The Talkies: American Cinema's Transition to Sound, 1926-1931 (History of the American Cinema)
"[A] masterful delineation of the cultural-intellectual climate into  which the sound film was inserted. . . . Crafton's analysis contributes not just  to film history but to cultural studies more generally with its concern with the  way ordinary consumers make use of their culture. . . . The Talkies is quite  simply a wonderful book. It takes its place among the very top works of American  film history."  --Dana Polan, Film Quarterly