Overview

Since the late 1960s, Jane Fonda has identified as an activist first and an actor second, using her celebrity as a vehicle to convey her views and her advocacy. Few stars of her stature have been as simultaneously acclaimed and vilified as Fonda. Even as she won two Academy Awards and was a major box office draw of the 1970s and 1980s, she received reams of hate mail for her political activism and antiwar stances. This book explores Fonda's devotion to movement politics—sometimes at the expense of her career and her personal safety. Digging deep into rare material from cinema archives and Fonda's own personal papers, journalist Marilyn Greenwald tells the story of how Fonda came to view acting as a ""side gig"" that gives her a worldwide platform to convey her personal and political views. Charting the evolution of her activism and the merging of her acting and producing with her advocacy, Greenwald focuses on the years from 1968—when she was jarred out of complacency by the Vietnam War—to 1980, after the release of The China Syndrome and the advent of the Three Mile Island nuclear crisis, which brought to light the possible dangers of nuclear energy. Greenwald details how three of her films—Klute (1971), Coming Home (1978), and The China Syndrome (1979)—were designed to further her personal beliefs. She also considers how Fonda has weathered changes in the entertainment industry and public tastes to produce and star in decades' worth of socially conscious projects. Charting Fonda's personal and professional growth while offering a candid account of her struggles, this book shows how Fonda viewed movies as an influential storytelling tool that can influence public opinion, change minds, and trigger social change.

Full Product Details

9781978841499

Table of Contents

Reviews

""Brilliantly researched and utterly compelling, this book unpacks the many lives of Jane Fonda--Oscar-winning actor, fierce activist, fitness icon, and cultural lightning rod. With nuance and insight, Marilyn Greenwald shows there is, indeed, a great deal to say about a woman who continues to challenge America's ideas about fame, feminism, and power."" --Tracy Lucht ""author of Sylvia Porter: America's Original Personal Finance Columnist"" ""Many people think of Jane Fonda as a rabble-rouser who crops up now and then to bring attention to her cause du jour. Marilyn Greenwald's compelling book shows us how the most accomplished and controversial actor of her generation discovered a unique voice and a higher purpose beyond the screen."" --Douglass K. Daniel ""author of Anne Bancroft: A Life""

""Many people think of Jane Fonda as a rabble-rouser who crops up now and then to bring attention to her cause du jour. Marilyn Greenwald's compelling book shows us how the most accomplished and controversial actor of her generation discovered a unique voice and a higher purpose beyond the screen."" - Douglass K. Daniel, author of Anne Bancroft: A Life ""Brilliantly researched and utterly compelling, this book unpacks the many lives of Jane Fonda—Oscar-winning actor, fierce activist, fitness icon, and cultural lightning rod. With nuance and insight, Marilyn Greenwald shows there is, indeed, a great deal to say about a woman who continues to challenge America's ideas about fame, feminism, and power."" - Tracy Lucht, author of Sylvia Porter: America's Original Personal Finance Columnist

Author Information

Maryilyn S. Greenwald is a professor emerita of journalism at Ohio University and a former news reporter at daily newspapers in Ohio. Her books include Eunice Hunton Carter: A Lifelong Fight for Social Justice and A Woman of the Times: Journalism, Feminism and the Career of Charlotte Curtis.

Tab Content 6

Countries Available