American History through Hollywood Film is a very useful book. The range of topics and films covered, Stokes's knowledge, rigorous methodology, precise style and experience teaching this topic, make it an indispensable book for a class on American history in Hollywood cinema and a book that should be recommended as an example to all students writing theses or dissertations on the representation of history on film or the relationship between history and cinema. The overviews it offers on each point will provide a good starting point for any student or scholar interested in pursuing them. For all of these reasons, I cannot recommend Stokes's book enough.

David Roche, Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès, Cercles

By drawing on an extensive and well documented range of sources himself, Melvyn Stokes has provided a “one stop shop” for History teachers. Although his focus his America, his pedagogy is easily transferable. This is a book worth including on all faculty bookshelves.

History Teachers' Association of NSW Newssheet

A major strength of the book is that it does not try to do too much, providing a highly readable and succinct account of particular pressure points in the American experiment ... Sophisticated in its analysis, this book is well worth reading for any scholar of the subject and a valuable resource to anyone looking for a useful way into a subject that preoccupies academics, critics and audiences alike.

Gregory Frame, U.S. Studies Online

Stokes offers a roughly chronological examination of two hundred years of American history, as portrayed in films produced between 1915 (The Birth of a Nation) and 2012 (Django Unchained). … The individual chapters can stand alone, and an introduction by the author offers a persuasive overview of film analysis as historical endeavor. Stokes's American History through Hollywood Film is appropriate for undergraduates and will encourage them to think critically about the history they learn at the cinema.

Cara Rogers, Rice University, The Journal of Southern History

In American History Through Hollywood Film, Melvyn Stokes offers an impressive overview of filmmakers and audiences' fascination with pivotal periods in the nation's past. With his intelligent analysis and well balanced synthesis of a range of films and historical issues, Stokes has made a significant contribution to the historiography of film and history… The book will be an invaluable resource for students and teachers in a rapidly growing field.

J. E. Smyth, Associate Professor of History, University of Warwick, UK

American History through Hollywood Film is the most readable and wide-ranging book ever published about how movies write US history, and how they reflect the preoccupations of their own time. From the American Revolution to the present, Professor Stokes is nimble and wise in his choice of subjects and themes, his gifts as a storyteller and historian coming together to explain why some films are successful at the box office, endure in the public imagination, or disappear from popular memory. He is never less than fascinating when he analyzes the often strange alchemy between fact and fiction that occurs when historical films are made, paying close attention to the constraints on their production, the imperatives driving their ideology, and the vicissitudes of their reception.

Robert Lang, Professor of Cinema, University of Hartford, USA