About the book
2019 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title
The early 1970s were a moment of transformation for both the American city and its cinema. As intensified suburbanization, racial division, deindustrialization, and decaying infrastructure cast the future of the city in doubt, detective films, blaxploitation, police procedurals, and heist films confronted spectators with contemporary scenes from urban streets. Welcome to Fear City argues that the location-shot crime films of the 1970s were part of a larger cultural ambivalence felt toward urban life, evident in popular magazines, architectural discourse, urban sociology, and visual culture. Yet they also helped to reinvigorate the city as a site of variegated experience and a positively disordered public life—in stark contrast to the socially homogenous and spatially ordered suburbs. Discussing the design of parking garages and street lighting, the dynamics of mugging, panoramas of ruin, and the optics of undercover police operations in such films as Klute, The French Connection, Detroit 9000, Death Wish, and The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, Nathan Holmes demonstrates that crime genres did not simply mirror urban settings and social realities, but actively produced and circulated new ideas about the shifting surfaces of public culture.
Editions of Welcome to Fear City
- Hardcover
- ISBN 9781438471211
- Paperback
- ISBN 9781438471204
- PDF
- ISBN 9781438471228
Read an Excerpt
2019 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title
The early 1970s were a moment of transformation for both the American city and its cinema. As intensified suburbanization, racial division, deindustrialization, and decaying infrastructure cast the future of the city in doubt, detective films, blaxploitation, police procedurals, and heist films confronted spectators with contemporary scenes from urban streets. Welcome to Fear City argues that the location-shot crime films of the 1970s were part of a larger cultural ambivalence felt toward urban life, evident in popular magazines, architectural discourse, urban sociology, and visual culture. Yet they also helped to reinvigorate the city as a site of variegated experience and a positively disordered public life—in stark contrast to the socially homogenous and spatially ordered suburbs. Discussing the design of parking garages and street lighting, the dynamics of mugging, panoramas of ruin, and the optics of undercover police operations in such films as Klute, The French Connection, Detroit 9000, Death Wish, and The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, Nathan Holmes demonstrates that crime genres did not simply mirror urban settings and social realities, but actively produced and circulated new ideas about the shifting surfaces of public culture.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Welcome to Fear City about?
2019 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title
The early 1970s were a moment of transformation for both the American city and its cinema. As intensified suburbanization, racial division, deindustrialization, and decaying infrastructure cast the future of the city in doubt, detective films, blaxploitation, police procedurals, and heist films confronted spectators with contemporary scenes from urban streets. Welcome to Fear City argues that the location-shot crime films of the 1970s were part of a larger cultural ambivalence felt toward urban life, evident in popular magazines, architectural discourse, urban sociology, and visual culture. Yet they also helped to reinvigorate the city as a site of variegated experience and a positively disordered public life—in stark contrast to the socially homogenous and spatially ordered suburbs. Discussing the design of parking garages and street lighting, the dynamics of mugging, panoramas of ruin, and the optics of undercover police operations in such films as Klute, The French Connection, Detroit 9000, Death Wish, and The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, Nathan Holmes demonstrates that crime genres did not simply mirror urban settings and social realities, but actively produced and circulated new ideas about the shifting surfaces of public culture.
What core themes, tropes, or subjects are explored in Welcome to Fear City?
The Arts > Performing arts > Films, cinema > Film history, theory or criticism
Where can I read a sample of Welcome to Fear City?
You can read an official preview of the few pages here https://www.book2look.com/book/9781438471211
How long is Welcome to Fear City and how many pages does it have?
Welcome to Fear City has 244 page(s)
Is Welcome to Fear City part of a series, and can it be read as a standalone?
Yes it is a part of series SUNY series, Horizons of Cinema
Who is/are the Author/s of the book Welcome to Fear City?
Nathan Holmes
What are the ISBN numbers for the physical and digital editions?
Welcome to Fear City is available as hardcover(ISBN 9781438471211) and paperback(ISBN 9781438471204) and pdf(ISBN 9781438471228)
Where can I buy Welcome to Fear City online or support local independent bookshops?
You can buy Welcome to Fear City from below
Where can I buy Welcome to Fear City?