From Jules Verne to the Jetsons, from a 500-passenger flying wing to an anti-aircraft flying buzz-saw, the vision of the future as seen through the eyes of the past demonstrates the play of the American imagination on the canvas of the future.

Film is an important source of social history, as well as having been a popular art form from the early twentieth century. This study shows how a society, consciously or unconsciously, is mirrored in its cinema. It considers the role of the cinema in dramatizing popular beliefs and myths, and takes three case studies – American populism, British imperialism, German Nazism – to explain how a nation’s pressures, tensions and hopes come through in its films. Examining the American cinema is accomplished by analysing the careers of three great directors, John Ford, Frank Capra and Leo McCarey, while the British and German cinemas are studied by theme. The analysis of the British Empire as seen in film broke exciting new ground with a pioneering account of ‘the cinema of Empire’ when it was first published in 1973. With full filmographies and a carefully selected bibliography it is an outstanding work of reference and its lively approach makes it a delight to read. Reviews of the original edition: ‘A work of considerable force and considerable wit.’ – Clive James, Observer ‘...a work that is original, mentally stimulating and most pleasurable to read.’ – Focus on Film

"Shaw analyses key films of the period, including High Treason, which put a British McCarthyism on celluloid; the fascinatingly ambiguous science fiction thriller The Quatermass Experiment; the court-room drama based on the trial of Hungary's Cardinal Mindszenty, The Prisoner; the dystopic The Damned, made by one of Hollywood's blacklisted directors, Joseph Losey; and the CIA-funded, animated version of George Orwell's classic novel Animal Farm. The result is a deeply probing study of how Cold War issues were refracted through British films, compared with their imported American and East European counterparts, and how the British public received this 'war propaganda'."--BOOK JACKET.

Every 3rd issue is a quarterly cumulation.