Back where you came from: A life in the death of the empire

FRANKLIN, H. Bruce

Harper's Magazine Press

A history of prison literature in the United States examines and reinterprets the works of those who became writers by virtue of their being defined and treated as criminals

The Victim As Criminal and Artist: Literature from the American Prison

Literature & Fiction

History & Criticism

Oxford Univ. Pr.

Future Perfect: American Science Fiction of the Nineteenth Century

Major revisions and extensive additions update a study that argues the literary legitimacy of science fiction, shows the achievement in nineteenth-century America of its characteristic style, and sees it as the epoch's principal non-realistic imaginative mode

United States

Oxford University Press

Will be shipped from US. Used books may not include companion materials, may have some shelf wear, may contain highlighting/notes, may not include CDs or access codes. 100% money back guarantee.

Robert A. Heinlein: America as Science Fiction

Biographies & Memoirs

A brief biographical profile accompanies a detailed analysis of the stories and novels of the science fiction author and an evaluation of his influence on the genre

Science Fiction & Fantasy

Science Fiction

Shortly after H.G. Wells published War of the Worlds, in which Martians decimate humanity, an American author countered with a buoyantly optimistic sequel, Edison's Conquest of Mars--the great Thomas Edison invents a disintegrator beam which exterminates the aliens and unifies Earth behind America. This may seem a harmless fantasy, but as H. Bruce Franklin points out in War Stars, an eye-opening analysis of the superweapon in American culture, Edison's Conquest epitomizes a pattern of thought that has beguiled Americans since the 18th century: the belief that miraculous new weapons will somehow end war and bring global triumph to American ideals. ___Franklin begins his analysis with Robert Fulton, who first articulated this belief by claiming that an Age of Reason--including an end to ignorance, monarchy, and war--would be ushered in by his three purely "defensive" military inventions: the submarine, the torpedo, and the steam warship. Franklin then traces this treacherously seductive idea as it weaves through American culture in many forms: the flood of "future-war" novels appearing between 1880 and World War I, in which made-in-America superweapons (including the first nuclear arms) keep the world eternally safe for democracy; Billy Mitchell's use of newsreel and popular magazines to promote air power as a weapon for peace; the animated Disney feature "Victory Through Air Power," which concludes with Japan in ruins while "America the Beautiful" plays in the background; a 1940 novel in which America uses atomic bombs to win World War II and establish a Pax Americana along the lines of the 1946 Baruch Plan; and such material prducts as the intercontinental bomber and missile, the atomic and hydrogen bomb, and "defensive" space weapons guaranteed to make previous superweapons "impotent and obsolete." Franklin explores over two hundred movies, rediscovering obscure works that directly influenced later decision-making and reinterpreting such modern classics as Catch 22, Slaughterhouse Five, and Dr. Strangelove. More important, he shows how American cultural images shape the imagination and discourse responsible for the actual superweapons looming over human destiny. ___Vividly written and filled with provocative insights, War Stars offers a sweeping account of two centuries of American cultural and military history. This groundbreaking volume provides a new perspective on the debate over nuclear weapons, defense policy, and the future of the earth.

War Stars: The Superweapon and the American Imagination

History

Military

Prison Literature in America--the first full-length study of American prison literature--has become a landmark work in American cultural history, Marxist theory, and the relations between crime and art. This greatly expanded third edition contains much new material, especially on current prison literature, and the Annotated Bibliography of Published Works by American Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners has doubled since the 1978 edition.

Prison Literature in America: The Victim as Criminal and Artist (Oxford Paperbacks)

Sweeping through two centuries of American culture and military history, War Stars comes to a startling new understanding of issues crucial to the survival of civilization and the human species. Vividly written and filled with dazzling insights, this unique book explores the cultural history of superweapons from Robert Fulton's eighteenth-century submarine through the strategic bomber and atomic bomb to Star Wars. H. Bruce Franklin tellingly reveals how and why the American quest for the ultimate defensive weapon--guaranteed to end all war and bring universal triumph to American ideals--has led to the creation of forces increasingly capable of automated global annihilation. Franklin explores over two hundred movies, novels, and stories, from obscure pre-World War I fiction that influenced Truman's decision to drop atomic bombs on Japan to such modern classics as Catch-22, Slaughterhouse Five, and Dr. Strangelove. He demonstrates how the American imagination continually shapes ingenious new superweapons while engendering their antitheses in art and action. With its brilliant interweaving of culture, science, technology, and history, War Stars has received high praise from scientists, literary scholars, film critics, activists, and historians alike.

The first college anthology of American literature about the Vietnam War brings together 16 stories, 5 songs, and 63 poems in an affordable text for literature and history courses.

The Vietnam War in American Stories, Songs, and Poems

Bedford/St.Martin's

This paperback edition of M.I.A. or Mythmaking in America adds major new material about Ross Perot's role, the 1991-1992 Senate investigation, and illegal operations authorized by Ronald Reagan. 
“An important and compelling book. . . . Franklin raises and answers all of the hardest questions about an enduring piece of political mythology.”--The Philadelphia Inquirer 
“A calm and thoughtful book on a firestorm of a subject. . . . Intelligent, provocative, and courageous.”--Kirkus Reviews

M.I.A. or Mythmaking in America: How and why belief in live POWs has possessed a nation

Americas

Rutgers University Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by FRANKLIN, H. Bruce. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by FRANKLIN, H. Bruce

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by FRANKLIN, H. Bruce. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Back where you came from: A life in the death of the empire

The Victim As Criminal and Artist: Literature from the American Prison

Future Perfect: American Science Fiction of the Nineteenth Century

Robert A. Heinlein: America as Science Fiction

Robert A. Heinlein: America as Science Fiction

War Stars: The Superweapon and the American Imagination

Prison Literature in America: The Victim as Criminal and Artist (Oxford Paperbacks)

War Stars: The Superweapon and the American Imagination

The Vietnam War in American Stories, Songs, and Poems

M.I.A. or Mythmaking in America: How and why belief in live POWs has possessed a nation