Frank Wetta's Books

Last Stands from the Alamo to Benghazi

How Hollywood Turns Military Defeats into Moral Victories

By: Frank Wetta,Martin Novelli

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Last Stands from the Alamo to Benghazi

How Hollywood Turns Military Defeats into Moral Victories

By: Frank Wetta,Martin Novelli

Last Stands from the Alamo to Benghazi examines how filmmakers teach Americans about the country’s military past. Examining twenty-three representative war films and locating them in their cultural and military landscape, the authors argue that Hollywood’s view of American military history has evolved in two phases. The first phase, extending from the very beginnings of filmmaking to the Korean War, projected an essential patriotic triumphalism. The second phase, from the Korean and Vietnam Wars to the present, reflects a retreat from consensus and reflexive patriotism. In describing these phases, the authors address recurring themes such as the experience of war and combat, the image of the American war hero, race, gender, national myths, and more. With helpful film commentaries that extend the discussion through popular movie narratives, this book is essential for anyone interested in American military and film history.

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Page Count

235

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1317591925

ISBN 13

9781317591924

Abraham Lincoln and Women in Film

One Hundred Years of Hollywood Mythmaking

By: Frank J. Wetta,Martin A. Novelli

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Abraham Lincoln and Women in Film

One Hundred Years of Hollywood Mythmaking

By: Frank J. Wetta,Martin A. Novelli

Frank Wetta and Martin Novelli's "Abraham Lincoln and Women on Film" examines how depictions of women in Hollywood movies helped create the myth of Lincoln. They specifically explore D. W. Griffith's Abraham Lincoln (1930); John Ford and Larmar Trotti's Young Mr. Lincoln (1939); Robert Sherwood's Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940); Shirley Temple's The Littlest Rebel (1933) and The Blue Bird (1940); and Stephen Spielberg's Lincoln (2012). In addition, they analyze four television productions: James Agee's Abraham Lincoln (1955); Carl Sandburg's Lincoln (1974); James Prideaux's The Last of Mrs. Lincoln (1976); and Gore Vidal's Lincoln (1988). In studying these depictions, Wetta and Novelli focus on the female characters. They are especially interested in female characters' backstories, the political and cultural climate in which the films appeared, and the contest between the moviemakers' imaginations and the varieties of historical truth. The women of Lincoln's life are the center of the study-his mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln; his stepmother, Sarah Bush Lincoln; his lost loves, Ann Rutledge and Mary Owens; and his wife and widow, Mary Todd Lincoln. Later, while exploring Lincoln's legacy, Wetta and Novelli focus on the 1930s child star Shirley Temple and the 1950s movie star Marilyn Monroe, the latter of whom had a well-publicized fascination with the sixteenth president. Wetta and Novelli's work is the first to deal extensively with the women in Lincoln's life on screen. They are also among the first to examine how scholarly and popular biography influenced films about Lincoln and added to the creation of popular depictions of him. "Abraham Lincoln and Women on Film" will find a wide readership among Lincoln scholars and academics who study film and popular culture"--

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Page Count

251

Publisher

LSU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0807181463

ISBN 13

9780807181461

The Louisiana Scalawags

Politics, Race, and Terrorism during the Civil War and Reconstruction

By: Frank J. Wetta

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The Louisiana Scalawags

Politics, Race, and Terrorism during the Civil War and Reconstruction

By: Frank J. Wetta

During the Civil War and Reconstruction, the pejorative term "scalawag" referred to white southerners loyal to the Republican Party. With the onset of the federal occupation of New Orleans in 1862, scalawags challenged the restoration of the antebellum political and social orders. Derided as opportunists, uneducated "poor white trash," Union sympathizers, and race traitors, scalawags remain largely misunderstood even today. In The Louisiana Scalawags, Frank J. Wetta offers the first in-depth analysis of these men and their struggle over the future of Louisiana. A significant assessment of the interplay of politics, race, and terrorism during Reconstruction, this study answers an array of questions about the origin and demise of the scalawags, and debunks much of the negative mythology surrounding them. Contrary to popular thought, the southern white Republicans counted among their ranks men of genuine accomplishment and talent. They worked in fields as varied as law, business, medicine, journalism, and planting, and many held government positions as city officials, judges, parish officeholders, and state legislators in the antebellum years. Wetta demonstrates that a strong sense of nationalism often motivated the men, no matter their origins. Louisiana's scalawags grew most active and influential during the early stages of Reconstruction, when they led in founding the state's Republican Party. The vast majority of white Louisianans, however, rejected the scalawags' appeal to form an alliance with the freedmen in a biracial political party. Eventually, the influence of the scalawags succumbed to persistent terrorism, corruption, and competition from the white carpetbaggers and their black Republican allies. By then, the state's Republican Party consisted of white political leaders without any significant white constituency. According to Wetta, these weaknesses, as well as ineffective federal intervention in response to a Democratic Party insurgency, caused the Republican Party to collapse and Reconstruction to fail in Louisiana.

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Page Count

298

Publisher

LSU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0807147486

ISBN 13

9780807147481

The Long Reconstruction

The Post-Civil War South in History, Film, and Memory

By: Frank J. Wetta,Martin A. Novelli

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The Long Reconstruction

The Post-Civil War South in History, Film, and Memory

By: Frank J. Wetta,Martin A. Novelli

A century and a half after the Civil War, Americans are still dealing with the legacies of the conflict and Reconstruction, including the many myths and legends spawned by these events. The Long Reconstruction: The Post-Civil War South in History, Film, and Memory brings together history and popular culture to explore how the events of this era have been remembered. Looking at popular cinema across the last hundred years, The Long Reconstruction uncovers central themes in the history of Reconstruction, including violence and terrorism; the experiences of African Americans and those of women and children; the Lost Cause ideology; and the economic reconstruction of the American South. Analyzing influential films such as The Birth of a Nation and Gone with the Wind, as well as more recent efforts such as Cold Mountain and Lincoln, the authors show how the myths surrounding Reconstruction have impacted American culture. This engaging book is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of Reconstruction, historical memory, and popular culture.

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Page Count

180

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1136331867

ISBN 13

9781136331862

The Louisiana Scalawags

Politics, Race, and Terrorism during the Civil War and Reconstruction

By: Frank J. Wetta

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The Louisiana Scalawags

Politics, Race, and Terrorism during the Civil War and Reconstruction

By: Frank J. Wetta

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Page Count

258

Publisher

LSU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

080714746X

ISBN 13

9780807147467

Diary of an Airborne Ranger

A LRRP's Year in the Combat Zone

By: Frank Johnson

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Diary of an Airborne Ranger

A LRRP's Year in the Combat Zone

By: Frank Johnson

Perhaps the most accurate story of LRRPs at war ever to appear in print! When Frank Johnson arrived in Vietnam in 1969, he was nineteen, a young soldier untested in combat like thousands of others--but with two important differences: Johnson volunteered for the elite L Company Rangers of the 101st Airborne Division, a long range reconnaissance patrol (LRRP) unit, and he kept a secret diary, a practice forbidden by the military to protect the security of LRRP operations. Now, more than three decades later, those hastily written pages offer a rare look at the daily operations of one of the most courageous units that waged war in Vietnam. Johnson served in I Corps, in northern Vietnam, where combat was furious and the events he recounts emerge, stark and compelling: walking point in the A Shau Valley, braving enemy fire to rescue a downed comrade, surviving days and nights of relentless tension that suddenly exploded in the blinding fury of an NVA attack. Undimmed and unmuddied by the passing of years, Johnson's account is unique in the annals of Vietnam literature. Moreover, it is a timeless testimony to the sacrifice and heroism of the LRRPs who dared to risk it all.

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Page Count

274

Publisher

Ballantine Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

0307775097

ISBN 13

9780307775092

Relocating Teams and Expanding Leagues in Professional Sports

How the Major Leagues Respond to Market Conditions

By: Frank P. Jozsa,John J. Guthrie Jr.

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Relocating Teams and Expanding Leagues in Professional Sports

How the Major Leagues Respond to Market Conditions

By: Frank P. Jozsa,John J. Guthrie Jr.

In the business of professional league sports, market conditions are the key determinate of the financial success or failure of a team. In the last few years, major league sports has experienced both growth into new markets and relocations of existing teams. Owners and the leagues use demographics, economic data, and governmental support to decide on where and when to expand and relocate. This book examines the sports business from 1950 through 2000. Historical demographic, economic, and team-related data provide the context. The authors apply metropolitan area statistics such as population growth and income, game attendance, and estimated market values to examine the business decisions made by individual teams in professional baseball, football, and basketball. The book looks at specific teams in terms of their long-term viability as a franchise and ranks their performances in economic and business terms. It also examines the related issues of taxpayer subsidies for new venues and the economic impact of professional sports on cities and regions. The book is a fascinating and comprehensive look at the business of sports and its place in American society, business, and economics.

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Page Count

225

Publisher

Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published Date

ISBN 10

0313371504

ISBN 13

9780313371509

Last Stands from the Alamo to Benghazi

How Hollywood Turns Military Defeats into Moral Victories

By: Frank Wetta,Martin Novelli

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Last Stands from the Alamo to Benghazi

How Hollywood Turns Military Defeats into Moral Victories

By: Frank Wetta,Martin Novelli

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Page Count

161

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Published Date

ISBN 10

1317591933

ISBN 13

9781317591931

The Long Reconstruction

The Post-Civil War South in History, Film, and Memory

By: Frank J. Wetta,Martin A. Novelli

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The Long Reconstruction

The Post-Civil War South in History, Film, and Memory

By: Frank J. Wetta,Martin A. Novelli

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Page Count

180

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1136331867

ISBN 13

9781136331862

Last Stands from the Alamo to Benghazi

How Hollywood Turns Military Defeats Into Moral Victories

By: Frank J. Wetta,Martin A. Novelli

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Last Stands from the Alamo to Benghazi

How Hollywood Turns Military Defeats Into Moral Victories

By: Frank J. Wetta,Martin A. Novelli

Last Stands from the Alamo to Benghaziexamines how filmmakers teach Americans about the country's military past. Examining twenty-three representative war films and location them in their cultural and military landscape, the authors argue that Hollywood's view of American military history has evolved in two phases. The first phase, extending from the very beginnings of filmmaking to the Korean War, reflected an essential patriotic triumphalism. The second phase, from the Korean and Vietnam Wars to the present, reflects a retreat from consensus and reflexive patriotism. In describing these phases, the authors address recurring themes such as the experience of war and combat, the image of the American war hero, race, gender, national myths, and more. With helpful film commentaries that extend the discussion through popular movie narratives, this book is essential for anyone interested in American military and film history.

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Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

156

Published Date

ISBN 10

1315744376

ISBN 13

9781315744377

Book's by Frank Wetta

Last Stands from the Alamo to Benghazi

Last Stands from the Alamo to Benghazi

Abraham Lincoln and Women in Film

Abraham Lincoln and Women in Film

The Louisiana Scalawags

The Louisiana Scalawags

The Long Reconstruction

The Long Reconstruction

The Louisiana Scalawags

The Louisiana Scalawags

Diary of an Airborne Ranger

Diary of an Airborne Ranger

Relocating Teams and Expanding Leagues in Professional Sports

Relocating Teams and Expanding Leagues in Professional Sports

Last Stands from the Alamo to Benghazi

Last Stands from the Alamo to Benghazi

The Long Reconstruction

The Long Reconstruction

Last Stands from the Alamo to Benghazi

Last Stands from the Alamo to Benghazi

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