American cinema and Hollywood : critical approaches / edited by John Hill and Pamela Church Gibson ; consultant editors Richard Dyer, E. Ann Kaplan, Paul Willemen.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

American cinema and film history / John Belton -- History and cinema technology / Duncan Petrie -- Hollywood as industry / Douglas Gomery -- Early American film / Tom Gunning -- Classical Hollywood film and melodrama / E. Ann Kaplan -- Post-classical Hollywood / Peter Kramer -- Authorship and Hollywood / Stepen Crofts -- Genre and Hollywood / Tom Ryall -- The star system and Hollywood / Jeremy G. Butler -- Hollywood film and society / Douglas Kellner -- Film policy : Hollywood and beyond / Albert Moran -- Hollywood and the world / Toby Miller.

Explains important concepts and arguments in the critical study of American cinema, provides selected readings as examples of various critical perspectives, and discusses the emergence of the studio system, the key characteristics of Hollywood films, and Hollywood's relationship with American society and the world.