The World of James Bond: The Lives and Times of 007 Paperback – April 18, 2021

Packed full of insight, especially re Fleming and era, but also how Bond evolved into Craig. Need to re-read as so much information to absorb. Makes re-reading Bond books and watching films again, a necessity. Enjoy!

The author looks at the surrounding social culture at the time each Bond movie was made. It varied over time. It's an interesting take on a movie franchise--and not one you'd normally see.

Mr. Black is always insightful and entertaining with a full grasp of his subject matter. Recommended, naturally.

A brief, well-written, and entertaining historical overview of the James Bond novels and films to the end of the Daniel Craig series.One possible improvement might have been an appendix or a table listing the gross profits of the films calibrated to current dollar/pound values. This information is in the text though not clearly calibrated to current currency values.Like most men of my age, I have seen the film, but I have not read the novels. Reading this book has encouraged me to go have a go at one or two of them.

ReviewsLicence to Thrill: A Cultural History of the James Bond Films by James ChapmanLicence to Thrill is the book that historically minded fans of the James Bond series want to read. Chapman’s book situates Bond’s origins as a creature of the Cold War in general, and a product of the right-wing mind of Ian Fleming specifically. Though he’s obviously not on the left, Chapman plays his historical account more straight-and-narrow than Jeremy Black’s two books, The World of James Bond and the earlier Politics of James Bond. He examines each film’s composite elements and lines them up with trends in popular culture, political and economic developments, contemporary events and - crucially - commercial concerns faced by the producers themselves.It makes for occasionally formulaic writing that, ironically, might have benefitted from a more rigid structure and organizational approach. But while his discussion of the earlier movies is richer on content than later installments, Licence to Thrill is nevertheless a strong survey of the historical context that produced and surrounded 007 movies.Indeed, Chapman is at his best when he examines the individual movies at a more granular level. He exhaustively outlines and analyzes the villains, gadgets, location settings, ‘Bond girls’, storylines and even the changing portrayals of the lead character himself. It allows Chapman to draw out larger, warranted trends—even ‘rules’, for fan-readers—in the series that stand up to scrutiny and deepen our understanding of the series. The chapter on Roger Moore’s era, in particular, stands out.I read the 2006 updated edition, which includes a chapter on Casino Royale, Daniel Craig’s first time in the role. Though the book would benefit from a more comprehensive updating, I’m struck by the remarkably accuracy of Chapman’s analysis of Craig’s Bond films—14 years later at that. It directly relates to the trends identified in previous chapters, dealing with production demands, story tone and audience tastes over time, which gives Chapman, like any good social scientist, some framework to project future developments. For its total scope, its non-polemical tone, and its balanced historical approach, Licence to Thrill is the best political history of the 007 movies yet in existence.The World of James Bond: The Lives and Times of 007 by Jeremy BlackJeremy Black’s book, on the other hand, reads more like a polemical entry into modern-day culture wars than a history of 007. In a rather limited field of study, The World of James Bond is worth reading, but it never provides the level of insight that Chapman’s book does.Like Chapman, the author has a staggering depth of knowledge on all things Bond, as well as a palpable affection for the series. Black’s book has an added focus on the novels, mostly Fleming’s originals but also a survey of the post-Fleming titles, which occupies more than half of the book. These chapters are both engaging and interesting, even for readers strictly familiar with the movies, as Black outlines the post-war British societal context that birthed Bond, who Black sees as a sometimes resolute, sometimes melancholy, sometimes bitter creation of the British empire in decline.I don’t think Black’s thesis is incorrect, even if his judgments of such a character wildly diverge from my own. The first three chapters dealing mainly with the literary Bond give the reader a photo-capture view of the political, cultural and intellectual trends around Fleming’s Bond, and respectably, Black situates these in the larger geopolitical landscape of the time.But it becomes apparent in the shorter, spottier chapters on the movies that Black much prefers the literary James Bond to the one on film. There’s little unique insight into the movies presented here, and Black’s discussion of historical events around the Bond films devolves into name-checking them, with very little exploration of particular plot elements or characters. His chapter on Timothy Dalton’s two films comes the closest to this, but it reads as a rushed exposition of broader ideas from someone largely unfamiliar with that period of history.The book is at its worst in its more polemical moments though. Black takes great pains to defend Fleming - as well as his characterization of Bond - from imagined hoarded of latter-day critics that form the hobgoblins of so many academic minds. Black seems convinced that the proverbial left-wing mob is at the gates ready to burn his beloved Bond books.As we read on though, these fantasies are clearly the over-reaction of a conservative historian to highly charged labels like ‘racist’ and ‘sexist’ getting lobbed at his object of study. Black puts himself in the uncomfortable position of trying to reason Fleming out of his unapologetically reactionary views by way of slant-comparisons and appeals to nuance. Black’s other historical work reveals someone quite nostalgic and apologetic for British colonialism, putting him squarely in line with Fleming’s animating ideology. This unique alignment of historian and subject makes his book more interesting than other right-wing cultural histories, bringing a greater sense of honesty even amid distortions.Polemical history usually invites stylistic weaknesses though, as is the case for The World of James Bond. Black’s arguments stretch credibility to the point of breaking it a number of times, almost always in defense of some indefensibly racist or chauvinistic point by Fleming. At times, the author can’t seem to help himself in evoking the ghost of ‘political correctness’ in the 21st century to highlight Bond’s ‘counter-cultural’ appeal in the 50s and 60s. The writing inconsistently slips in and out of the first person, which makes for distracting history reading. I grant the author some leeway for his obvious passion for the subject, which makes the material more insightful than a sterilized recollection of facts, but it ultimately makes The World of James Bond a much less compelling historical overview of 007 than others.