Middle East Studies

A critical, multidimensional analysis of how film culture deals with ...

(Michael Parenti, author of God and His D)

A critical, multidimensional analysis of how film culture deals with war and politics. Clearly written, broadly informed, and engagingly insightful.

(Michael Parenti, author of God and His Demons and The Face of Imperialism)

An excellent and original analysis of a range of films ...

(Geoff King, Director of the Screen Media)

An excellent and original analysis of a range of films related to the war in Iraq that also makes a wider contribution to our understanding of the various pressures and shaping influences brought to bear on such productions in both Hollywood and parts of the independent sector. Lucidly argued and a model of level-headed analysis.

(Geoff King, Director of the Screen Media Research Centre at Brunel University, London )

Martin Barker has produced one of the best studies yet ...

(David Slocum, Professor at the Berlin Sc)

Martin Barker has produced one of the best studies yet of filmmaking in our contemporary age of war. This volume is an indispensable guide both to a challenging cycle of films and to the wider struggle of cinema to be seriously political today.

(David Slocum, Professor at the Berlin School of Creative Leadership, Steinbeis University and editor of Hollywood and War (2006). )

A 'Toxic' Genre is a touchstone: the first to comprehend ...

(Roger Stahl, Associate Professor in the )

A 'Toxic' Genre is a touchstone: the first to comprehend entirely the wave of war films in the decade following 9/11. As a chronicle, it is encyclopedic. As a work of interpretation, it deftly sketches the complex of narrative contradictions that animate the genre. Baker's book cuts like a laser sight through the fog of contemporary war film."

(Roger Stahl, Associate Professor in the Department of Speech Communication at University of Georgia, author of Militainment, Inc (2009).)