Background
Franklin, H. Bruce was born on February 28, 1934 in Brooklyn. Son of Robert and Florence (Cohen) Franklin.
( There is now fairly widespread acknowledgment that the ...)
There is now fairly widespread acknowledgment that the Vietnam War shattered many of the traditional narratives central to formerly prevailing vision of the United States and its history. Some people regret this and seek to restore old narratives that they consider essential to a unifying national identity, but their mighty efforts are unlikely to put Humpty Dumpty together again. Others see this shattering as a liberation from dangerous illusions, a wake-up call that forced millions of Americans toward more truthful and beneficial narratives about American history and culture. There is a third view, one that has gained considerable influence in intellectual circles, that sees any "master narrative" or "meta-narrative"--or, for that matter, any coherently structured narrative--as a socially constructed fantasy that radically falsifies the fragmentary, conflicted, and de-centered character of social experience. Although in this book the author does not engage in overt arguments about narrative theory, he does operate from a theoretical position that highly values narratives, especially coherently structures narratives--including some forms of fantasy--as crucial to comprehending, within our human limits, human reality.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1558492798/?tag=2022091-20
(Shortly after H.G. Wells published War of the Worlds, in ...)
Shortly after H.G. Wells published War of the Worlds, in which Martians decimate humanity, an American author countered with a buoyantly optimistic sequel, Edison's Conquest of Mars--the great Thomas Edison invents a disintegrator beam which exterminates the aliens and unifies Earth behind America. This may seem a harmless fantasy, but as H. Bruce Franklin points out in War Stars, an eye-opening analysis of the superweapon in American culture, Edison's Conquest epitomizes a pattern of thought that has beguiled Americans since the 18th century: the belief that miraculous new weapons will somehow end war and bring global triumph to American ideals. ___Franklin begins his analysis with Robert Fulton, who first articulated this belief by claiming that an Age of Reason--including an end to ignorance, monarchy, and war--would be ushered in by his three purely "defensive" military inventions: the submarine, the torpedo, and the steam warship. Franklin then traces this treacherously seductive idea as it weaves through American culture in many forms: the flood of "future-war" novels appearing between 1880 and World War I, in which made-in-America superweapons (including the first nuclear arms) keep the world eternally safe for democracy; Billy Mitchell's use of newsreel and popular magazines to promote air power as a weapon for peace; the animated Disney feature "Victory Through Air Power," which concludes with Japan in ruins while "America the Beautiful" plays in the background; a 1940 novel in which America uses atomic bombs to win World War II and establish a Pax Americana along the lines of the 1946 Baruch Plan; and such material prducts as the intercontinental bomber and missile, the atomic and hydrogen bomb, and "defensive" space weapons guaranteed to make previous superweapons "impotent and obsolete." Franklin explores over two hundred movies, rediscovering obscure works that directly influenced later decision-making and reinterpreting such modern classics as Catch 22, Slaughterhouse Five, and Dr. Strangelove. More important, he shows how American cultural images shape the imagination and discourse responsible for the actual superweapons looming over human destiny. ___Vividly written and filled with provocative insights, War Stars offers a sweeping account of two centuries of American cultural and military history. This groundbreaking volume provides a new perspective on the debate over nuclear weapons, defense policy, and the future of the earth.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195052951/?tag=2022091-20
( The first college anthology of American literature abou...)
The first college anthology of American literature about the Vietnam War brings together 16 stories, 5 songs, and 63 poems in an affordable text for literature and history courses.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312115520/?tag=2022091-20
(Almost two decades after the Vietnam War, most Americans ...)
Almost two decades after the Vietnam War, most Americans remain convinced that U.S. prisoners are still being held captive in Southeast Asia, and many even accuse the government of concealing their existence. But as H. Bruce Franklin demonstrates in his startling investigation, there is no plausible basis for the belief in live POWs. Through scrupulous research, he shows for the first time how this illusion was fabricated and then converted into a powerful myth. Franklin reveals that in 1969 the Nixon administration, aided by militant pro-war forces, manufactured the POW/MIA issue to deflect attention from American atrocities in Vietnam, to undermine the burgeoning anti-war movement, and to stymie the Paris peace talks, resulting in the prolongation of the Vietnam War for another four years. Successive administrations, in an effort to mobilize public support for their continued economic and political warfare against Vietnam, asserted the possibility of live POWs at great emotional cost to both family members of the missing and countless Americans distressed about the fate of those supposedly left behind in Indochina. Born of political expediency, the POW/MIA issue was transformed in the 1980s into a potent myth. American culture was transfigured as movies and novels designed to reimage the Vietnam War turned the imagined post-war POWs into crucial symbols of betrayed American manhood and honor. Finally the myth began to turn against its creators when many Americans became convinced that the government itself was conspiring to betray the missing men. As he traces the evolution of the POW/MIA myth, Franklin not only exposes it as an elaborate hoax at the highest levels of government, butalso explains why the myth has penetrated to the heart of American life. By confronting the true tragedy of the missing in Vietnam, Franklin helps us to understand how to heal the terrible psychological and spiritual wounds of the Vietnam War.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0813520010/?tag=2022091-20
Franklin, H. Bruce was born on February 28, 1934 in Brooklyn. Son of Robert and Florence (Cohen) Franklin.
Bachelor, Amherst College, 1955. Doctor of Philosophy, Stanford University, 1961.
Tugboat deckhand, mate, Pennsylvania R.R., Jersey City, 1955-1956; assistant Professor of English, associate professor, Stanford (California) U., 1961-1964, 65-72; assistant Professor of English, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, 1964-1965; visiting Professor of English, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 1974-1975; Professor of English, Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey, 1975-1987; John Cotton Dana Professor of English, Rutgers University, Newark, since 1987. Consultant Stanford Research Institute, 1962-1964, Sugarloaf Films, 1993. Advisory board member Vietnam Generation, since 1994.
( There is now fairly widespread acknowledgment that the ...)
( The first college anthology of American literature abou...)
(Almost two decades after the Vietnam War, most Americans ...)
(In this new and expanded edition of an already classic wo...)
(biography, Russian history, Russian revolution)
(Vintage books, sixties, used books)
(Shortly after H.G. Wells published War of the Worlds, in ...)
(Prison writings.)
First lieutenant United States Air Force, 1956-1959.
Married Jane Morgan, February 11, 1956. Children: Karen, Gretchen, Robert Morgan.