Charlie Chaplin : A Political Biography From Victorian Britain to Modern America

Richard Carr's Charlie Chaplin places politics at the centre of the filmmaker's life as it looks beyond Chaplin's role as a comedic figure to his constant political engagement both on and off the screen.

Drawing from a wealth of archival sources from across the globe, Carr provides an in-depth examination of Chaplin's life as he made his way from Lambeth to Los Angeles. From his experiences in the workhouse to his controversial romantic relationships and his connections with some of the leading political figures of his day, this book sheds new light on Chaplin's private life and introduces him as a key social commentator of the time.

Whether interested in Hollywood and Hitler or communism and celebrity, Charlie Chaplin is essential reading for all students of twentieth-century history.

"Richard Carr has scoured archives on both sides of the Atlantic to bring us this vivid and nuanced portrait of the political Charlie Chaplin. Carr shows us Chaplin as his contemporaries saw him–as a highly vocal silent film star who was also an ambitious political thinker. Carr reveals the interplay of personal scandal, mud-slinging media, non-conformism and leftist politics that shaped the Chaplin myth, giving us perhaps the most complete picture to date of Chaplin the man and of the deep-seated humanitarian ideals that drove both his politics and his poetics." - Dr Libby Murphy, Oberlin College and Conservatory