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In Secrecy's Shadow
The OSS and CIA in Hollywood Cinema 1941-1979
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Book Presentation:
A comprehensive, archivally researched history of the CIA and Hollywood cinema
During the Second World War hundreds of Hollywood filmmakers under the command of the legendary director John Ford enlisted in the OSS to produce training, reconnaissance and propaganda films. This wartime bond continued into the post-war period, when a number of studios produced films advocating the creation of a permanent peacetime successor to the OSS: what became the Central Intelligence Agency. By the 1960s however, Hollywood's increasingly irreverent attitude towards the CIA reflected a growing public anxiety about excessive US government secrecy.
In Secrecy's Shadow provides the first comprehensive history of the birth and development of Hollywood's relationship with American intelligence. It takes an interdisciplinary approach, synthesizing literatures and methodologies from diplomatic history, film studies and cultural theory, and it presents new perspectives on a number of major filmmakers including Darryl F. Zanuck, Alfred Hitchcock and John Ford.
Based on research conducted in over 20 archival repositories across the United States and UK, In Secrecy's Shadow explores the revolution in the relationship between Hollywood and the secret state, from unwavering trust and cooperation to extreme skepticism and paranoia, and demonstrates the debilitating effects of secrecy upon public trust in government and the stability of national memory.
About the Author:
Simon Willmetts is a lecturer in American Studies at the University of Hull. His research falls broadly within the fields of film history, cultural theory and US foreign policy.
Press Reviews:
Written in an incisive and accessible style, In Secrecy’s Shadow is a welcome addition to the growing literature on Cold War cinema. As Willmetts observes, while the CIA’s engagement in the cultural Cold War through music, literature, and the visual arts has been well documented, its relationship with Hollywood has received far less attention. In Secrecy’s Shadow is also notable for its adept synthesis of scholarship and archival research from academic fields that include intelligence and diplomacy as well as cultural and film studies. This broadly interdisciplinary approach results in a nuanced understanding of the "complex interrelationship between fact and fiction" (16) that has shaped the CIA’s place and meaning in American society.'– REBECCA PRIME, FILM QUARTERLY
Willmetts advances an overarching interpretation of the interaction between intelligence, secrecy and culture, and in doing so challenges some senior figures in the historiography of his field. Well researched… rigorously organized… In Secrecy’s Shadow is a courageous and substantial contribution to intelligence studies.'– Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones, University of Edinburgh, Intelligence and National Security
Willmetts is a fine writer who deftly blends archival work, textual analysis, and his larger arguments.– Kevin M. Flanagan, Journal of Film and Popular Television
In Secrecy’s Shadow provides readers with a comprehensive, nuanced and insightful picture of the CIA both in and on film from the 1940s to the 1970s. Libraries should certainly acquire the text, as its prose is highly readable, its information rich and its subject matter important to understandings of intelligence, propaganda and cinematic history.'– Tricia Jenkins, LSE Review of Books
See the publisher website: Edinburgh University Press
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