This publication of Abraham Polonsky’s unproduced screenplay for The Gladiators is a tribute to one of Hollywood’s premiere post-WW II directors and writers whose career was severely impacted by the blacklist. His script for The Gladiators survives to remind us that he could, and did, transform a difficult and complex novel of an ancient slave rebellion into a screenplay worthy of Arthur Koestler’s bold fictional vision. Through a combination of the ambivalence of its executive producer and star, plus bad timing, it never went before the cameras. This book is published in the hope that The Gladiators will be produced for cinema or television.

Using previously unpublished correspondence and personal journal entries from screenwriter Abraham Polonsky, neglected notices in Variety and other Hollywood trade publications, and a wide range of published sources, this narrative backstory of rival movie productions of The Gladiators vs Spartacus documents that intense competition with greater precision and clarity than any other existing account. The key role that this little-known chapter of Hollywood's blacklist history played, in connection with Dalton Trumbo's successful effort to win screen credit for Spartacus, is now for the first time available to film historians and lay readers. A companion study, Volume 2, is devoted to Abraham Polonsky’s rediscovered screenplay.

Featuring a selection of brand new essays by a group of accomplished scholars, Arthur Koestler's Fiction and the Genre of the Novel covers all of Koestler's novels published in his lifetime, the first book to attempt this in English since Mark Levene's Arthur Koestler, published thirty-seven years ago. The team of contributors, with research backgrounds in history, political science, religious studies, law, linguistics and journalism besides literature, offers a truly multidisciplinary take on how Koestler's novels utilize, and at times transcend, the genre of the novel, and argues for their enduring relevance and appeal in the twenty-first century, inviting the reader to revisit and reassess them. With the topics of Koestler's novels including terrorism, massive migration, espionage, rape trauma, war trauma, the crisis of faith, propaganda, fake news and the role and responsibility of intellectuals in major international crises, as the volume aims to show, these texts are just as topical today, as they were at the time of their publication.

Seventy-five years ago, the Hollywood blacklist ruined lives, stifled creativity, and sent waves of proscription and censorship throughout United States culture. When the Hollywood Ten refused to answer the questions of the House Committee on Un-American Activities about their membership in the Communist Party, they were sentenced to prison, the five who were under contract were fired by their studios, and all were blacklisted from reemployment until they "purged themselves of their communist taint." By the 1950s, this blacklist publicly stigmatized nearly three hundred other Americans in the entertainment industry who invoked the First and Fifth Amendments in their refusal to apologize for their Communist ties or provide the names of other members. Dozens of others were graylisted as the result of rumors. The Hollywood Motion Picture Blacklist: Seventy-Five Years Later offers new insights on the origins of the blacklist, the characteristics of those blacklisted, and the probability of future proscriptions of the blacklist type. Author Larry Ceplair draws on previously published work while introducing new material to vigorously recount the events that took place between the US government, Hollywood unions, and motion picture studios. Ceplair thoroughly examines the role of Jewish identity in many anti-communist efforts—a concept that has never been fully examined by scholars—and analyzes the actions of subpoenaed witnesses who were forced to choose between cooperating with the House Committee or joining the blacklist. This fascinating book is an illuminating examination of a dark period in American history and the fragility of our rights to free speech and due process.

The author posits that all generally accepted chronology before the 16th century is in error by hundreds or thousands of years.

The second volume of Mike Seigel's new three-volume course aims to present grammar in the clearest possible way and build upon the lessons of Book 1. The language content is supported by detailed insights into the history and culture of Ancient Rome, with stimulating full colour pictures to help bring the Roman Empire to life.

This is the first book systematically to analyze Kirk Douglas’ and Stanley Kubrick’s depiction of the slave revolt led by Spartacus from different historical, political, and cinematic perspectives. Examines the film’s use of ancient sources, the ancient historical contexts, the political significance of the film, the history of its censorship and restoration, and its place in film history. Includes the most important passages from ancient authors’ reports of the slave revolt in translation.

Hollywood in the 1960s walked a tightrope between boom and bust. Yet the decade spawned many of the greatest films ever made, saw the advent of the spy thriller, the revival of science fiction and horror, and represented the Golden Era of the 70mm roadshow. Blockbusters like Lawrence of Arabia and The Sound of Music shared marquees with low-budget hits such as Lilies of the Field and Easy Rider. New stars emerged--Steve McQueen, Sidney Poitier, Barbra Streisand, Sean Connery, Faye Dunaway, Clint Eastwood and Dustin Hoffman. Veteran directors like Billy Wilder and William Wyler were joined by the post-war generation of Robert Aldrich and Stanley Kramer, and the new wave of Stanley Kubrick and John Schlesinger. This book explores a period when filmmakers embraced revolutionary attitudes to sexuality, violence and racism, and produced a bewildering list of critically acclaimed classics that remain audience favorites.