Overview

Commerce in Culture is an innovative study of how states have responded to the globalization of the film sector. Concerned with more than film content or substance, the book exposes the ongoing political and economic struggles that shape cultural production and trade in the world. The historical focus is on Hollywood's engagement with rivals and partners in two leading developing countries, Egypt and Mexico, beginning with the birth of their national film industries in the late 1920s. State and market institutions evolved differently in each context, acting like national prisms to mediate international competition and produce distinctive results. As filmmaking has become a dynamic focal point in the new economy, Commerce in Culture reveals a vital but neglected part of the global terrain.

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9781349539246

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Reviews

""Flibbert is the first political scientist in the twenty-first century to pursue the implications of what was obvious back in the twentieth century to officials at the Departments of State and Commerce and at a dozen American embassies, as well as to national party fund-raisers, lawyers, and New York investors: the global film industry matters."" - Robert Vitalis, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Pennsylvania 'Commerce in Culture does two things brilliantly. First, it demonstrates not just 'the politics of culture' in the sense of socially constructed representations of national identity, but also a sophisticated analysis of how culture inflects political economy. Secondly, it does this in a bold comparative framework that goes well beyond the two main points of comparison. Flibbert's book sheds light on colonial history, postcolonial politics, the sometimes paradoxical processes of 'globalization', and, perhaps most importantly, the previously unappreciated high political stakes of culture.' - Walter Armbrust, Middle East Centre, St. Antony's College

Flibbert is the first political scientist in the twenty-first century to pursue the implications of what was obvious back in the twentieth century to officials at the Departments of State and Commerce and at a dozen American embassies, as well as to national party fund-raisers, lawyers, and New York investors: the global film industry matters. - Robert Vitalis, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Pennsylvania 'Commerce in Culture does two things brilliantly. First, it demonstrates not just 'the politics of culture' in the sense of socially constructed representations of national identity, but also a sophisticated analysis of how culture inflects political economy. Secondly, it does this in a bold comparative framework that goes well beyond the two main points of comparison. Flibbert's book sheds light on colonial history, postcolonial politics, the sometimes paradoxical processes of 'globalization', and, perhaps most importantly, the previously unappreciated high political stakes of culture.' - Walter Armbrust, Middle East Centre, St. Antony's College

Flibbert is the first political scientist in the twenty-first century to pursue the implications of what was obvious back in the twentieth century to officials at the Departments of State and Commerce and at a dozen American embassies, as well as to national party fund-raisers, lawyers, and New York investors: the global film industry matters. - Robert Vitalis, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Pennsylvania 'Commerce in Culture does two things brilliantly. First, it demonstrates not just 'the politics of culture' in the sense of socially constructed representations of national identity, but also a sophisticated analysis of how culture inflects political economy. Secondly, it does this in a bold comparative framework that goes well beyond the two main points of comparison. Flibbert's book sheds light on colonial history, postcolonial politics, the sometimes paradoxical processes of 'globalization', and, perhaps most importantly, the previously unappreciated high political stakes of culture.' - Walter Armbrust, Middle East Centre, St. Antony's College

Author Information

ANDREW J. FLIBBERT is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, USA.

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