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A History of Hollywood in Gold, Sweat, and Tears
by Michael Schulman
The author of the New York Times bestseller Her Again: Becoming Meryl Streep returns with a lively history of the Academy Awards, focusing on the brutal battles, the starry rivalries, and the colorful behind-the-scenes drama.
America does not have royalty. It has the Academy Awards. For nine decades, perfectly coiffed starlets, debonair leading men, and producers with gold in their eyes have chased the elusive Oscar. What began as an industry banquet in 1929 has now exploded into a hallowed ceremony, complete with red carpets, envelopes, and little gold men. But don't be fooled by the pomp: the Oscars, more than anything, are a battlefield, where the history of Hollywood—and of America itself—unfolds in dramas large and small. The road to the Oscars may be golden, but it's paved in blood, sweat, and broken hearts.
In Oscar Wars, Michael Schulman chronicles the remarkable, sprawling history of the Academy Awards and the personal dramas—some iconic, others never-before-revealed—that have played out on the stage and off camera. Unlike other books on the subject, each chapter takes a deep dive into a particular year, conflict, or even category that tells a larger story of cultural change, from Louis B. Mayer to Moonlight. Schulman examines how the red carpet runs through contested turf, and the victors aren't always as clear as the names drawn from envelopes. Caught in the crossfire are people: their thwarted ambitions, their artistic epiphanies, their messy collaborations, their dreams fulfilled or dashed.
Featuring a star-studded cast of some of the most powerful Hollywood players of today and yesterday, as well as outsiders who stormed the palace gates, this captivating history is a collection of revelatory tales, each representing a turning point for the Academy, for the movies, or for the culture at large.
"Schulman, a staff writer at the New Yorker, combines thorough research with an eye for drama in this highly entertaining history of the Academy Awards...The behind-the-scenes perspectives don't skimp on juicy trivia while the connections Schulman draws to larger societal issues illustrate the power and limitations of cinema to reflect and drive change. This will thrill cinephiles." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Regardless of your interest in Hollywood and awards season, this rich, deeply reported history has plenty to teach...incisive reporting...This Oscars history mixes all the expected glitz and glamour with enough industry intrigue to power an award-winning drama." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"[E]ntertaining...This lively, gossip-rich account is ideal reading for cineastes." - Library Journal (starred review)
"In an era of Hollywood upheaval, Michael Schulman turns out to be the perfect host for the Oscars. Deeply sourced, insightful and wildly entertaining, Oscar Wars traces the history of Hollywood's biggest night from the demise of silent films through the camp debacle of Snow White, the Miramax insurgency and the pandemonium of 'the slap.' At once clear-eyed and dishy, this is the ideal resource for anyone who has always wanted to sneak backstage." - Emily Nussbaum, author of I Like to Watch
"On Oscar night, the true intrigues, hysterics and heartbreaks aren't just in the films being honored, but in the behind the scenes jockeying for the awards. Schulman has the perfect eye and ear for the telling and entertaining dramas and light comedies leading up to Oscar victory." - Graydon Carter, former editor in chief of Vanity Fair and founder of Air Mail
"I devoured this book! Even for a pop culture obsessive like myself, it floored me in terms of how much I didn't know about the history of Hollywood and the Academy Awards. The patterns it finds across the decades is surprising and delightful. Equally insightful and dishy, it is a must read for anyone interested in the shocking, absurd, thrilling and fascinating inner workings of the Hollywood machine." - Billy Eichner, comedian
This information about Oscar Wars was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Michael Schulman is the author of the New York Times bestseller Her Again: Becoming Meryl Streep and a staff writer at the New Yorker, where he has contributed since 2006. His work has also appeared in the New York Times, Vanity Fair, and other publications. He lives in New York City.
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