Product Description

B-movies, crime novels, science fiction- all of these forms of mass media came into their own in the 1950s. Dismissed by critics as dehumanizing to both author and audience, these genres unflinchingly exposed the depths of American life at a time when it was not politically correct to do so.

David Cochran details how, at the height of the Cold War, ten writers and filmmakers challenged such social pieties as the superiority of American democracy, the benevolence of free enterprise, and the sanctity of the suburban family. Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone related stories of victims of vast, faceless bureaucratic powers. Jim Thompson's The Grifters portrayed the ravages of capitalism on those at the bottom of the social ladder. Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley featured an amoral con man who infiltrated the privileged class and wreaked havoc once there. All of these artists helped to set the stage for the 1960s counterculture's challenge to the established order. In doing so, they blurred the lines between "high" and "low" art.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2614528 in Books
• Published on: 2000-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 280 pages

Review
America Noir is a must for any student of the noir tradition in American culture....Entertaining and enlightening. -- BookPage

About the Author
David Cochran teaches history at John A. Logan College in Carterville, IL. He lives in Herrin, IL.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
About halfway through Charles Willeford's debut novel, High Priest of California (1953), the narrator, Russell Haxby, a successful though amoral used-car salesman, drops off his date Alyce. Unsuccessful in his immediate attempt to seduce her, Haxby has nonetheless begun formulating a long-term strategy toward achieving his goal. Before returning home, he walks into a tavern and orders a drink. Sitting at the bar, he surveys the other customers, noticing the man next to him is approximately his size. Then, without warning or provocation, Haxby says, "I put my drink down, raised my elbow level with my shoulder, and spun on my heel. My elbow caught him just below the eye. He raised a beer bottle over his head and my fist caught him flush on the jaw. He dropped to the floor and lay still. I threw a half-dollar on the bar and left. No one looked in my direction as I closed the door." Returning home, Haxby puts the "Romeo and Juliet Overture" on the turntable. "I poured a glass full of gin and played the overture several times while I finished the drink. After this emotional bath I felt wonderful. I went to bed and slept soundly all night. Like a child."

With this one indelible scene, Willeford presented his vision of the quintessential postwar American man. Beneath the pleasant exterior of a successful used-car salesman lies a soul equally capable of lashing out in meaningless, anonymous violence or appreciating the beauty of Tchaikovsky. While at this point in the novel the events do not come as a complete surprise---earlier Haxby had kneed a parking attendant in the groin for pointing out that he had parked in the wrong spot---the realization that the core of his soul Haxby is utterly without conscience prepares the reader for the ultimate revelation that Haxby will treat the people in his life with the same cavalier disdain he shows toward his customers at the car lot.

Customer Reviews

Not an easy read, but a GREAT read!
As a tail-end "baby boomer" I have long been fascinated with the changes taking place in popular culture throughout my adolescent years and into adulthood. A long-time fan of MAD magazine, I never really understood the counter culture statements being made in the magazine or how they reflect society as a whole.

David Cochran's treatise, "America Noir: Underground Writers and Filmmakers of the Postwar Era" describes the propagation of a subculture which was not afraid to assert that all was not as rosy as the dominant culture would purport.

Reading the book was very much NOT like reading a novel or one of Rod Serling's short stories. To a certain extent, the book reads like a history text.

America Noir conists of five parts: The Killer Inside Me-Roman Noir Authors; Progress and Its Discontents-Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors; Outside Looking In-Minority Authors; Little Shop of Horrors-Independent Filmmakers; and Cracks in the Consensus-Liberal Artists. These five parts "connects the dots" to form a cohesive picture of the events, attitudes, and expressions which have marked the changing of American society from the period immediately following World War II to the current time.

I have a better grasp of the causes underlying the changes in society from the time I was a kid myself to now when I have adolescent kids of my own. I'm sure I will soon go out to experience some of the books and movies described in "America Noir." It is an excellent addition to my library.

PEELING BACK THE UNDERBELLY OF AMERICA
As a photographer who enjoys images more than text these days. This book is so well written that one "sees" images while David Cochran unfurls text in a manner that mimics the tendencies of the writes discussed within the book itself. Cochran knows his politics, his "POST WAR ERA" history and his subjects so well that while reading I had to keep looking at the cover to remind myself why I got the book. It goes beyond the call of duty.

Because of this book, I will be able to ascertain how the current bevy of movies being made on Marvel Comics and dark subject matters stack up to the tone of the era in which they were drawn. Also, I know better why American people are in the shape they are in. With more unresloved issues and more neurosis its a wonder how we have survived this long. Thank God for the Underground Writer and Filmmakers of the Postwar Era, there are valves to let some steam off.