| Book Review | The American Historical Review, .

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to the AHR online. About 224 words from this article are provided below; about 484 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the American Historical Association, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time. AHA members can go to the AHA individual membership section to locate their member numbers.
If you are not a member of the American Historical Association, you can:: • Join the AHA and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the American Historical Review.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the American Historical Review (104.3-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the American Historical Review.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The American Historical Review, . | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Methods/Theory

Nicholas Reeves. The Power of Film Propaganda: Myth or Reality? New York: Cassell. 1999. Pp. viii, 262. £14.99.

This book is an outstanding corrective to those who continue, unwisely, to imagine that all great propaganda films have enormous impact. At the same time, Nicholas Reeves argues that some propaganda films do have an impact, even if it is hard to gauge precisely. His closely reasoned account focuses on five case studies: British World War I film production, including The Battle of the Somme (1916); Soviet film production in the 1920s, including The Battleship Potemkin (1926); German film production in the 1930s, particularly Triumph of the Will (1935), Jew Süss (1940), and The Eternal Jew (1940); British film production during World War II; and Italian neorealist film after 1945, particularly Rome, Open City (1945) and Paisan (1946). Reeves provides careful summaries of each film and includes production details, but he puts most of his effort into that elusive matter of gauging audience size and response, the area generally overlooked by students of film, given the paucity of sources and their notorious lack of reliability. Reeves takes a tough look at audience response, arguing, in most cases, that these classic films failed to find a mass audience, or failed to have the impact sought by those who ordered the film produced. . . .

There are about 484 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.