This extensively revised second edition offers a comprehensive introduction to Hollywood cinema, providing a fascinating account of the cultural and aesthetic significance of the world’s most powerful film industry.

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• Provides a fascinating account of Hollywood history.
  
• Examines the cultural and aesthetic significance of the world's most powerful film industry.
  
• Explores and interprets Hollywood cinema in history and in the present, in theory and in practice.
  
• Extensively revised and updated with new chapter features including box sections, further reading lists, Notes and Queries, and chapter summaries.