The Hollywood Studio System

Doug Gomery has written a fine book on the history of the Hollywood studio system. Whereas earlier treatments of this topic tend to neglect the period after the rise of television, Gomery does an excellent job of covering that period as well. One argument in the book that scholars will recognize as original is that the studio heads have always been quite concerned about distribution issues and that even though they no longer directly control the majority of movie screens they still have a lot to say about what gets screened and where. There is considerable detail in the book on the history of each of the major studios based on archival materials and interviews. This book should be required reading, in short, for anyone writing about Hollywood in the future.