Can we view our history - an by implications ourselves - through the movies? Is there a relationship between good history and good film-making? How does Hollywood view America's past? The challenge of making the great American historical film has attracted some of the finest talents: D.W. Griffith, John Ford, Robert Altman, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Oliver Stone and Spike Lee. From the earliest flickering images of The Spirit of '76 (1905) through to Nixon, this book examines Hollywood's filming of American history, including biographies.