Vertigo (1958) is widely regarded as not only one of Hitchcock's best films, but one of the greatest films of world cinema. Made at the time when the old studio system was breaking up, it functions both as an embodiment of the supremely seductive visual pleasures that 'classical Hollywood' could offer and – with the help of an elaborate plot twist – as a laying bare of their dangerous dark side. The film's core is a study in romantic obsession, as James Stewart's Scottie pursues Madeleine/...

Cinema has had a hugely influential role on global culture in the twentieth century at multiple levels: social, political, and educational. The part of British cinema in this has been controversial—often derided as a whole, but also vigorously celebrated, especially in terms of specific films and film-makers.In this Very Short Introduction, Charles Barr considers films and filmmakers, and studios and sponsorship, against the wider view of changing artistic, socio-political...

Cinema has had a hugely influential role on global culture in the 20th century at multiple levels: social, political, and educational. The part of British cinema in this has been controversial - often derided as a whole, but also vigorously celebrated, especially in terms of specific films and film-makers. In this Very Short Introduction, Charles Barr considers films and filmmakers, and studios and sponsorship, against the wider view of changing artistic, socio-political, and indu...

The profusion of research on film history means that there are now few Hollywood filmmakers in the category of Neglected Master; John M Stahl (1886–1950) has been stuck in it for far too long. His strong association with melodrama and the womans film is a key to this neglect; those mainstays of popular cinema are no longer the object of critical scorn or indifference, but Stahl has until now hardly benefited from this welcome change in attitude. His remarkable silent melodramas were either...

The Absent-Minded Coterie, a short story published in 1906, tells of a cunning scam devised by crooked counterfeiters. But, of course, French detective Eugene Valmont eventually discovers the truth. The Absent-Minded Coterie is widely recognized as one of the best crime short stories of the time.

A retired insurance investigator with an itch, an adventurer from China, a curious lawyer, an opera buff and a Sherlock Holmes emulator are the stars of British Mystery Multipack Volume 10 – British Super Sleuths:Hunted Down by Charles DickensLady Alicia’s Diamonds by Robert BarrDead Men’s Money by J. S. FletcherThe Sleuth of St. James's Square...

In his Farewell Address of 1796, President George Washington admonished the young nation "to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world." Isolationism thereafter became one of the most influential political trends in American history. From the founding era until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States shunned strategic commitments abroad, making only brief detours during the Spanish-American War and World War I. Amid World War II and the Cold Wa...

The intervention of a quadriplegic saved Nguyen Huu Minh from a mugging on the streets of Baltimore while attending Johns Hopkins University. That man’s faithchanged Minh’s life.Minh’s new faith brings him into conflict with his father’s business interests in Vietnam and the mysterious powers supporting his father. Estranged from his fatherand shunned by his family, Minh learns to support himself by working as a translator for Americans coming to Vietnam during the ...

Major General Lee Chinh stared at the mirror, wondering what she had seen in him. His damaged body should have repelled her, yet she had loved him anyway. But now, Hope had been taken from him, along with the unborn child that had filled his mind with such expectation and anticipated joy. How could he ever be whole again, without her? What value or future did this life hold for him now? How could someone who was so damaged ever be reclaimed?Chinh would discover the answer to these ...

Chosen to be the recipient of a great gift, Glenn Hitch receives a title pointing to the destiny all mankind was originally purposed for. Glenn’s new abilities include the same gift granted to Elisha’s servant in answer to the prophet’s prayer: the ability to see the true reality of the war he was engaged in. The struggle not with flesh and blood, as so many would readily assume, but instead with the spiritual forces that feed on and drive much of the conflict in this life. Glenn must lear...

Democracy is in trouble. Populism is a common scapegoat but not the root cause. More basic are social and economic transformations eroding the foundations of democracy, ruling elites trying to lock in their own privilege, and cultural perversions like making individualistic freedom the enemy of democracy's other crucial ideals of equality and solidarity. In Degenerations of Democracy three of our most prominent intellectuals investigate democracy gone awry, locate our points of fr...

Beverly Of Graustark is the second book in the Graustark series. Lorry and his wife, the princess, made their home in Washington, but spent a few months of each year in Edelweiss. During the periods spent in Washington and in travel, her affairs in Graustark were in the hands of a capable, austere old diplomat--her uncle, Count Caspar Halfont. Princess Volga reigned as regent over the principality of Axphain. To the south lay the principality of Dawsbergen, ruled by young Prince Dantan, wh...