Leo Braudy

Leo Braudy (born June 11, 1941) is University Professor and Bing Professor of English at the University of Southern California, where he teaches 17th- and 18th-century English literature, film history and criticism, and American culture. He has previously taught at Yale, Columbia, and Johns Hopkins University. He is best known for his cultural studies scholarship on celebrity, masculinity, and film, and is frequently sought after for interviews on popular culture, Hollywood cinema, and the American zeitgeist of the 1950s.

Background

Braudy was born in Philadelphia, PA. He is the son of Edward and Zelda (Smith) Braudy; he received his B.A. from Swarthmore College in 1963 and his M.A. 1963 and Ph.D. 1974 from Yale University. He is married to the painter Dorothy McGahee Braudy. They live and work in Los Angeles.

Scholarship

Leo Braudy's books cover topics spanning literature, film, and cultural studies, often with an eye toward understanding the impact of history on artistic form and social construction. His books have been nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award and have been included among the Los Angeles Times' "Best of the Best Books of the Year" and the New York Times' "Outstanding Books of the Year." He is best known for two recent books on contemporary preoccupations: The Frenzy of Renown: Fame and its History (Oxford, 1986); and From Chivalry to Terrorism: War and the Changing Nature of Masculinity (Knopf, 2003). Both books address changing cultural definitions and fascinations by analyzing historical figures and archetypes to unpack what they tell us about the periods in which they emerge.