"An important and original book with dazzling insights . . . it challenges some widely held views of both the political and cinematic components of contemporary America, and it should certainly evoke a goodly share of indignation as well as admiration."--H. Bruce Franklin, author of MIA or Mythmaking in America "Hard Bodies is a real page-turner in which Susan Jeffords reveals how in the 1980s Ronald Reagan, Rambo, and Robocop came together at our own fitness clubs in a way that transformed crucial numbers of movie-going, Nautilus-devoted American white men into anti-Communist presidential voters. This serious book is sure to change how we make sense of Hollywood's gendered maintenance of the Cold War."--Cynthia Enloe, author of The Morning After: Sexual Politics at the End of the Cold War Hard Bodies looks at some of the most popular films of the Reagan era and examines how the characters, themes, and stories presented in them often helped to reinforce and disseminate the policies, programs, and beliefs of the "Reagan Revolution." In particular, because Ronald Reagan was himself most often portrayed in terms that emphasized his strength, toughness, and assertiveness, one of the key images of the Reagan era was that of masculinity itself. But the Reagan era also promoted a concept of the nation as gendered, strong, tough, and assertive, like the President who seemed to epitomize the United States in its confrontation with the "evil" Soviet empire, the Sandinista government, or the drug-trading cartels. Action-adventure films of the 1980s accentuated these qualities, not only as foreign policy methods but also as domestic agendas, putting forward the American "hard body" as the solution to the nation's foreign and domestic failings. Through her illuminating and detailed analyses of both the Reagan presidency and many blockbuster movies, Susan Jeffords provides a scenario within which the successes of the New Right and the Reagan presidency can begin to be understood. Rambo, Lethal Weapon, Die Hard, Robocop, Back to the Future, Star Wars, the Indiana Jones series, Mississippi Burning, Rain Man, Batman, and Unforgiven are among the films she discusses. Susan Jeffords is a professor of English and director of Women's Studies at the University of Washington. She is the author of The Remasculization of America: Gender and the Vietnam War, and co-editor of Seeing Through the Media: The Persian Gulf War (Rutgers University Press).

The New Republic airbrushed a Hitler mustache on Saddam Hussein. CNN reporters described the bombing of Baghdad as "fireworks on the Fourth of July." The Pentagon fed prepackaged programs to the TV networks. Veiled Arab women became icons of an exotic culture. These are some of the ways the media brought home the war in the Persian Gulf as a national spectacle. Looking to old and new technologies for mass communication--from CNN to comic books, from international new agencies to tabloids, from bomb sights to the Super Bowl--the essays in this collection show the ways in which public information is shaped, packaged, and disseminated. The contributors include Venise T. Berry, Victor J. Caldarola, Dana L. Cloud, Tom Engelhardt, Cynthia Enloe, H. Bruce Franklin, Daniel C. Hallin, Kim E. Karloff, Michelle Kendrick, Margot Norris, Lauren Rabinovitz, Leonard Rifas, Therese Saliba, Ella Shohat, Holly Cowan Shulman, Mimi White, and Robyn Wiegmen. Susan Jeffords is the director of Women's Studies and a professor of English at the University of Washington. She is the author of Hard Bodies: Hollywood Masculinity in the Reagan Era. Lauren Rabinovitz is an associate professor of American Studies and Film Studies at the University of Iowa and the author of Points of Resistance: Women, Power, and Politics in the New York Avant-Garde Cinema.

Starting in 2001, much of the world media used the image of Osama bin Laden as a shorthand for terrorism. Bin Laden himself considered media manipulation on a par with military, political, and ideological tools, and intentionally used interviews, taped speeches, and distributed statements to further al-Qaida's ends.
In "Covering Bin Laden," editors Susan Jeffords and Fahed Yahya Al-Sumait collect perspectives from global scholars exploring a startling premise: that media depictions of Bin Laden not only diverge but often contradict each other, depending on the media provider and format, the place in which the depiction is presented, and the viewer's political and cultural background. The contributors analyze the representations of the many Bin Ladens, ranging from Al Jazeera broadcasts to video games. They examine the media's dominant role in shaping our understanding of terrorists and why/how they should be feared, and they engage with the ways the mosaic of Bin Laden images and narratives have influenced policies and actions around the world.
Contributors include Fahed Al-Sumait, Saranaz Barforoush, Aditi Bhatia, Purnima Bose, Ryan Croken, Simon Ferrari, Andrew Hill, Richard Jackson, Susan Jeffords, Joanna Margueritte-Giecewicz, Noha Mellor, Susan Moeller, Brigitte Nacos, Courtney C. Radsch, and Alexander Spencer.