Reviews
[a] this labyrinthine history of attempts to regulate the film industry, from the silent era to the present day ... a fascinating history, meticulously researched, "To attempt to summarize all of the questions and issues that Romanowski's book raises would do disservice to his text.Reforming Hollywoodis an important resource for scholars of American cultural, religious, and intellectual history, as well as media theory, but it also is an important read for Protestantsespecially evangelicalswho tend to assume that our recent attempts at a more sophisticated, fully-rounded view of filmmaking and analysis are a new development." --Alissa Wilkinson,Christianity Today "Pop culture expert Romanowski (Eyes Wide Open) offers a subtle and surprising thesis: far from being censorious, American Protestants have for a century had a formative, complex, often cooperative relationship with the Hollywood film industry through a variety of commission, councils, and representatives seeking to use film to promote and improve the nation's moral health. The book brims with historical evidence-gathered from interviews and periodicals and painstakingly footnoted-that proves and provides nuance to Romanowski's argument...Especially fascinating is the illumination of the cultural and political forces that developed culture wars in the entertainment arena." --Publishers Weekly "...thoroughly researched, astonishingly succinct study...serious students of the media and religion will savor its rich detail." --Booklist "This is one of those important books which may change the discourse in a discipline. It is erudite, inspiring, meticulously researched, and published by the world's most prestigious academic publishing house; it sets out, explicitly, to retell the standard history of its field." --Byron Borger,Comment "Reforming Hollywood brilliantly comingles film history with church history, dispelling enduring fictions that the religious community only wanted to censor films. Weaving in fresh material from Protestant archives, this work contributes greatly to a fuller understanding of the constructive contributions of religious leaders to the Hollywood film industry. This remarkably fresh, significant, and fascinating text truly reforms misunderstandings of Hollywood and religion."--Terrence Lindvall, C.S. Lewis Chair of Communication and Christian Thought, Virginia Wesleyan College "Film history is filled with studies of how Jews and Catholics influenced the course of the movie industry. William D. Romanowski's pathbreaking study Reforming Hollywood reveals how a wide range of Protestant organizations waged their own battles for control of what audiences would or would not see on the screen-a battle that influenced the religious and moral content of American film from the silent era to the present."--Steven J. Ross, author ofHollywood Left and Right: How Movie Stars Shaped American Politics "As the first book to examine the relationship between Protestant church organizations and the motion picture industry,Reforming Hollywoodcorrects film history's tendency to exaggerate the influence of the Catholic Legion of Decency and its successors. In this authoritative account, Romanowski reveals how Hollywood's relationship with the Protestant establishment was crucial to debates around film regulation, and charts the erosion of its influence in the post-war years. This is a well-told story, with new perspectives and information in every chapter."--Richard Maltby, author ofHollywood Cinema, "Pop culture expert Romanowski (Eyes Wide Open) offers a subtle and surprising thesis: far from being censorious, American Protestants have for a century had a formative, complex, often cooperative relationship with the Hollywood film industry through a variety of commission, councils, and representatives seeking to use film to promote and improve the nation's moral health. The book brims with historical evidence-gathered from interviews and periodicals and painstakingly footnoted-that proves and provides nuance to Romanowski's argument...Especially fascinating is the illumination of the cultural and political forces that developed culture wars in the entertainment arena." --Publishers Weekly "...thoroughly researched, astonishingly succinct study...serious students of the media and religion will savor its rich detail." --Booklist
