Flannery O’Connor: Reconciliation of Opposites

A 20th century American southern writer, Flannery O'Connor masterfully reconciled opposites - in her work and in her life. O'Connor's creative power fused two disparate disciplines: theology and fiction. Because her spiritual life was so deep and her knowledge of theology so strong, she wrote engaging fiction which contained insights into the deepest theological truths. In an era when many artists demanded total freedom to pursue their art, O'Connor grounded herself in Christian faith and life. She found that, rather than restrict her, such grounding gave her authentic freedom to see the world truly. A creative talent such as hers - unusual in every respect - needed powerful discipline to hone it to perfection. O'Connor's artistic discipline was legendary. She limited her scope to the parameters of her specific talent. In spite of continual illness, she wrote for three hours every morning (inspired or not) and spent the rest of the day recuperating from the effort

Mary Pickford: Hollywood and the New Woman

On screen and off, movie star Mary Pickford personified the “New Woman” of the early 1900s—a moniker given to women who began to demand more autonomy inside and outside the home. Well educated and career-minded, these women also embraced the new mass culture in which consumption and leisure were seen to play a pivotal role in securing happiness. Mary Pickford: Hollywood and the New Woman examines Pickford’s role in the rise of industrial capitalism and consumer culture, and uses her life and unprecedented career as a wildly popular actress and savvy film mogul to illustrate the opportunities and obstacles faced by American women during this time. Following Pickford’s life from her childhood on stage to her rise as a powerful studio executive, this book gives an overview of her enduring contribution to American film and mass culture. It also explores her struggles to surpass her confining public film persona as “America’s Sweetheart” with her creative and business achievements—mirroring how women, both then and today, must reconcile domestic life with professional aspirations and work.https://inspire.redlands.edu/oh_books/1004/thumbnail.jp

Spectacular Manhood and Girlhood: Celebrity Studies and Girlhood Studies Come of Age

A review essay on the state of celebrity studies and girlhood studies

Listening Her Way to an Historic Victory: On Hillary Clinton’s 1999-2000 Senate Campaign

This chapter examines Hillary Clinton’s contested yet ultimately successful 1999-2000 New York State Senate campaign in which Clinton used her outsider status—as a woman and a new NYS resident—and the listening tour strategy to inspire voters and win handily at the polls.https://inspire.redlands.edu/oh_chapters/1088/thumbnail.jp

‘The antithesis of the film magnate’: Irving Thalberg and the politics of ethno-religious identity in early Hollywood

As a powerful, high-profile member of Los Angeles’ Jewish and German-American communities and a founder of MGM, the native-born, middle-class Irving Thalberg was framed as a ‘better, finer’ Jew as compared to his older, immigrant, US film industry mentors. This essay sheds new light on Thalberg’s hybrid identity as German-Jewish-American, asking how it shaped his life, work, popular persona, and memory. As MGM production chief, Thalberg’s work included shaping culture and philanthropy in 1920s and 1930s Los Angeles. Then and now, Thalberg as ‘model minority’ both challenged and reinforced pernicious ethno-religious stereotypes that undergirded myths of Jewish media domination in an industrializing America

Gender and education (and employment): gendered imperatives and their implications for women and men : lessons from research for policy makers

An independent report submitted to the European Commission by the NESSE networks of expertsNot applicableEuropean Commissionti,ke.kpw27/9/1

When Private Talk Goes Public: Gossip in American History

Gossip is one of the most common, and most condemned, forms of discourse in which we engage - even as it is often absorbing and socially significant, it is also widely denigrated. This volume examines fascinating moments in the history of gossip in America, from witchcraft trials to People magazine, helping us to see the subject with new eyes.https://inspire.redlands.edu/oh_books/1028/thumbnail.jp