time to undo a century's worth of damage.

But in his new and highly readable book Reforming Hollywood: How American Protestants Fought for Freedom at the Movies (Oxford University Press), William Romanowski (a professor at Calvin College and noted commenter on religion and pop culture) challenges this narrative, demonstrating that it is not simply reductionist—it's almost entirely wrong (and frequently wrongheaded). Film history has dealt Protestants a bad hand, and Romanowski's meticulously researched book is a valuable contribution to a richer narrative, one that recognizes the profound contribution that Protestants have made to the shape of the American film industry. And, furthermore, the book traces how Protestants have coped with a rapidly pluralizing society. As Romanowski points out, "the film industry is an important catalyst for examining how thissocio-religious group coped with a dramatic loss of power."

'An ally of home, school, and church'

Film was growing out of its infancy at the turn of the twentieth century, just as the United States was embarking on its slow migration from Protestant cultural hegemony to pluralism, away from an emphasis on a "shared ethos of self-restraint and public responsibility" and toward a higher regard for individualism. Protestant church leaders (among others) instantly recognized the new form's potential to powerfully influence public conversations. As with other still-new forms of mass media (such as radio), at the movies, people all over the country could experience the same stories and encounter the same ideas—it was a new sort of "highly commercialized urban folk art." But film's immersive power renders it especially potent