Reforming Hollywood: How American Protestants Fought for Freedom at the Movies

Religious Communication Association's Book of the Year

Hollywood and Christianity often seem to be at war. Indeed, there is a long list of movies that have attracted religious condemnation, from Gone with the Wind with its notorious "damn," to The Life of Brian and The Last Temptation of Christ. But the reality, writes William Romanowski, has been far more complicated—and remarkable.

In Reforming Hollywood, Romanowski, a leading historian of popular culture, explores the long and varied effor...