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The history of film calls to mind unforgettable photographs, famous directors, and the glitz and hustle of the media business. But there is another tale to tell that connects film as a material to the twentieth century’s history of war, destruction, and cruelty.
This story comes into focus during World War II at the factories of Tennessee Eastman, where photographic giant Kodak produced the rudiments of movie magic. Not far away, at Oak Ridge, Kodak was also enriching uranium for the Manhattan Project—uranium mined in the Belgian Congo and destined for the bomb that fell on Hiroshima. While the world’s largest film manufacturer transformed into a formidable military contractor, across the ocean its competitor Agfa grew entangled with Nazi Germany’s machinery of war. After 1945, Kodak’s film factories stood at the front lines of a new, colder war, as their photosensitive products became harbingers of the dangers of nuclear fallout.
Following scientists, soldiers, prisoners, and spies through Kodak’s and Agfa’s global empires, Alice Lovejoy links the golden age of cinema and photography to colonialism, the military-industrial complex, radioactive dust, and toxic waste. Revelatory and chilling,Tales of Militant Chemistry shows how film became a weapon whose chemistry irrevocably shaped the world we live in today.
“Lovejoy deftly weaves a cornucopia of strands and recurring threads in politics, economics, history, biography and technology. The result is a compelling illustration of how fascinating and frightening the world of industrial chemistry can be.”
"Sprawling and full of unexpected turns, it’s a rewarding deep dive.”
“Valuable for the very different light it shines on a part of the Kodak empire that, from the company seat, has always looked like a far-off province.”
“Lovejoy reveals the film industry's dual connection to war and its surprising status as an icon of a sinful strategic enterprise, more so than many others in modernity.”
"Tales of Militant Chemistry tempers the romanticism of film and reveals how inseparable chemical development, warfare, and corporate interests are to
understanding the history of the 20th century, as well as the world we find ourselves in today."
“This thin but exhaustively researched book explores the processes involved in producing photographic film and their connections to chemistry, including industrial plants; the histories of both world wars and the Cold War; natural resource development; and economics, including tariffs, government funding, monopolies, and the establishment of manufacturing sites. Supported by a substantial bibliography and copious notes, this slim text is a fascinating read, including details not widely known.”
“Humane, well-researched . . . captivating material history of film. I strongly recommend … to readers interested in the history of cinema and photography, the photographic and chemical industries, and the connections between film and war.”
“Taking the raw materials to manufacture film as the starting point for her thoroughly documented research, Lovejoy unfolds a fascinating perspective on the past century through two of its most defining elements, media and war, and the chemicals, the money, the science, and the people involved in them.”
Contents
Introduction
Part I. Building
Chapter One • The Film Factory
Chapter Two • Story of a Tree
Part II. Unraveling
Chapter Three • Taking Stock
Chapter Four • Fallout
Chapter Five • A Fine Line
Epilogue: The Twenty-First Century
Acknowledgements
Archives and Abbreviations
Notes
Bibliography
Filmography
Index