Brown (independent scholar) has written a comprehensive overview of an important American cinematic subgenre. Part of the uniformly excellent "Cinema and Society Series," the book tracks the live action family film from its formative days in the early 1930s as an antidote to the Depression, most notably with Shirley Temple's vehicles for 20th Century Fox, and smoothly moves on to Walt Disney's first feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Brown continues tracking the family film through its classic era in the 1940s-50s, through the subgenre's decline in the late 1960s when the realities of Vietnam and the struggle for civil rights rendered such films almost instantly outdated. Brown also touches on the fantasy films of George Pal and special effects master Ray Harryhausen, and concludes with a look at the reborn, contemporary family film with such series franchises as Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and Transformers. Written in an engaging and accessible style, with numerous illustrations, this book is an excellent one-stop history of Hollywood's vision of the American family with all its hopes, fears, and desires. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and above. G. A. Foster University of Nebraska--Lincoln