May, Lary L. 1944-

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MAY, Lary L. 1944-

PERSONAL: Born December 23, 1944, in Long Beach, CA. Education: Long Beach City College, A.A., 1965; George Washington University, B.A., 1968; University of California, Los Angeles, Ph.D., 1977.

ADDRESSES: Home—88 Arthur Ave., Minneapolis, MN 55414. Office—Department of American Studies, 104 Scott Hall, University of Minnesota, 72 Pleasant St. SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455-0293. Agent—Virginia Barber Literary Agency, Inc., 353 West 21st St., New York, NY 10011.

CAREER: Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, instructor in history, 1977-80; University of Minnesota, assistant professor of American studies, 1980—. Military service: U.S. Army, Airborne Division, 1961-64.

MEMBER: American Historical Association, Organization of American Historians.

WRITINGS:

Screening Out the Past: The Birth of Mass Culture and the Motion Picture Industry, 1896-1929, Oxford University Press (Oxford, England), 1981, reprinted with new preface, University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL), 1983.

(Editor) Recasting America: Culture and Politics in the Age of the Cold War, University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL), 1989.

The Big Tomorrow: Hollywood and the Politics of the American Way, University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL), 2000.

Contributor to history journals.

SIDELIGHTS: Lary L. May is an American cultural historian who explores political and social movements through interpretations of film and the activities of the film industry. Pacific Historical Review correspondent Mark H. Leff noted that May "has long been known as one of the profession's most insightful analysts of film and culture." May's The Big Tomorrow: Hollywood and the Politics of the American Way examines film as a prism for American attitudes from the Great Depression through the early Cold War. May finds that movies made during the Depression reflected a greater respect for community effort, the working class, and a plural society, while wartime and Cold War films accented individual effort, patriotism, and conformity. Leff wrote of the book: "This reinterpretation of the political significance of Hollywood's trajectory between the Great Depression and the Cold War has been much anticipated." Cineaste reviewer Paul Buhle called The Big Tomorrow "a fine book by an academic historian who not only watches the films that he writes about, but also takes his archival work seriously." In the Times Literary Supplement, Eric Lott observed: "May writes with vigour and clarity. The book is wideranging in its coverage.... Elements of The Big Tomorrow . . . are fascinating."