Melvyn Stokes teaches American history and American film history at University College London. He has also been a visiting fellow at Princeton, a visiting Fulbright Professor at Mount Holyoke College and a visiting professor at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes in Paris. He has edited or co-edited nine books, including four for the British Film Institute.

• Introduction


• 1: Premiere in Los Angeles


• 2: Thomas Dixon, Jr


• 3: David Wark Griffith


• 4: Making The Birth of a Nation


• 5: Transforming the American Movie Audience


• 6: Fighting a Vicious Film


• 7: Griffiths View of History


• 8: After Birth


• 9: Conclusion


• Bibliography

In this deeply researched and vividly written volume, Melvyn Stokes illuminates the origins, production, reception and continuing history of this aesthetically ground-breaking and yet highly controversial movie. A must-read for anyone interested in the cinema, it sheds light on both the film's racism and the artistic brilliance of Griffith's filmmaking.