The study of James Cagney"s screen persona is far more than a profile of a great beloved star. It is a meditation on over a half-century of social history. From Cagney"s early days to such successes as Yankee Doodle Dandy, Schickel follows the star"s spectacular career. A great dancer who became a great actor, James Cagney could play George M. Cohan or Public Enemy No. 1 with equal ease and conviction. This book explains how. (Richard Schickel is chief cinema critic of Time Magazine.)