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During the 1930s many Americans avoided thinking about war erupting in Europe, believing it of little relevance to their own lives. Yet, the Warner Bros. film studio embarked on a virtual crusade to alert Americans to the growing menace of Nazism.
Polish-Jewish immigrants Harry and Jack Warner risked both reputation and fortune to inform the American public of the insidious threat Hitler's regime posed throughout the world. Through a score of films produced during the 1930s and early 1940s-including the pivotal Sergeant York-the Warner Bros. studio marshaled its forces to influence the American conscience and push toward intervention in World War II.
Celluloid Soldiers offers a compelling historical look at Warner Bros.'s efforts as the only major studio to promote anti-Nazi activity before the outbreak of the Second World War.
— Charles Maland,University of Tennessee
"This study of the Warner Bros. Studio in relation to the coming of World War II will be a lasting contribution, not only on the impact of media on our nation's policiesa topic of concern for most thoughtful peoplebut also for academics in popular culture studies."
— Peter Rollins,Editor-in-Chief, Film & History:An Interdisciplinary Journal of Film and Television Studies
"Celluloid Soldiers contributes significantly to our understanding of how Warner Bros. crusaded against fascism from the middle 1930s to Pearl Harbor. Drawing on extensive archival research, Birdwell provides particularly lively discussions of Alvin York's conversion to interventionism during the making of Sergeant York and of the 1941 Nye-Clark Committee investigations of ‘premature anti-fascism' in Hollywood."
— Charles Maland,University of Tennessee
"A compact, compelling, and controversial as a Warner Bros. classic. . . . A strongly executed tour de force."
"Birdwell fruitfully charts the film company's laudable and outspoken stance against Nazism amid the politically charged yet divided loyalties of 1930s' Hollywood."