Populism and nationalism in classical music held a significant place between the world wars with composers such as George Gershwin, Aaron Copland, and Leonard Bernstein creating a soundtrack to the lives of everyday Americans. While biographies of these individual composers exist, no single book has taken on this period as a direct contradiction to the modernist dichotomy between the music of Stravinsky and Schoenberg. In Nationalist and Populist Composers: Voices of the American People, Steve Schwartz offers an overdue correction to this distortion of the American classical music tradition by showing that not all composers of this era fall into either the Stravinsky or Schoenberg camps. Exploring the rise and decline of musical populism in the United States, Schwartz examines the major works of George Gershwin, Randall Thompson, Virgil Thomson, Aaron Copland, Roy Harris, Kurt Weill, Morton Gould, and Leonard Bernstein. Organized chronologically, chapters cover each composer's life and career and then reveal how key works participated in populist and nationalist themes. Written for the both the scholar and amateur enthusiast interested in modern classical music and American social history, Nationalist and Populist Composers creates a contextual frame through which all audiences can better understand such works as Rhapsody in Blue, Appalachian Spring, and West Side Story.

Andrew Niccol directs this science fiction romance adapted from the novel by Stephenie Meyer, creator of 'The Twilight Saga'. An alien race has begun colonising Earth by taking over human bodies and erasing their minds and memories and only a small band of survivors remain who are working to protect themselves from extinction. One of them is Melanie Stryder (Saoirse Ronan), who, when out on a search for food, meets another human being named Jared Howe (Max Irons) and it isn't long before they begin to develop feelings for one another. However, when Melanie is taken by the alien species and is made host to one of their own, it seems all hope is lost. That is, until Melanie's mind begins to fight back against her new inhabitor and her human emotions and memories ignite some empathy in the alien parasite.

Romantic period drama starring Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper. Set in depression-era North Carolina the film follows timber magnate George Pemberton (Cooper) and his wife Serena (Lawrence) as their marriage and the life they have built together deteriorates. Following a devastating miscarriage and the news that she cannot have children, Serena and George struggle with the fact that she will not be able to provide him with an heir to his empire. As they seek a solution to their woes, Serena becomes increasingly jealous of the women involved with her husband as he tries to create the child he so desires that he envisages will one day take over his business. When Serena delves deeper into her husband's extramarital affairs she becomes increasingly suspicious that he may be harbouring more than just a single heir.

Director John Hillcoat's adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. In the burnt-out wasteland of a post-apocalyptic America, a man (Viggo Mortensen) and his son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) try to survive by any means possible as they follow a desolate, corpse-strewn road towards the coast, where they hope to find some kind of a future for themselves. Travelling with only the clothes they are wearing, a small cart of scavenged food and a pistol with two bullets as protection, they struggle to survive in the ravaged landscape, encountering a few other desperate survivors along the way.