Delivery included to the United States

With a Crooked Stick

With a Crooked Stick The Films of Oscar Micheaux

Paperback (01 Jun 2004)

  • $33.20
Add to basket

Includes delivery to the United States

10+ copies available online - Usually dispatched within 7 days

Publisher's Synopsis

With a "crooked stick," filmmaker Oscar Micheaux (1884-1951) sought to hit a "straight lick" by stressing the strategic importance of class mobility, or "uplift," for African Americans. A theme in all of his more than 40 feature-length, black-produced, black-directed, black-cast, and black-audience films, uplift would allow for the better things in life: fast cars and fancy clothes, freedom of belief, financial security, and an unencumbered intellectual life. Although racism was an impediment to uplift for Micheaux and other African Americans, race as a category was of a secondary order for him in the larger game of class. In With a Crooked Stick, J. Ronald Green pursues this seeming contradiction in a detailed analysis of each of Micheaux's 15 surviving films. He presents critical commentary on each film's plot and action and its contribution to the overall theme of uplift. Readers will also find this an invaluable guide to the preoccupations and features of Micheaux's remarkable career and the insight it provides into the African American experience of the 1920s and 30s.

About the Publisher

Indiana University Press

Book information

ISBN: 9780253217158
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Imprint: Indiana University Press
Pub date:
DEWEY: 791.430233092
DEWEY edition: 22
Language: English
Number of pages: 314
Weight: 567g
Height: 232mm
Width: 156mm
Spine width: 21mm