Hollywood Westerns and American Myth

By Robert B. Pippin,

Book cover of Hollywood Westerns and American Myth: The Importance of Howard Hawks and John Ford for Political Philosophy

Book description

In this pathbreaking book one of America's most distinguished philosophers brilliantly explores the status and authority of law and the nature of political allegiance through close readings of three classic Hollywood Westerns: Howard Hawks' Red River and John Ford's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and The Searchers.

Robert Pippin…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Hollywood Westerns and American Myth as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Robert Pippin is a well-respected philosopher who has written on Hegel, Nietzsche, and Heidegger. Here, he writes about westerns: Hawks’ Red River, and Ford’s The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence and The Searchers.

Pippin is interested in both political psychology and political philosophy within an American context, but there is nothing starchy or narrowly academic about this thoughtful reflection on these films.

Neither Hawks nor Ford was a philosopher, but Pippin shows that their movies are charged with philosophical meaning. 

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