Joining recent works by Terry Lindvall and Alison M. Parker, William D. Romanowski's Reforming Hollywood examines the varied perspectives of liberal Protestants on the cultural power of the movies. Romanowski argues that, contrary to the emphasis in the literature on religious figures as unwavering censors and on the centrality of Catholic organizations like the Legion of Decency to the story of film regulation, Protestants engaged the film industry in complex ways, seeking to balance a commitment both to artistic freedom and the promotion of their vision of the public good. The Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, which later became the National Council of Churches and represented thirty Protestant denominations, serves as the primary institution through which Romanowski examines Protestant attitudes toward regulation of the film industry. His analysis emphasizes that in engaging the movie industry, the Federal Council remained consistently opposed to censorship, focusing instead on supporting film art and finding ways to make the movies socially productive. Romanowski also addresses Protestant leaders' attempts to produce their own films through organizations like the Religious Motion Picture Foundation and the Protestant Film Commission as part of the endeavor to demonstrate the potential social good of the movies.

The book begins with a useful synthesis of existing literature on the rise of the movies, early campaigns against urban amusements, controversies over film exhibition on the Christian Sabbath, and the emergence of the National Board of Censorship (later Review) as an early oversight body. Romanowski moves on to illuminate conflicting approaches to film reform among Protestant leaders, some of whom wanted the Federal government to regulate the industry and others, like those in the Federal Council, who endorsed regulation but emphasized “persuasion and encouragement of the good rather than an ethic of compulsion or the suppression of evil” (39). With the defeat of plans for federal oversight and the founding of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association (MPPDA), the Federal Council had the opportunity to work with the MPPDA's head, Presbyterian Will Hays, whose task it was both to serve the common interests of the studios and maintain a contested moral standard for industry productions. Romanowski makes a significant contribution in charting the activities of the Federal Council and its leaders as they helped to shape the development of the movie industry and Americans' attitudes toward the movies, both in cooperation with the Hays Office and, at times, in conflict with it. With the adoption of the Production Code, written by a Catholic layman and a priest, and the establishment of the Production Code Administration (PCA) under the leadership of Joseph Breen, an active Catholic layman, the Federal Council had to contend with different Catholic attitudes and approaches to film regulation. In Romanowski's account, competition over access to the corridors of Hollywood power, perceptions of the overrepresentation of Catholic stories in the movies, and renewed efforts by the Federal Council to exert cultural influence characterize the subsequent years under the Code.

Romanowski begins the story of Protestant engagement with the movies in the silent era and concludes in the early twenty-first century, covering the transformation of film regulation from the Production Code to the Ratings system. Among the liveliest sections of the book are those in which he examines debates over specific films in the transitional period of the 1950s and 1960s, exploring negotiations between the PCA and Protestant leaders over the content of such well-known films as Night of the Hunter (1955) and Elmer Gantry (1960), and less well-known ones like The Sins of Rachel Cade (1961). In addition, his attention to the participation of Protestant leaders in the discussions that led to the adoption and implementation of the ratings system in the 1960s and 1970s is significant, as is his discussion of Protestant debates about the relation of film to society that emerged as evangelicals have become prominent in public conversations on cultural issues.

This thoroughly researched study reveals much more about the institutional worlds of liberal Protestants than about American film history and, as such, contributes to a recent boom in scholarly interest in American religious liberalism. Romanowski's work could be read productively alongside recent studies by Matthew Hedstrom on the book culture of American religious liberals, Elesha J. Coffman on The Christian Century and the Protestant mainline, and David Hollinger on Protestant liberalism, among others. Romanowski's narrative of Protestant encounter with American film is, however, missing a robust engagement of the fact that film regulation does not simply identify and eradicate self-evidently “immoral” content, but is part of a process of defining the bounds of the moral and immoral, as well as of the public good. Addressing directly how liberal Protestants' understandings of race, class, gender, and sexuality shaped their approach to film regulation at different historical moments would enrich the institutional history that Romanowski provides. Nevertheless, readers will appreciate and learn much from the fresh perspective on the relation of religious Americans to the movies that Reforming Hollywood offers.