Hollywood Goes to High School: Cinema, Schools, and American Culture - Softcover

Bulman, Robert C.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1464171696 ISBN 13: 9781464171697

Publisher: Worth Pub, 2015

Synopsis

What do films such as The Breakfast Club, Dead Poet's Society, and Freedom Writers have to teach us about American culture? Robert Bulman's Hollywood Goes to High School takes the reader on a fascinating journey through the high school film genre. Skillfully blending sociological theory and film analysis, Bulman's always accessible writing delightfully challenges the reader to think critically about American individualism and class inequality. Bulman's insightful sociological analysis of 177 new and classic high school films explores the complex ways in which Americans make sense of social class, education, gender and adolescence. Suitable for the beginning and advanced student, Hollywood Goes to High School is an essential piece of reading for a variety of courses in sociology, education, communication, anthropology, American studies, and film studies.

For more from Robert Bulman read his analysis of McFarland USA starring Kevin Costner on Sociological Cinema here: http: //www.thesociologicalcinema.com/blog/is-kevin-costners-mcfarland-usa-a-white-savior-film-well-yes-and-no.

About this title

Review:

"In applying sociological analysis to movies these students hold dear and to which they have attached an enormous amount of affection, Robert crafted a brilliant teaching tool. By conceptualizing films about high school as cultural stories, Robert effectively makes students social scientists, showing them...that they [can] examine inequality through easily accessible media like movies and television."
--CJ Pascoe, University of Oregon

"Once in a while a sociologist manages to write a book that is theoretically grounded, empirically sound, and generally interesting. Robert Bulman has written such a book. His Hollywood Goes to High School is both thoroughly enjoyable and insightfully sociological. Few books manage to be both and for that reason alone Hollywood Goes to High School should be recommended if not required reading for every high school and university introductory course. Bulman has carried out a thoroughly sociological analysis that is intellectually sound, frequently insightful, and always engaging. Simply put he has accomplished the increasingly rare feat of writing a book that speaks sociologically to scholars and the lay public alike."
--Michael DeCesare, Merrimack College quotes from Contemporary Sociology

"Beautifully written and engaging, Hollywood Goes to High School unmasks the cultural tales that Americans tell themselves about themselves. Bulman shows how Hollywood films project a congratulatory middle-class mythology of progress, universalism, and heroism, simultaneously obscuring and revealing deep and destructive class divisions. This is sociology at its best!"
Michael Burawoy, University of California at Berkeley

"Movies about high school are as ubiquitous as they are unexamined. Robert Bulman has gone in search of their cultural significance, and come back with a smart, nuanced, accessible book. With sociological rigor and the sensitivities of a moviegoer, Bulman demonstrates how these films are part of a complex cultural processing of social differences social class, in particular. Hollywood Goes to High School is an important and fun addition to the study of contemporary culture."
Joshua Gamson, University of San Francisco

"In applying sociological analysis to movies these students hold dear and to which they have attached an enormous amount of affection, Robert crafted a brilliant teaching tool. By conceptualizing films about high school as cultural stories, Robert effectively makes students social scientists, showing them...that they [can] examine inequality through easily accessible media like movies and television."
CJ Pascoe, University of Oregon

"Once in a while a sociologist manages to write a book that is theoretically grounded, empirically sound, and generally interesting. Robert Bulman has written such a book. His Hollywood Goes to High School is both thoroughly enjoyable and insightfully sociological. Few books manage to be both and for that reason alone Hollywood Goes to High School should be recommended if not required reading for every high school and university introductory course. Bulman has carried out a thoroughly sociological analysis that is intellectually sound, frequently insightful, and always engaging. Simply put he has accomplished the increasingly rare feat of writing a book that speaks sociologically to scholars and the lay public alike."
Michael DeCesare, Merrimack College quotes from Contemporary Sociology"

"Beautifully written and engaging, Hollywood Goes to High School unmasks the cultural tales that Americans tell themselves about themselves. Bulman shows how Hollywood films project a congratulatory middle-class mythology of progress, universalism, and heroism, simultaneously obscuring and revealing deep and destructive class divisions. This is sociology at its best!"
Michael Burawoy, University of California at Berkeley

"Movies about high school are as ubiquitous as they are unexamined. Robert Bulman has gone in search of their cultural significance, and come back with a smart, nuanced, accessible book. With sociological rigor and the sensitivities of a moviegoer, Bulman demonstrates how these films are part of a complex cultural processing of social differences social class, in particular. Hollywood Goes to High School is an important and fun addition to the study of contemporary culture."
Joshua Gamson, University of San Francisco

"In applying sociological analysis to movies these students hold dear and to which they have attached an enormous amount of affection, Robert crafted a brilliant teaching tool. By conceptualizing films about high school as cultural stories, Robert effectively makes students social scientists, showing them...that they [can] examine inequality through easily accessible media like movies and television."
CJ Pascoe, University of Oregon

"Once in a while a sociologist manages to write a book that is theoretically grounded, empirically sound, and generally interesting. Robert Bulman has written such a book. His Hollywood Goes to High School is both thoroughly enjoyable and insightfully sociological. Few books manage to be both and for that reason alone Hollywood Goes to High School should be recommended if not required reading for every high school and university introductory course. Bulman has carried out a thoroughly sociological analysis that is intellectually sound, frequently insightful, and always engaging. Simply put he has accomplished the increasingly rare feat of writing a book that speaks sociologically to scholars and the lay public alike."
Michael DeCesare, Merrimack College quotes from Contemporary Sociology"

About the Author:

Robert C. Bulman is a professor of sociology at Saint Mary s College of California. He received his B.A. in sociology from the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1989 and his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California at Berkeley in 1999. He teaches the sociology of education, the sociology of culture, social stratification, and research methods. In addition to his research on films and American culture, he has published work on educational decision making, the political dynamics of school choice, and masculinity in ballroom dancing."

About this edition

• Publisher: Worth Pub
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1464171696
• ISBN 13: 9781464171697
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 178