Overview
The Wiley-Blackwell History of American Film is the first multi-volume reference of its kind, assembling the work of a diverse group of scholars who interrogate the entirety of American cinema. The History offers essays on a number of specialized topics that, taken as a whole, represent a comprehensive and nuanced overview of American film history from the intersecting perspectives of industry, audiences, aesthetics, culture, politics, issues, and ideology. Volume I: Origins to 1928 The essays in Volume One concentrate on early cinema pioneers like Griffith, Porter, Chaplin, and formative events and practices such as the industry's move to the West and the coming of sound in film. Volume II: 1929 to 1945 Volume Two examines the golden age of the studio era when Hollywood responded to tumultuous events such as the Great Depression and WW II. These are the years of classic genre production with the musical, animated feature, western, screwball comedy, and gangster films defining American attitudes about gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and the role of the state at mid-century. Volume III: 1945 to 1975 This volume covers the turbulent years from the decline of the studios to the emergence of the New Hollywood, including such crucial topics as the blacklist, the Paramount case, the rise of television, the flowering of underground film, and the mainstreaming of adult cinema. Volume IV: 1976 to the Present In the post-Vietnam, New Right era, America and its cinema shifted toward family values and a new love affair with consumption that extended to advances in media technology. Volume Four examines the period from 1976when black independent, avant-garde, and feminist filmmakers were producing challenging and unconventional works to the present, when digital imaging is redefining the very concept of cinema.
