Hollywood Left and Right

Introduction: Movie Stars and Politics; 1. The First Political Movie Star: Charlie Chaplin; 2. The Man Who Brought Hollywood into the Republican Party: Louis B. Mayer; 3. Little Caesar and the HUAC Mob: Edward G. Robinson; 4. Hollywood and the Conservative Revolution: George Murphy and Ronald Reagan; 5. Politics in Black and White: Harry Belafonte; 6. Movement Leader, Grassroots Builder: Jane Fonda; 7. Moses and the Red Tide: Charlton Heston; 8. President Bulworth, or, Will Mr. Beatty Go to Washington? Warren Beatty; 9. Governor Arnold and the New Age of Celebrity Politics: Arnold Schwarzenegger

Steven J. Ross, The University of Southern California

"[Ross] corrects the misconception that Hollywood is a beehive of liberalism and parses the divide between idealistic, telegenic charisma and the grit of partisan maneuvering. " --New York Times Book Review, "Recommended Summer Reading"

"Meticulously researched and well-plotted" -Ted Johnson, Variety

"Hollywood Left and Right is nonfiction at its best: entertaining and engaging, probing and provocative, detailed and comprehensive in coverage, multifaceted and far-ranging in its treatment, objective and balanced, appropriately paced in covering a complex, big story." -Stephen Roulac, New York Journal of Books

"Steven J. Ross convincingly shows in Hollywood Left and Right that since its early days, the movie industry has been as quietly conservative as publicly liberal." -Carolyn Kellogg, The Los Angeles Times

"Ross...provides concise case studies of movie-industry influence, from the silent film era to the present." --The New York Times Book Review

"[F]ascinating...a compelling survey of politics and celebrity." -Rowan Kaiser, A.V. Club

"Ross does a lot of things well. Each of his chapters offer skillfully limned portraits (Murphy and Reagan, whose careers coincided and interests overlapped, are treated as a pair)... Ross is also a deft analyst. He weaves in close readings of particular films, contextualizing them in their immediate sociopolitical environments." -Jim Cullen, History News Network

"As Steven J. Ross reminds us in Hollywood Left and Right, an entertaining history of the nexus between celebrity and politics, Hollywood intervention in politics is as old as the silents... Ross does a creditable job of providing the historical frame for today's political Hollywood. Writing in clear, workmanlike prose, he offers engrossing profiles of each of his subjects. At its best - the heartbreaking chapter on Robinson, the juicier passages on Beatty - the book can be downright revelatory. Indeed