Finding a single motivation and accomplishment of the many American films digging in one way or another into history is impossible, but Rollins turns his illuminating and critical eye on the core motifs of most genres and subgenres, and he succeeds admirably. This collection of essays relives history both before the camera and behind it. We are all the better informed for it.

— Ray Browne, former secretary/treasurer of the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association

More people learn about history in movies theaters and by watching television than in classrooms, much to the consternation of many educators. Now Peter Rollins has edited a much-needed one-volume state-of-the-art introduction to how movies depict the past. As editor of the interdisciplinary journal Film & History, Rollins is perfectly situated to marshal together scholars from a wide assortment of disciplines—American studies, communication, English, film, and history—around a common interest. Written with authority and a refreshing diversity of viewpoints, The Columbia Companion to American History on Film maps out many of the country's more important historical markers, stopping periodically to reconsider and analyze screen versions of America's more notable people, places, institutions, and myths. Reading through this volume is a lot like taking a round trip across the vast expanse of our nation's rich cultural heritage. Well researched and brimming with insights, The Columbia Companion to American History on Film perceptively illustrates how filmmakers have used stories involving historical figures and events to clarify the present and imagine the future for literally tens of millions of viewers over the last century.

— Gary R. Edgerton, Professor of Communication and Theatre Arts at Old Dominion University and coeditor of the Journal of Popular Film and Television

This is a top-notch work which contrasts the historical record against the screen entertainment with excellent academic commentary. The Columbia Companion to American History on Film is a volume of intellectual perspectives which every teacher of history and/or film should have in their personal libraries. I plan to make extensive use of this book in my course on the films of WWII next year. The structure of this text makes it incredibly useful to all teachers in the social sciences and the arts-eras, events, people, places, myths and movements. It's all there in history and on the screen, be it film or television. In CCAHF the authors have 'read' and interpreted the films so that the rest of us can put the historical events in context: timeline, relationships, importance.

— Donald E. Staples, former president of the University Film and Video Association and the Society for Cinema Studies