From Shane to Kill Bill: Rethinking the Western is an original and compelling critical history of the American Western film.

• Provides an insightful overview of the American Western genre
• Covers the entire history of the Western, from 1939 to the present
• Analyses Westerns as products of a genre, as well as expressions of political and social desires
• Deepens an audience's understanding of the genre's most important works, including Shane, Stagecoach, The Searchers, Unforgiven, and Kill Bill
• Contains numerous illustrations of the films and issues discussed.