Julia A. Stern is the Charles Deering McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence and professor of English at Northwestern University. She is the author of The Plight of Feeling: Sympathy and Dissent in the Early American Novel and Mary Chesnut's Civil War Epic, both published by the University of Chicago Press.
"""A prescient book about white people who mean well but fall short . . . There is no other book in which the author takes herself as the object of reception study and, in so doing, exposes the lived aspect of the US race and class divide. The reader who is initially drawn to this book because of a fascination with stardom will find a deeply insightful, impeccably researched study of American culture.""--Jane Gaines, author of Pink-Slipped: What Happened to Women in the Silent Film Industries? ""A unique take on the work of Bette Davis, Bette Davis Black and White is important not only for extending an understanding of the actor's racial politics, attitudes and practices, but also for raising the profile of several important, but largely unknown, Black supporting actors. This book will appeal strongly to scholars of race, twentieth-century American history, film audiences, and fan studies.""--Martin Shingler, author of Star Studies: A Critical Guide"