Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films, Fourth Edition

Donald Bogle

Bloomsbury Academic, Oct 24, 2001 - Social Science - 454 pages

Completely updated to include the entire twentieth century, this new fourth edition covers all the latest directors, stars, and films including Summer of Sam, Jackie Brown, The Best Man, and The Hurricane. From The Birth of a Nation--the groundbreaking work of independent filmmaker Oscar Micheaux--and Gone with the Wind to the latest work by Spike Lee, John Singleton, Denzel Washington, Halle Berry and Will Smith, Donald Bogle reveals the ways in which the depiction of blacks in American movies has changed--and the shocking ways in which it has remained the same.

What people are saying

User Review -

Read the original 1973 version some time in the 1990s. It is highly informative in tracing out a panorama of how African Americans have been portrayed on film, been treated by the movie establishment of the United States and how some have moved from in front of the camera into various roles behind it since the last decade of the 1800s. This book is yet another parallel that portrays the eternal spirit of black people that enables us to endure oppression of all sorts and depths in the firm belief that we can only grow, develop and evolve through the political, economic and social jungle created (in the US and around the worlds) by white people who are slowly but surely failing at keeping us in the inferior position. --Yirenkyi Lamptey (Accra.)  

About the author

Donald Bogle is one of the foremost authorities on African Americans in film and the arts. He is the author of the classic Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films, which is published by Continuum. His best-selling Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams: The Story of Black Hollywood received the Hurston/Wright Finalist Legacy Award in Non-fiction. His other books include the critically acclaimed Dorothy Dandridge: A Biography; Blacks in American Films and Television: An Illustrated Encyclopedia; and Primetime Blues: African Americans on Network Television. He has appeared on such television programs as Entertainment Tonight; Today; Good Morning, America; and Nightline; and has served as a commentator on such documentaries as Spike Lee's Jim Brown: All-American, American Movie Classics' Small Steps . . . Big Strides, and TV Land's three-part series on African Americans on television. He also co-hosted Turner Classic Movies' award-winning series Race and Hollywood. The first edition of the present book, Brown Sugar, covered eighty years of America's black female superstars, and was turned into the highly successful four-part PBS documentary series by Mr. Bogle.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films, Fourth Edition
• Author: Donald Bogle
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic, 2001
• ISBN: 082641267X, 9780826412676
• Length: 454 pages
• Subjects: Performing Arts / Film & Video / History & Criticism; Social Science / Ethnic Studies / African American Studies; Social Science / Popular Culture