"An Unpleasant Wartime Function": Race, Film Censorship, and the Office of War Information, 1942-1945

Simple item page
dc.contributor.advisorGilbert, James B.en_US
dc.contributor.authorWagner, Jessica Laurenen_US
dc.contributor.departmentHistoryen_US
dc.contributor.publisherDigital Repository at the University of Marylanden_US
dc.contributor.publisherUniversity of Maryland (College Park, Md.)en_US
dc.date.accessioned2007-09-28T14:55:56Z
dc.date.available2007-09-28T14:55:56Z
dc.date.issued2007-04-30en_US
dc.description.abstractThis paper will try to untangle how the U.S. Office of War Information's Bureau of Motion Pictures tried to enact change in the world, using Hollywood films, during World War II. It will also show how inconsistencies within the agency and lack of support from the President, Congress, and Hollywood often sabotaged the Bureau's project. I argue that a structural component and a thematic component helped cripple the OWI's Bureau of Motion Pictures. First, the extremely decentralized, bureaucratic and conflict-laden nature of the government information network, and the limited enforcement power of the OWI and in particular the Bureau of Motion Pictures, limited its success. Second, the BMP's passionately liberal and racially progressive interpretation of U.S. war aims helped contribute to its downfall. The BMP operated during a watershed moment in race relations, in which hierarchies of racial and ethnic groups were shifting dramatically.en_US
dc.format.extent965651 bytes
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/7147
dc.language.isoen_US
dc.subject.pqcontrolledHistory, United Statesen_US
dc.subject.pqcontrolledCinemaen_US
dc.subject.pqcontrolledHistory, Blacken_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledOffice of War Informationen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledOffice of Censorshipen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledWorld War IIen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledFilm Censorshipen_US
dc.title"An Unpleasant Wartime Function": Race, Film Censorship, and the Office of War Information, 1942-1945en_US
dc.typeThesisen_US

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
umi-umd-4400.pdf
Size:
943.02 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Download

Collections

UMD Theses and Dissertations
History Theses and Dissertations