The Good War's greatest hits
Subtitle: World War II and American remembering
By: by Philip D. Beidler.
Publisher: University of Georgia
Published: 1998
Place of publication: Athens
Language: eng
Number of pages: 220
Subjects: World War, 1939-1945 -- Psychological aspects.; World War, 1939-1945 -- Motion pictures and the war.; World War, 1939-1945 -- United States -- Literature and the war.; World War, 1939-1945 -- Propaganda.
Description: The glow of 1945 persists as a kind of beacon for American society, symbolic of an era when good and evil were easily defined. This image is at the center of Philip D. Beidler's entertaining look at the way World War II reshaped American popular culture.

Beidler captures the aura of the times as he chronicles the production histories of more than a dozen projects with wartime themes, examining how books and plays evolved into films, how stars were considered and selected, technical problems and personality conflicts during production, and the public's reactions.

From the upbeat tempo of the musical South Pacific to the weary disillusionment of The Best Years of Our Lives, from the patriotic nostalgia of Life's Picture History of World War II to the moral ambiguity of From Here to Eternity, a powerful mythology of the war developed. As a consequence, the line between fact and fiction has blurred for the war generation and its inheritors, and Hollywood's version of the Good War has become enshrined as historical fact in the nation's collective memory.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [173]-213) and index.