Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone! This sounds like a book to love: “The Noir Forties: America from Victory to Cold War” by Richard Lingeman.
From the LA Times review: “Films noir,” Lingeman declares at the outset, “are a key for unlocking the psychology, the national mood during those years.” But despite its title, The Noir Forties is not a book about the films – for that, readers should turn to J. Hoberman’s recent book An Army of Phantoms: American Movies and the Making of the Cold War, and to the classic More Than Night: Film Noir in its Contexts by James Naremore. Instead, Lingeman’s book provides a broader history of the brief but crucial period when the world of the New Deal died and the iron cage of Cold War politics and culture was forged. It would remain in place for the next 45 years.
Meanwhile, if you are in need of last-minute Valentine’s gift ideas for your guy(s), click here.
From FNB readers