Publication date:
17 August 2017Length of book:
218 pagesPublisher
Rowman & Littlefield PublishersDimensions:
239x161mm6x9"
ISBN-13: 9781442276116
This book presents an insightful and thoroughly entertaining exploration of the political context of the Bond books and films. Jeremy Black offers a historian’s interpretation from the perspective of the late 2010s, assessing James Bond in terms of the greatly changing world order of the Bond years—a lifetime that stretches from 1953, when the first novel appeared, to the present. Black argues that the Bond novels—the Fleming books as well as the often-neglected novels authored by others after Fleming died in 1964—and films drew on current fears in order to reduce the implausibility of the villains and their villainy.
The novels and films also presented potent images of national character, explored the rapidly changing relationship between a declining Britain and an ascendant United States, charted the course of the Cold War and the subsequent post-1990 world, and offered an evolving but always potent demonology. Bond was, and still is, an important aspect of post–World War II popular culture throughout the Western world. This was particularly so after Hollywood launched the filmic Bond, thus making him not only a character designed for the American film market but also a world product and a figure of globalization. Class, place, gender, violence, sex, race—all are themes that Black scrutinizes through the ongoing shifts in characterization and plot. His well-informed and well-argued analysis provides a fascinating history of the enduring and evolving appeal of James Bond.
The novels and films also presented potent images of national character, explored the rapidly changing relationship between a declining Britain and an ascendant United States, charted the course of the Cold War and the subsequent post-1990 world, and offered an evolving but always potent demonology. Bond was, and still is, an important aspect of post–World War II popular culture throughout the Western world. This was particularly so after Hollywood launched the filmic Bond, thus making him not only a character designed for the American film market but also a world product and a figure of globalization. Class, place, gender, violence, sex, race—all are themes that Black scrutinizes through the ongoing shifts in characterization and plot. His well-informed and well-argued analysis provides a fascinating history of the enduring and evolving appeal of James Bond.
Black, a British military historian, considers James Bond’s various print and screen incarnations and the villains he has fought over the years from a historical perspective. Introduced to the public in the 1953 novel Casino Royale, Bond was the creation of Ian Fleming, an officer in British naval intelligence during WWII. When the series began, Britain was still an imperial power, Churchill was again prime minister, and the Cold War was underway. Black shows that the ensuing books, and the films that came later, were informed by changing world politics. The villains, whether the Communist Le Chiffre in the novel (but not the screen versions of) Casino Royale, the mafia in Diamonds Are Forever (1971), or the rogue agent of the post–Cold War GoldenEye (1995), reflected contemporary fears. Black places more emphasis on the films than on the novels, aptly comparing the former to a 'very good meal that you already know and love.' Black’s analysis of how a succession of writers and actors have presented Bond over the years goes well beyond being a literary or film retrospective by incorporating sociopolitical grace notes. His survey, which includes a brief piece on how Trump’s America might influence the franchise, serves as a thoughtful and uniquely positioned consideration of shifting cultural currents over the last seven decades.