Print the Legend

In Print the Legend: Politics, Culture, and Civic Virtue in the Films of John Ford, a collection of writers explore Ford's view of politics, popular culture, and civic virtue in some of his best films: Drums Along the Mohawk, The Searchers, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Stagecoach, How Green Was My Valley, and The Last Hurrah. John Ford, more than most motion picture directors, invites his viewers into a serious discussion of these themes. For instance, one can consider Plato's timeless question 'What is justice?' in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, vengeance as classical Greek tragedy in The Searchers, or ethnic politics in The Last Hurrah. Ford's films never grow stale or seem dated because he continually probes the most important questions of our civic culture: what must we do to survive, prosper, pursue happiness, and retain our common decency as a regime? Further, viewing them from a distance of time, we are subtly invited to ask whether anything has been lost or gained since Ford celebrated the civic virtues of an earlier America. Is Ford's America an idealized America or a lost America?

Auteur
Sidney A. Pearson, Jr. is professor emeritus of political science at Radford University and editor of The Constitutional Polity: Essays on the Founding Principles of American Politics.

Contenu
Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Chapter 1. Defending the West: John Ford and the Creation of the Epic Western
Chapter 3 Chapter 2. The Blessings of Civilization: John Ford's Stagecoach
Chapter 4 Chapter 3. John Ford's Revolutionary Americans: Drums Along the Mohawk
Chapter 5 Chapter 4. Modernity and the Destruction of Boundaries: John Ford's The Grapes of Wrath
Chapter 6 Chapter 5. On the Threshold of Modernity: John Ford's How Green Was My Valley
Chapter 7 Chapter 6. Heroes and Political Communities in John Ford's Westerns: The Role of Wyatt Earp in My Darling Clementine
Chapter 8 Chapter 7. The Western and the Western Drama: John Ford's The Searchers and the Oresteia
Chapter 9 Chapter 8. Heroic Virtue and the Limits of Democracy in John Ford's The Searchers
Chapter 10 Chapter 9. Honor, Duty, and Civic Virtue: John Ford's Mr. Roberts and The Last Hurrah
Chapter 11 Why it is Tough to be the Second Toughest Guy in a Tough Town: John Ford's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance