Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies & Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films

An unheralded feat chock full of carefully detailed research spanning more than 100 years of film making. This should be of great interest to Hollywood insiders and movie goers alike. To this end, Bogle did an outstanding job! However, I didn't necessarily agree with many of his subjective interpretations. Bogle seems to take issue with just about every movie that he chronicles as to how the directors or actors should have done something differently or better. Either they attempted to address too many issues or barely scratched the surface, weren't authentic enough or too heavy-handed to capture the audience, certain characters not fleshed out enough or inappropriately used. However, strictly as a source of historical information, Bogle's work is a major accomplishment.

I've used this text a few times in the past in my African American Film class. It is simply the best text out there for this subject (up to the 80s). It is astonishingly well researched, and manages to have both a strong continuous argument and amazing details about heaps of films, and in depth analysis of individual careers. My students usually hate 'textbooks' but they truly loved this one. It is true that the text is a little old in the sense that he still uses a lot of defunct language (though in its historical context) and by the 80s he is pretty much done, so I needed new material for contemporary film. But if you love film you'll love this.

Bogle is really dense, but knows what he's talking about, a great book for understanding depictions of African-Americans in television and film through the decade. Talks at length about many people who contributed to the culture of Hollywood and movies, but never get mentioned in any conventional film class.

I purchased this book for a friend because I borrowed hers, and then didn't want to give it back. There are so many people I didn't know about, or facts I'd never heard about. This would be a great gift for a person between ages 15-100's who love movies or looking for their history.

Good resource guide that presents a historical analysis of the portrayal of African Americans in film. It provides a understanding how stereotypes are used to sell movies and how actors/actresses can be boxed into specific roles.

I bought this book for a class and it really wasn't too bad.

a reallu good read. Glad i was introduced to in as an in class read.

Absolutely fantastic book about the history of black Hollywood. If you're a movie buff, you should really oick this book up, it really opens your eyes to America's movie industry which pre-Code era wasn't racist.

This book by Donald Bogle, also known for the more anecdotal 2005 Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams: The Story of Black Hollywood, is an invaluable tool -- comprehensive, researched, detailed. I look forward to the fifth edition this fall. There is unfortunately some gender bias, even in the 2001 edition, but it's still a great resource.