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How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act
by Isaac Butler
From the coauthor of The World Only Spins Forward comes the first cultural history of Method acting—an ebullient account of creative discovery and the birth of classic Hollywood.
On stage and screen, we know a great performance when we see it. But how do actors draw from their bodies and minds to turn their selves into art? What is the craft of being an authentic fake? More than a century ago, amid tsarist Russia's crushing repression, one of the most talented actors ever, Konstantin Stanislavski, asked these very questions, reached deep into himself, and emerged with an answer. How his "system" remade itself into the Method and forever transformed American theater and film is an unlikely saga that has never before been fully told.
Now, critic and theater director Isaac Butler chronicles the history of the Method in a narrative that transports readers from Moscow to New York to Los Angeles, from The Seagull to A Streetcar Named Desire to Raging Bull. He traces how a cohort of American mavericks—including Stella Adler, Lee Strasberg, and the storied Group Theatre—refashioned Stanislavski's ideas for a Depression-plagued nation that had yet to find its place as an artistic powerhouse. The Group's feuds and rivalries would, in turn, shape generations of actors who enabled Hollywood to become the global dream-factory it is today. Some of these performers the Method would uplift; others, it would destroy. Long after its midcentury heyday, the Method lives on as one of the most influential—and misunderstood—ideas in American culture.
Studded with marquee names—from Marlon Brando, Marilyn Monroe, and Elia Kazan, to James Baldwin, Ellen Burstyn, and Dustin Hoffman—The Method is a spirited history of ideas and a must-read for any fan of Broadway or American film.
National Book Critics Circle Awards, 2022
"A well-researched cultural history sure to please theater and film buffs." ―Kirkus Reviews
"[An] engaging and meticulously researched history … Like a good 19th century omniscient novelist, Butler hops seamlessly among his characters' points of view while recounting their lives and times … Butler's history is an indispensable account of a revolution in acting that ramified beyond the theater." ―Los Angeles Times
"It's hard to believe that a style of performance developed amid the turbulence of revolutionary Russia would change Hollywood forever, but the author Isaac Butler makes a compulsively readable case for just that in this 'biography' of Method acting." ―The New York Times
"Delicious, humane, probing, and beautifully researched, [The Method is] a cultural history that reaches beyond its immediate subject to point at the currents moving under America herself." ―Vulture, Most Anticipated Books of 2022
"Butler's lively, well-researched and marvelously readable book isn't just for actors, but also for anyone who loves watching them … The Method is a rich book, highly entertaining but also gratifyingly specific, about the point of connection between actor and observer, the lightning flash between us and them that, when it happens, is impossible to adequately describe or explain. If it's grand, it's also granular, a gift of humility drawn from an actor's ego." ―Time Magazine
"Intense, deeply researched, historically alert, well-written, eminently readable (and gossipy)." ―Wall Street Journal
"As Isaac Butler shows in his pitch-perfect 'biography' of the acting method that has consumed generations of actors, the main thing to know about the Method is that it means different things to different people. Just like real people do." ―San Francisco Chronicle, Favorite Nonfiction of 2022
"Richly researched and rigorously argued, The Method is a guide to an American school of acting we understand very little for how much we talk about it." ―Vox, Best Books of 2022
"Fascinating … an exhaustive yet never exhausting account of the system that would define the American stage and screen, all the while showing how the craft of acting-and our perception of that craft-has evolved over time." ―Vanity Fair, Best Books of 2022
"Intelligent and entertaining … Butler's appreciation of acting-and art in general-as an expression of the temper of its times brings welcome insights throughout the book. Like The World Only Spins Forward, the excellent oral history of Angels in America he coauthored, The Method gives us cultural history that's both smart and wonderful fun to read." ―American Theatre
"Butler accomplishes what the Method's devotees sought to do in their performances, bringing color and dimension to figures who might have been boxed into archetypal roles (omniscient godhead or exploitative charlatan) and presenting them to us in all their brilliant, infuriating complexity. The scope of the book is sweeping, the figures entering and exiting the narrative often larger-than-life, but each quote and anecdote Butler chooses to include draws them close enough to touch." ―Bookforum
"What a production! … A print-form master class in The Method. This comprehensive history of the great American acting style is the present and likely future standard-bearer for books on the subject." ―Shelf Awareness
This information about The Method was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Isaac Butler is the coauthor (with Dan Kois) of The World Only Spins Forward: The Ascent of Angels in America, which NPR named one of the best books of 2018. Butler's writing has appeared in New York magazine, Slate, the Guardian, American Theatre, and other publications. For Slate, he created and hosted Lend Me Your Ears, a podcast about Shakespeare and politics, and currently co-hosts Working, a podcast about the creative process. His work as a director has been seen on stages throughout the United States. He is the co-creator, with Darcy James Argue and Peter Nigrini, of Real Enemies, a multimedia exploration of conspiracy theories in the American psyche, which was named one of the best live events of 2015 by the New York Times and has been adapted into a feature-length film. Butler holds an MFA in creative nonfiction from the University of Minnesota and teaches theater history and performance at the New School and elsewhere. He lives in Brooklyn.
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