Scholarship
Leo Braudy's books cover topics spanning literature, film, and other art forms, often with an eye toward understanding the impact of history on artistic form and the cultural expression of feelings. His books have been nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award and have been included among the Los Angeles Times' "Best of the Best Books of the Year" and the New York Times' "Outstanding Books of the Year." He is best known for The Frenzy of Renown: Fame and its History (Oxford, 1986); and From Chivalry to Terrorism: War and the Changing Nature of Masculinity (Knopf, 2003). His most recent book is Haunted: On ghosts, witches, vampires, zombies and other monsters of the natural and supernatural worlds (Yale University Press, 2016). Each of these works address changing cultural and historical definitions of what otherwise seem to be innate and unchanging emotions and attitudes—the desire for fame, the concept of masculinity, the shape of fear.
Along with Marshall Cohen, he also co-edits the widely used anthology Film Theory and Criticism (Oxford, 8th ed. 2016).
His 2006 book On the Waterfront (British Film Institute) is a study of the namesake film's production, the post-war values it reflects, and the controversy surrounding director Elia Kazan's testimony before the House Unamerican Activities Committee. In 2011, The Hollywood Sign appeared in Yale University Press's American Icons series. It traces the intertwined history of Hollywood and its landmark sign from the founding of the city as a prohibitionist enclave in the 1880s through the beginnings of the movies, the construction of the sign in the 1920s as a real estate advertisement, and the mixed fortunes of both the sign and the film business down to the present.
In a departure from his scholarly work, Braudy published in 2013 a memoir of his life as a teenager entitled Trying to be Cool: Growing Up in the 1950s. Subtitled "based on a true story," the book merges scenes from his life in the decade with observations about rock 'n' roll music, science fiction movies, the domestic Cold War, and other aspects of the period.
In 2016 his book Haunted (Yale) appeared. Subtitled "On ghosts, witches, vampires, zombies, and other monsters of the natural and supernatural world," it traces how fear has been shaped in western culture from the Protestant Reformation to contemporary horror movies.
He received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1971–72, along with a grant-in-aid from the American Council of Learned Societies, and a National Endowment for the Humanities research fellowship in 1979. In 2010 he was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2016, he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from Swarthmore College and was inducted into the Hall of Fame of Central High School of Philadelphia, the second oldest continuously public high school in the United States (founded 1836).
Film and television appearances
Braudy frequently appears as a commentator on popular culture, cultural history, and films on a variety of television shows, including Crossfire , World of Wonder, The Maria Shriver Show, and The South Bank Show . A transcript of his interview with Bill Moyers on Moyers's PBS series appeared in The World of Ideas (Doubleday, 1990). He has acted in John Waters' Polyester (1981), and Robert Kramer's underground classic Ice (1970).
Other film appearances include:
- Facing the Past (2005)—Braudy is interviewed in this featurette included in the DVD of Elia Kazan's 1957 film A Face in the Crowd .
- Empire of Dreams: The Story of the 'Star Wars' Trilogy (2004)—This feature-length documentary is included with the 4-Disc Star Wars Trilogy DVD set.
- Mayor of the Sunset Strip (2003)—Braudy comments as an authority on fame in this documentary about the rise and fall of disc jockey Rodney Bingenheimer.
- Our Infatuation with Fame: Leo Braudy (1990)—In this interview, Bill Moyers and Leo Braudy discuss the pleasures and perils of celebrity.
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