Includes bibliographical references and index.

Pt. 1. Early cinema. The invention and early years of the cinema, 1880s-1904 ; The international expansion of the cinema, 1905-1912 ; National cinemas, Hollywood classicism, and World War I, 1913-1919 -- The late silent era, 1919-1929. France in the 1920s ; Germany in the 1920s ; Soviet cinema in the 1920s ; The late silent era in Hollywood, 1920-1928 ; International trends of the 1920s -- Pt. 3. The development of sound cinema, 1926-1945. The introduction of sound ; The Hollywood studio system, 1930-1945 ; Other studio systems ; Cinema and the state : the USSR, Germany, and Italy, 1930-1945 ; France, poetic realism, the popular front, and the occupation, 1930-1945 ; Leftist, documentary, and experimental cinemas, 1930-1945 -- Pt. 4. The postwar era : 1945-1960s. American cinema in the postwar era, 1945-1960 ; Postwar European cinema : neorealism and its context, 1945-1959 ; Postwar European cinema : France, Scandinavia, and Britain, 1945-1959 ; Postwar cinema beyond the West, 1945-1959 ; Art cinema and the idea of authorship ; New waves and young cinemas, 1958-1967 ; Documentary and experimental cinema in the postwar era, 1945-mid-1960s -- Pt. 5. The contemporary cinema since the 1960s. Hollywood's fall and rise : 1960-1980 ; Politically critical cinema of the 1960s and 1970s ; Documentary and experimental film since the late 1960s ; New cinemas and new developments : Europe and the USSR since the 1970s ; A developing world: continental and subcontinental cinemas since 1970 -- Pt. 6. Cinema in the age of electronic media. American cinema and the entertainment economy : the 1980s and after ; Toward a global film culture ; Digital technology and the cinema.