John Ford's America

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by Jeffrey Richards

Type

Studies

Subject

Director > John Ford

Keywords

John Ford, sociology, United States

Publishing date

2026 (January 20, 2026)

Publisher

Manchester University Press

1st publishing

2024

Language

English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Paperback • 350 pages
6 x 9 ¼ inches (15.5 x 23.5 cm)

ISBN

978-1-5261-9536-4

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Book Presentation:
By the time of his death in 1973, John Ford was probably the most celebrated director of Hollywood’s golden age. The winner of four best director Oscars, he was the first filmmaker to be awarded his country’s highest civilian honour, the Medal of Freedom, and the man chosen by the American Film Institute to receive its first life achievement award.

In his work, Ford returned regularly to the same themes, employed the same actors and had a visual style that was personal and distinctive. This volume explores his preoccupations throughout his long, garlanded career, showing how he attempted to come to terms with American history, with how America kept changing its relationship with history and with how many of the myths of the ‘West’ were just that – myths.

About the Author:
Jeffrey Richards is Emeritus Professor of Cultural History at Lancaster University

Press Reviews:
' The book explores notions of family, community, and nation and the struggle of social outcasts to find a place within those worlds... Ford’s problematic representation of Black people and Native Americans is weighed against his more sympathetic treatments of these communities in films made later in his career, such as Sergeant Rutledge (1960) and Cheyenne Autumn (1964), not to mention films like The Searchers (1956) that foregrounded and exposed white racism.'
Choice
Reprinted with permission from Choice Reviews. All rights reserved. Copyright by the American Library Association

See the publisher website: Manchester University Press