Neal Gabler is a distinguished author, cultural historian and television commentator who has been called “one of America’s most important public intellectuals.” His first book, An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for History and the Theatre Library Association Award for the best book on television, radio or film. On the centenary of the first public exhibition of motion pictures in America, a special panel of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences named it one of the one hundred outstanding books on the American film industry. His second book, Winchell: Gossip, Power and the Culture of Celebrity, was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award and was named the non-fiction book of the year by Time Magazine. His third book, Life the Movie: How Entertainment Conquered Reality, is currently being used in college courses across the country to examine the convergence of reality and entertainment. His fourth book, Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination, a New York Times best-seller, was named the biography of the year by USA Today and won Mr. Gabler his second Los Angeles Times Book Prize. It was also the runner-up for the prestigious Kraszna-Krausz Book Award in England. His new book, Barbra Streisand: Redefining Beauty, Femininity and Power, was published by Yale University Press this past April as part of its Jewish Lives series.
Books in order of publication:
An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood – 1988
Winchell: Gossip, Power, and the Culture of Celebrity – 1994
Life: The Movie – How Entertainment Conquered Reality – 1998
Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination – 2006
Barbra Streisand: Redefining Beauty, Femininity, and Power – 2016
Catching the Wind: Edward Kennedy and the Liberal Hour, 1932-1975 – 2020
Against the Wind: Edward Kennedy and the Rise of Conservatism, 1976-2009. Crown, 2022.
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