Podcast Summary: New Books Network – Alice Lovejoy, "Tales of Militant Chemistry: The Film Factory in a Century of War"

Date: October 23, 2025
Host: Caleb Zakrin
Guest: Alice Lovejoy, Professor of Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature, University of Minnesota
Book Discussed: Tales of Militant Chemistry: The Film Factory in a Century of War (University of California Press, 2025)

Overview

This episode features a deep-dive conversation between host Caleb Zakrin and author Alice Lovejoy about her book “Tales of Militant Chemistry.” Lovejoy explores the entangled histories of film manufacturing and warfare, particularly how the chemical innovations of companies such as Kodak not only transformed cinema but also underpinned the development of explosives, weapons, and the atomic bomb. The conversation traverses topics including the evolution of film technology, competition with German industry, wartime industrialization, environmental health, and cinema’s persistent materiality.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Alice Lovejoy’s Background and Personal Connection

• Filmmaking Roots
  • Lovejoy’s background in film criticism and hands-on filmmaking shaped her historical and material-focused approach.
    • “When you’re working in filmmaking…you spend a lot of time thinking about the material, about what kind of film you’re going to use, how it responds to light…” [02:57]
• Family Ties to Kodak
  • By coincidence, Lovejoy is distantly related to Frank Lovejoy, Kodak’s president during WWII—a personal connection that reframed her view of the company’s legacy.
    • “Some genealogical digging showed up that we are related sort of way back. And it puts all this in a different perspective…” [03:50]

2. Kodak’s Origins and George Eastman’s Complex Legacy

• Eastman’s Hands-On Leadership
  • George Eastman was integrally involved in every aspect—from procuring raw materials to managing employees—imbuing the company with his interests and obsessions.
    • “He was extremely invested in it, down to the level of seeking out raw materials himself…” [05:18]
• Contentious Social and Political Activities
  • Eastman’s involvement spanned anti-union efforts, support for eugenics, and ties to exploitative labor on his North Carolina farm.
    • “He was a supporter of the eugenics movement, like many businessmen and reformers of his day…” [05:18]

3. The Dangers and Development of Photochemical Film

• Cellulose Nitrate: Cinema’s Explosive Beginnings

  • Early film was made of cellulose nitrate—essentially the same as gun-cotton, a powerful explosive—leading to frequent fires and deadly gas emissions in projection rooms.
    • “Cellulose nitrate film is made from nitrocellulose, which is an explosive… The early history of cinema is really riddled with these stories of exploding film reels, cinema fires…” [07:19]

• Push for Safety Film (Cellulose Acetate)

  • Early safety films were fragile and unpopular compared to nitrate; only with technological improvements and the advent of home movies (16mm) did safer film gain traction.
    • “In its early days, cellulose acetate film just wasn’t as good as nitrate film. And so it was really a stop and start process of Kodak…” [08:45]

4. Sourcing Raw Materials & International Entanglements

• Global Commodities, Colonial Logistics
  • Essential film ingredients—gelatin (from South Asia), silver (Americas), cotton (U.S. South)—bound film manufacturers into global trade, political negotiations, and tariff debates.
    • “A lot of these were commodities that weren’t, you know, sold or made in the United States or were purchased from elsewhere…” [11:28]
  • Eastman advocated both for lower tariffs on chemical imports and higher tariffs on imported film, demonstrating film’s politics beyond its cultural narratives.

5. Wartime Industrial Shifts & Vertical Integration

• WWI: Birth of American Photochemical Industry

  • The British blockade of Germany forced Kodak and other U.S. companies to produce their own chemicals, accelerating domestic industrial development.
    • “For companies like Kodak, this was a disaster…[They] took this opportunity to really get into making organic chemicals itself…” [13:30]
  • Government investment in chemical R&D turned Kodak into a crucial pioneer in both film and broader chemistry fields.

• The Founding of Tennessee Eastman

  • After antitrust restrictions, Kodak pursued vertical integration, starting subsidiaries like Tennessee Eastman to control chemicals supply (initially for methanol and later for cellulose acetate).
    • “Tennessee Eastman…was founded in 1920…to be a chemical subsidiary, a methanol subsidiary…” [15:31]

6. U.S. vs German Chemical & Film Industries

• AGFA and IG Farben
  • In Germany, AGFA/IG Farben had greater synergy and a directive relationship with the Nazi government, rationalizing production among chemicals, film, fibers (e.g., rayon), and pharmaceuticals.
    • “AGFA was part…of the IG Farben chemical cartel…closely involved with the German government…[it] started in chemicals and went into film.” [18:34]
  • AGFA’s role in WWII included significant use of forced labor for film and rayon production—histories directly traced in the book.

7. Tariffs, Nationalism, and Postwar Politics

• Tariff Debates Mirror Today’s Economic Nationalism
  • Post WWI, Kodak lobbied for high tariffs to protect the domestic market, echoing modern rhetoric around manufacturing, global supply chains, and economic insecurity.
    • “George Eastman got very anxious about…losing parts of his market share…he sends an envoy to Congress to argue that putting tariffs on unexposed film…was a national question.” [20:41]

8. Film Factories at War: WWII and Beyond

• Kodak’s Military Pivot
  • Tennessee Eastman repurposed its chemical prowess first for explosives (notably RDX) and then for the Manhattan Project (Y-12 uranium separation plant at Oak Ridge), drawing on their expertise in “mass production and chemical engineering.”
    • “By the end of the year, the company was running… the world’s largest ammunition plant in Kingsport, Tennessee…Tennessee Eastman and Kodak were asked if they would be interested in operating a plant at the secret city of Oak Ridge…” [25:13]
• AGFA’s Propaganda & Forced Labor
  • AGFA's film and rayon manufacturing supported the Nazi war effort, with color film from Woflen becoming “the envy of the world.” Production relied on labor from POWs and concentration camps.
    • “The film factory there ran on forced labor…prisoners of war…European civilians…And…it ran in concentration camp labor.” [28:34]

9. Photography, Documentation, and War’s Image

• Film’s Expansive Role in Modern Warfare

  • WWII marked a leap in the use of film and photography—essential in military training, propaganda, and capturing war’s reality for both history and politics.

• Material Histories: The Hidden Cost

  • Beyond content, the materials and manufacture of film are entangled with histories of exploitation and environmental harm, underlining the need to see moving images as literal products of war.

10. Kodak and the Fallout of Atomic Testing

• Radiation Contamination & Industry Privilege
  • Kodak’s films detected radioactive fallout from nuclear tests. The company received advance warnings from the Atomic Energy Commission—privileges not extended to nearby communities.
    • “Kodak was a pretty powerful actor with the atomic energy…They made a deal with the industry…companies could either stop production…or not ship [raw materials] to Kodak…The same warnings were not given to people who lived around the film factories…” [32:56]
  • This episode revealed larger issues of environmental health and governmental-industrial secrecy.

11. Kodak’s Decline and Enduring Legacy

• Digital Revolution & Missed Opportunities
  • Despite early digital innovations, Kodak failed to anticipate the speed of technological shift, leading to its decline as a market behemoth.
    • “They didn’t think that the turn to digital would happen as quickly as it did…they thought they had more time.” [37:56]
• Kodak in Contemporary Culture
  • Despite diminished industrial might, Kodak remains iconic, with its film used by directors like Christopher Nolan—whose Oppenheimer notably was shot on Kodak’s 70mm stock, closing the circle between war, chemistry, and cinema.
    • “Christopher Nolan’s 2023 film Oppenheimer…was shot on Kodak 70 millimeter…the slow burning substance that led Tennessee Eastman to the atomic bomb.” [38:52]

12. Material Media: Film vs. Digital

• Enduring Allure and Environmental Hazards
  • Even as digital dominates, celluloid persists for artistic reasons. Lovejoy stresses that digital is no less embedded in environmentally destructive infrastructures.
    • “I think I’ve written a book about how [celluloid] is tied up with chemical weapons and the atomic bomb. But I also don’t think we’re escaping any of that by turning to digital technologies. The harms are just as large and more widespread…” [42:26]
  • She advocates for nuanced conversations about sustainable media, rather than nostalgia for or demonization of any single medium.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Nitrate Film
  “The early history of cinema is really riddled with these stories of exploding film reels, cinema fires, and also the gas produced by these fires... when nitrate film burned, it would create a very, very thick gas that was deadly and suffocating.” — Alice Lovejoy [07:19]

• On Vertical Integration
  “So Tennessee Eastman starts off in methanol... but pretty quickly it starts to make other products... By the end of the 1920s, early 1930s, Tennessee Eastman is a major codex site for producing cellulose acetate, the non flammable safety film...” — Alice Lovejoy [15:31]

• On Tariffs and Economic Nationalism
  “We see this rhetoric so clearly right now. We see all this economic nationalism playing out... tariffs are a really blunt instrument... they also overlook how deeply networked film manufacturing was in those years, just like many, many industries are networked internationally now.” — Alice Lovejoy [20:41]

• On Kodak and the Manhattan Project
  “Kodak and Tennessee Eastman came to run one of the three big plants at Oak Ridge...” — Alice Lovejoy [25:13]

• On the Aftermath of Atomic Testing
  “Kodak was a pretty powerful actor with the atomic energy at this point... They made a deal with the industry, with the photographic industry, where the Atomic Energy Commission would give photographic manufacturers advance warning of weapons tests...” — Alice Lovejoy [32:56]

• On Materiality and Environmental Impact
  “...Digital technology is so ubiquitous and it’s built on a culture of replaceability, of obsolescence... I don’t think the answer is to do away totally with celluloid because again, digital is not an answer to this...” — Alice Lovejoy [43:04]

Important Segment Timestamps

• [02:57] – Alice Lovejoy’s background and family link to Kodak
• [05:18] – George Eastman’s leadership and Kodak’s origins
• [07:19] – Dangers of nitrate film and safety innovation
• [11:28] – Global sourcing of film’s raw materials
• [13:30] – Impact of WWI and Kodak’s chemical R&D
• [15:31] – Tennessee Eastman’s founding and vertical integration
• [18:34] – German competitors, IG Farben, and AGFA’s war involvement
• [20:41] – Tariffs, nationalism, and Kodak’s market strategies post-WWI
• [25:13] – Kodak’s work on explosives, RDX, and the Manhattan Project
• [28:34] – Photographic materials, forced labor, and propaganda during WWII
• [32:56] – Atomic testing fallout and Kodak’s relationship with government
• [37:56] – Kodak’s decline in the digital era
• [38:52] – Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan, and Kodak’s lingering legacy
• [42:26] – Reflections on digital media and environmental harms

Conclusion

Alice Lovejoy’s Tales of Militant Chemistry reframes the history of film not only as a vehicle for storytelling but as a central battleground in chemical innovation, global conflict, and environmental impact. This conversation highlights the multi-layered legacy of film factories like Kodak—companies whose influence radiated from Hollywood sets to battlefields and atomic testing grounds, leaving traces that persist in today’s culture, technology, and ongoing debates over industrial responsibility.