Our current book display encourages readers to explore the history and cultural impact of film and the movie industry in the United States, timed to coincide with the film award season.

Some of the books on display, such as The Hollywood motion picture blacklist : seventy-five years later and The Academy and the award : the coming of age of Oscar and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, focus on specific aspects of the film industry, while others like The American drive-in movie theater and Videoland : movie culture at the American video store look at the culture around watching movies. Other books examine the impact of specific filmmakers and studios, with titles including Stanley Kubrick : American filmmaker, Understanding Disney : the manufacture of fantasy, and The Warner brothers, or specific places, such as Fade in, crossroads : a history of the southern cinema and Tinsel and rust : how Hollywood manufactured the Rust Belt.

Looking at the wider picture, some of the selected titles explore the various ways in which the American film industry interacts with politics, such as Hollywood goes to war : films and American society, 1939-1952, The sky is falling! : the unexpected politics of Hollywood’s superheroes and zombies, and Hollywood’s long civil war. Other areas covered by the display include representation and identity in American films, through titles such as Black Caesars and foxy Cleopatras : a history of blaxploitation in cinema, Fade in, crossroads : a history of the southern cinema, and Queer cinema in America : an encyclopedia of LGBTQ films, characters, and stories.

The display also highlights the following online resources which may be of interest:

• The Bodleian’s Film Studies LibGuide is intended to help users find books, films and online resources such as ebooks, journals, and bibliographic databases on film studies topics.
• The Media History Digital Library is a free online resource featuring millions of pages of books and magazines from the histories of film, broadcasting, and recorded sound. Users can search US collections specifically, and there are short guides to topics such as “Early cinema” and the “Hollywood studio system”.
• The National Film Preservation Board webpages on the Library of Congress website provide information about film-related resources. Of particular use may be General Film Publications & Guides, and Public Research Centers & Archives, which gives a long list of archives and research centres, with the ones in the US organised by state.

The book display can be found on the ground floor of the Vere Harmsworth Library by the comfy chairs towards the back of the room. Books are labelled as loanable or for library use only, and links to ebooks are given where the Bodleian has ebook access.

If you have any questions about working in the Vere Harmsworth Library, please email vhl@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.