Amidst claims of a new "post-truth" era, documentary filmmaking has experienced a golden age. Today, more documentaries are made and widely viewed than ever before, illuminating our increasingly fraught relationship with what's true in politics and culture. From Thomas Edison to IMAX, Ken Burns to virtual environments, Jon Wilkman offers a history of American documentary film and the remarkable men and women who changed the way we view the world. In this illustrated history, Wilkman surveys the technology and cultural changes that have shaped the medium, while discussing such figures as Robert Flaherty, John Ford, Pare Lorentz, Edward R. Murrow, Errol Morris, Charlotte Zwerin, and the Maysles brothers.