the role of movies in American culture. Carefully researched and engagingly written, it uncovers, for the first time, the many links between movie moguls and the leaders of American cultural institutions that have made Hollywood essential to the definition and circulation of American identity. This is required reading for anyone interested in the history of American film." — Douglas Gomery, University of Maryland
"In this original, deeply researched, clearly written, and utterly fascinating book, Peter Decherney has illuminated the complex and often unexpected connections between Hollywood films and the Museum of Modern Art, Harvard, and Columbia. The book not only enriches our understanding of the place of Hollywood in American culture, but it also informs us about the roles some of our most elite cultural institutions played in the history of film as a form of popular art and as a high art form. It is an outstanding and invaluable work of cultural history." — Thomas Bender, Director, International Center for Advanced Studies
New York University