Otto Friedrich Book order

In 1939, fifty million Americans went to the movies every week, Louis B. Mayer was the highest-paid man in the country, and Hollywood produced 530 feature films a year. One decade and five thousand movies later, the studios were faltering. The 1940s became the decade of Hollywood's decline: anticommunist hysteria excommunicated some of its best talent, while a 1948 antitrust consent decree ended many of the business practices that had made the studio system so profitable. In this masterful work of cultural history, the legendary Otto Friedrich tells the story of Hollywood's heyday and decline in a vivid narrative featuring an all-star cast of the actors, writers, musicians, composers, producers, directors, racketeers, labor leaders, journalists, and politicians who played major parts in the movie capital during the turbulent decade from World War II to the Korean War. Friedrich draws on sources from celebrity biographies to trade-union history, mingling lively gossip with analysis of Hollywood's seedier business dealings and telling the stories of legendary movies such as Citizen Kane, The Maltese Falcon, Double Indemnity, and All About Eve. A classic portrait of a special place in a special time, City of Nets gives us a singular behind-the-scenes glimpse into a bygone era that still captivates our imaginations.

In the turbulent history of modern Germany the name of Moltke has stood for military power and also enduring moral strength

A haunting, comprehensive portrait of the turbulent political, social, and cultural life of Berlin in the 1920s. "The City of Nets," as Brecht called Berlin, before the deluge, and people who created and those who destroyed it.

"Otto Friedrich's powerful portrayal of Auschwitz is both an extraordinary reminder of the human capacity for evil and an eloquent message to humanity never to let such things happen again." --Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. "I know of no work which brings the reality of this evil place so directly, vividly, accurately, movingly and clearly. . . .It is quite simply the best short account ever produced." --Paul Johnson A short and thoroughly accurate history of the Auschwitz concentration camp, this compelling book is authoritative in its factual details, devastating in its emotional impact.

He was a virtuoso of the piano who inspired an almost religious fervor in his fans, yet he hated performing and left the concert stage forever at the age of 31. He was a tireless advocate of the technology of recording, an artist who looked forward to a time when mere musicians would be rendered obsolete. He was a notorious -- and, some thought, a deliberate -- eccentric, who muffled himself in scarves and gloves, liberally dosed himself with pills, and once sued Steinway & Sons because one of its employees had shaken his hand too roughly. He lived in hermetic solitude and liked to call himself "the last Puritan," but those who watched Glenn Gould play piano saw an eroticism so intense it was almost embarrassing. Drawing on extensive interviews and on archival materials that were previously inaccessible. Otto Friedrich has written a biography of exemplary depth and stylishness. Ranging over Gould's brief but spectacular public career and his prodigious exploits as teacher, author, and lecturer, his public opinions and his intensely private life. Glenn Gould; A Life and Variations does justice to a multifaceted and perverse genius.