Shows
Flashback: American Historians on MoviesFast Times at Ridgemont High with Charlie JeffriesWe will post no podcasts before their time...lucky for us this week's episode on Fast Times at Ridgemont High is ready for your ears! Lecturer in American and Media Studies at the University of Sussex Dr Charlie Jeffries joins to discuss Amy Heckerling's teen comedy cult classic about the lives of six teenagers growing up in southern California in the 1980s. We dive into the history of teenage sexuality, of abortion on screen, the story of the movie's source material (hello, Cameron Crowe!) and more!
Charlie's book, Teenage Dreams: Girlhood Sexualities in the...2023-06-261h 13Flashback: American Historians on MoviesAround the World in Eighty Days (1956) with Neil SuchakPack your bags, because this week on Flashback we're going transnational with 1956's Around the World in Eighty Days, the Best Picture-winning adaptation of Jules Verne's 1872 novel which took audience members around the world in a mere three hours. DPhil student at the University of Oxford Neil Suchak joins to tackle this globe-trotting epic that has as many historical layers as it does minutes. We discuss why peace activists don't make for good cinema (the answer may surprise you), the benefits of cameos, the British Empire, the 1950s view of American power in the nineteenth century, and more!
2023-06-121h 10Flashback: American Historians on MoviesDick (1999) with Rivers GambrellSomething is afoot at the Watergate Comp– wait do you hear Bobby Sherman and giggling? In what is sure to be the first of many, Flashback covers its first Nixon movie with 1999's Dick, Andrew Fleming's Watergate scandal comedy which asks "what if two teenage girls were at the heart of the biggest scandal of the American presidency?" Presidential historian and Rothermere American Institute Research Fellow Rivers Gambrell joins to discuss this riotous but forgotten send-up of Watergate, Nixon, Woodard and Bernstein and 70s teen culture. We talk Watergate, Nixon's public persona, the power of teenage girls, needle drops, th...2023-05-291h 06Flashback: American Historians on MoviesSaturday Night Fever with Bruce SchulmanWell you can tell by the way we talk and talk...this week we're covering Saturday Night Fever, the 1977 dance-drama that took the world by storm with the story of one man's life as it revolves between the struggles of his working class Brooklyn neighborhood and his passion for disco. University of Oxford Harmsworth Visiting Professor of American History Bruce Schulman joins to discuss this landmark movie which features a sparkling breakout performance from John Travolta and spawned one of the best-selling albums of all time. We discuss the place of the film in the historical memory of the 1970...2023-05-151h 10Flashback: American Historians on MoviesGangs of New York with Mark Power SmithDo you hear...drumming? Must be the start of a new season of Flashback! We start off the third season by covering Martin Scorsese's 2002 epic historical drama Gangs of New York, taking us to the streets of Five Points in the mid-nineteenth century and amidst rising tensions stemming from the Civil War. Junior Research Fellow at the Rothermere American Institute Mark Power Smith joins to discuss the role of party politics in the formation of American nationalism in the nineteenth century, Daniel Day Lewis's turn as a patriotic political party man who loves a top hat (no not that...2023-05-011h 11Flashback: American Historians on MoviesElvis with Tyina SteptoeLord almighty, we feel out temperatures rising! Things are heating up this week on Flashback as we cover 2022's Elvis, director Baz Luhrmann's epic biopic (epi-io-pic?) following the career of musical legend Elvis Presley through his relationship with longtime manager Colonel Tom Parker. Dr Tyina Steptoe, Associate Professor of History at the University of Arizona and musical history expert, joins as we delve into the ways in which this bombastic film portrays Presley's relationships with rhythm and blues and country music, the American South and the end of Jim Crow, the queer roots of rock and roll, and much...2022-12-051h 10Flashback: American Historians on MoviesFury with Ruth LawlorThis week Flashback covers its first World War II film as we take a look at David Ayer's tank film Fury. Ruth Lawlor, postdoctoral research fellow at Cornell University, joins to help dissect this 2014 war blockbuster. We discuss the WWII as a film genre, the aesthetics of war films, sexual violence on the front, and whether Fury's historical grounding impeded its ability to be a good movie.
This episode contains frank discussion of sexual violence, assault, and contains strong language. Listener discretion is advised.
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Flashback is graciously supported by...2022-11-211h 06Flashback: American Historians on MoviesGood Night and Good Luck with Sage GoodwinAnd we're live with a Flashback foray into the history of television. Historian of television and the Civil Rights Movement Sage Goodwin joins and offers her expert thoughts on 2005's Good Night and Good Luck, George Clooney's look at Edward R Murrow's and Fred Friendly's coverage of Senator Joseph McCarthy's anti-communism hearings. Topics include the history of television finding its footing in the 1950s, the careers of Murrow and Friendly, the movie's commentary on the War on Terror, and more!
You can follow Sage on twitter @sagemgoodwin
Follow us on twitter @Flshbckhistopod
Flashback is...2022-11-071h 16Flashback: American Historians on MoviesLincoln with Adam SmithCue "Battle Hymn of the Republic", it's time for the Lincoln episode. Edward Osborn Professor of US Politics and Political History, host of The Last Best Hope? podcast, and Director of the RAI himself Adam Smith joins to talk Steven Spielberg's monumental 2012 biopic of the 16th president. We talk once again about the historical chameleon himself, Daniel Day Lewis, Lincoln the man (versus giant marble statue), congressional politics surrounding the Thirteenth Amendment, historical criticism of the movie, and more!
You can follow Adam @aipsmith and his podcast, The Last Best Hope? @TLBHpodcast
Fo...2022-10-241h 15Flashback: American Historians on MoviesTitanic with Lewis DefratesNear...far...this podcast will go on! Welcome back to Flashback and our season two premiere, Titanic. Temporary Assistant Professor of American History at Cambridge Lewis Defrates joins as we tackle one of Hollywood's biggest films ever, James Cameron's 1997 romance-disaster epic that follows the lives of two star-crossed lovers aboard the infamous ship on its maiden and final voyage. We talk transatlantic crossings, class aboard the Titanic, and the long legacy of the disaster in media both before and after Cameron's movie.
You can follow Lewis at @lewisdefrates and the Cambridge American History Seminar podcast at @camericanist2022-10-101h 16Flashback: American Historians on MoviesWho Framed Roger Rabbit? with Josh LappenTOONS! We're taking our first dive into animation with 1988's Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Robert Zemeckis's comedy-noir pastiche, inspired in parts by the novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, the Hollywood Studio system, and the decline of the Pacific Electric Railway Company. Surprised? Don't be! DPhil Josh Lappen joins to unpack why this family comedy where cartoons live amongst us actually draws from the rich history of Los Angeles. Along the way we also talk 1974's Chinatown and the grip it has on historians and the popular imagination, the place of conspiracies in history, and how both of those relate...2022-08-151h 05Flashback: American Historians on MoviesJackie with Liz ReesIt's true, it's true – our episode on Jackie is here! DPhil student and resident RAI First Lady expert Liz Rees joins to discuss Pablo Larrain's Jackie, the 2016 microbiopic that follows (former) First Lady Jackie Kennedy in the days after the assassination of her husband, John F. Kennedy. We dive into first ladies in the popular psyche, the women of the East Wing who help transformed the role of the First Lady, and the relationship between legacy and the Kennedy Administration. Liz also makes the excellent case for why we should all care a lot more about Lady Bird Johnson.
...2022-08-011h 05Flashback: American Historians on MoviesGlory with Jay SextonIt had to happen eventually – this week we take our first foray into the world of Civil War film with 1989's Glory, Ed Zwick's epic about the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, one of the first African American regiments to serve in the conflict. Joining us is Professor Jay Sexton, the Rich and Nancy Kinder Chair in Constitutional Democracy at the University of Missouri. We talk reenactments, James Horner's score, the long trend of Civil War on film, and the film's continuing legacy, and much much more. Jay also brings some great insight into how Matthew Broderick's casting continues to re...2022-07-181h 05
Flashback: American Historians on MoviesThere Will Be Blood with Gwion Wyn JonesI drink your…podcast? This week we venture back to the American West as DPhil student and expert in the American missionary movement Gwion Wyn Jones joins to talk Paul Thomas Anderson’s sweeping 2007 epic about two men struggling to make their mark through oil or god at the turn of the century. Talk ranges from score composer Johnny Greenwood, the ties between religion and capital, evangelicalism in the American West, and of course, milkshakes.
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Flashback is supported by the University of Oxford’s Rothermere American Institute
Enjoy the sh...2022-07-041h 04Flashback: American Historians on MoviesHamilton with Grace MallonWelcome to Flashback: American Historians on Movies! We’re kicking things off with perhaps the biggest piece of history on film (and stage!) of our times – 2020’s filmed version of the 2015 stage musical Hamilton. Grace Mallon of the Conventions podcast joins and offers her excellent insights. Were early cabinet debates just like rap battles? Does Hamilton actually obscure the diversity of early America? Is it aware that the city of Philadelphia exists? We discuss all this and more in this first episode.
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Follow Grace on twitter @GraceMallon3 and her podcast @Convent...2022-06-201h 10