Print the Legend

What kind of civic culture and virtues are required to maintain and develop a decent regime? The aim of this collection is to explore this theme from the perspective of the films of John Ford.

In Print the Legend: Politics, Culture, and Civic Virtue in the Films of John Ford, a collection of writers explore Ford's view of politics, popular culture, and civic virtue in some of his best films: Drums Along the Mohawk, The Searchers, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Stagecoach, How Green Was My Valley, and The Last Hurrah. John Ford, more than most motion picture directors, invites his viewers into a serious discussion of these themes. For instance, one can consider Plato's timeless question 'What is justice?' in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, vengeance as classical Greek tragedy in The Searchers, or ethnic politics in The Last Hurrah. Ford's films never grow stale or seem dated because he continually probes the most important questions of our civic culture: what must we do to survive, prosper, pursue happiness, and retain our common decency as a regime? Further, viewing them from a distance of time, we are subtly invited to ask whether anything has been lost or gained since Ford celebrated the civic virtues of an earlier America. Is Ford's America an idealized America or a lost America?

Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Chapter 1. Defending the West: John Ford and the Creation of the Epic Western
Chapter 3 Chapter 2. The Blessings of Civilization: John Ford'sStagecoach
Chapter 4 Chapter 3. John Ford's Revolutionary Americans:Drums Along the Mohawk
Chapter 5 Chapter 4. Modernity and the Destruction of Boundaries: John Ford'sThe Grapes of Wrath
Chapter 6 Chapter 5. On the Threshold of Modernity: John Ford'sHow Green Was My Valley
Chapter 7 Chapter 6. Heroes and Political Communities in John Ford's Westerns: The Role of Wyatt Earp inMy Darling Clementine
Chapter 8 Chapter 7. The Western and the Western Drama: John Ford'sThe Searchers and theOresteia
Chapter 9 Chapter 8. Heroic Virtue and the Limits of Democracy in John Ford'sThe Searchers
Chapter 10 Chapter 9. Honor, Duty, and Civic Virtue: John Ford'sMr. Roberts andThe Last Hurrah
Chapter 11 Why it is Tough to be the Second Toughest Guy in a Tough Town: John Ford'sThe Man Who Shot Liberty Valance