Maureen Furniss surveys the cultural, political and economic context of how this dynamic industry evolved, emphasizing both artistic and technical achievements from around the world - from Hollywood to Tokyo, from Moscow to Sydney. Featuring a timeline for each of its six parts, Animation: The Global History provides readers with a clear and accessible chronology of events. A 'Global Storyline', highlighting the major themes of the era, opens each chapter, and an end-of-book glossary defines key terms used throughout the book.

Topics include:
- Development of animation
- Growth of the studio system
- Stylistic differences between the major studios
- Modernist animation
- Animation in World War II
- International animation
- Experimental animation
- Television animation
- Animation in art and video games