Picturing American Modernity

“Picturing American Modernity is an exciting work of scholarship and will appeal to scholars interested in silent film, empire, and urban amusements. . . . Whissel’s monograph will be at home in an undergraduate survey of the early twentieth century as well as in a graduate seminar on American empire and culture. Ultimately, Picturing American Modernity clarifies an often-confusing period in U.S. history.” - Brian Tochterman, History: Reviews of New Books

“Picturing American Modernity uses refreshing and imaginative examples to chart new perspectives on modernity and represents an important and valuable contribution to its continued historicisation.” - Sean Maher, M/C Reviews

“Anyone who has seen these very short films with their fleeting, flickering images might wonder if there is enough content to justify the interest of a historian, but Whissel’s imaginative interpretation of their meaning shows that they were vital documents of American enthusiasm for technology.” - Andre Millard, Journal of American History

“In this compelling book, Kristen Whissel examines connections between early American cinema and the development, and indeed imposition, of technological modernity and industrial capitalism. . . . Overall, this is an excellent discussion that highlights important aspects of culture and struggle during a critical period in American development.” - Jeff Shantz, Media International Australia

“Remarkably accessible and readable.” - T. Lindvall, Choice

“There is much to be recommended about Picturing American Modernity. It is very dense, and not for the weak-minded, but those who persist will reap the rewards of Whissel’s exemplary film historical scholarship. . . . Whissel’s is a valuable addition to the literature on cinema, cultural and industrial modernity at the turn of the century. It is a must read for all historians of early and silent cinema.” - Frances Guerin, Screening the Past

“Picturing American Modernity is a noteworthy contribution to the ongoing historiographic reworking of early cinema history. It is based on excellent archival work, which leads to new conclusions about the complex forces that shaped the cinema in its first two decades.” - Anne Friedberg, author of The Virtual Window: From Alberti to Microsoft

“In Picturing American Modernity, Kristen Whissel thinks through the relation between early cinema and American culture at the turn of the century in imaginative and original ways. Probing cinema’s interaction with both current events and other forms of mass entertainment (such as the Spanish-American War, the World Expositions, and Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show), Whissel traces the creation of a new mass audience and cinema’s role in shaping the culture of American imperialism. Her in-depth analysis of the films Traffic in Souls and Shoes reveals that the concept of ‘traffic’ can also organize strategies of film narration, as the cinema began to define itself as a new form of storytelling and national identity.” - Tom Gunning, author of The Films of Fritz Lang: Allegories of Vision and Modernity