Horizon Information Portal

HSPLS site

eBooks/Audiobooks

Reading Program

The birth of a nation [electronic resource] : how a legendary filmmaker and a crusading editor reignited America's Civil War / Dick Lehr.

by Lehr, Dick, author.

View full image

New York : PublicAffairs, a member of the Perseus Books Group, c2014.

Griffith, D. W. (David Wark), 1875-1948.

Trotter, William Monroe, 1872-1934.

Birth of a nation (Motion picture : 1915)

United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Motion pictures and the war.

United States -- Race relations -- History -- 20th century.

Electronic Resource

http://hawaii.lib.overdrive.com/ContentDetails.htm?ID=C2F552FA-A677-4E2F-A924-3FEA7ED906BA This title is available online; click here to access

Electronic Resource

https://samples.overdrive.com/birth-of-a-c2f552?.epub-sample.overdrive.com

Electronic Resource

http://images.contentreserve.com/ImageType-100/1486-1/{C2F552FA-A677-4E2F-A924-3FEA7ED906BA}Img100.jpg

9781586489885 (electronic bk.)

1586489887 (electronic bk.)

1 online resource (540 pages) : illustrations

Prologue: January 2, 1915 -- Part I. Fathers and sons. Guns, bayonets, and cannon "grapes" -- The Trotters -- The Griffiths -- On the firing line, 1895-1903 -- Character work, 1896-1907 -- Part II. Finding their voices. Trotterism, 1903-1908 -- The movie maker, 1908-1913 -- Fame rising, falling, circa 1913 -- Part III. A birth of a nation. 1914 -- The Wilson White House -- Trotter rides the rails -- Part IV. 1915. Curley's our man, or not? -- Bringing down the house -- "We'll hang Tom Dixon" -- Part V. Victory and defeat. Victory at hand -- The curtain falls -- Epilogue.

"In a scene at the end of the Civil War, James Trotter, a sergeant in an all-black union regiment, marched into Charleston, South Carolina just as the Kentucky cavalry that included Colonel 'Roaring Jake' Griffith fled for their lives. The two men were bit players in the vicious struggle for their country's future. Fifty years later their sons, Monroe Trotter and D.W. Griffith engaged in a public confrontation that roiled the entire country, pitching black against white, Hollywood against Boston, free speech against censorship and the focus of the attack was a film that depicted the events of the American Civil War: The Birth of a Nation. The film, which included actors in black face, racist portraits of blacks and heroic portraits of the Ku Klux Klan, and the depiction of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, was although a silent movie loudly controversial. It was seen eventually by 25 million Americans, and was the first feature film ever to be shown at the White House, for President Wilson. But it sparked riots and lengthy unrest in Boston and, to a lesser extent, in Philadelphia; Chicago, Pittsburgh, Kansas City and Denver, among other cities, banned the movie entirely. The drama was over what America was in 1915, the year of the film's release. Which of the nation's cherished ideals, freedom of speech or civil rights for black Americans would prevail? Through the story of two men, one a technically brilliant film maker, the other an activist journalist, America debated its identity in full public view, up and down the nation. The Birth of a Nation is a classic social history of a country in transition, and a richly characterful account of the principles set in opposition to each other"--Provided by publisher.

Horizon Information Portal 3.25_9884

Powered by Dynix

© 2001-2013 SirsiDynix All rights reserved.

Horizon Information Portal