Citizen Kane, often considered the greatest film ever made, has long fascinated critics and historians. Credit for its genius has usually been attributed to its director, Orson Welles, though competing claims have been lodged for Herman Mankiewicz, who shared screenwriting credit with Welles. The Making of Citizen Kane, based on extensive research in previously inaccessible studio records, is the first attempt to document the shared creative achievement of Welles and his principal collaborators.

Robert L. Carringer has carried out numerous interviews with original participants in the making of Citizen Kane and had extensive conversations with Welles himself. He has thus been able to construct a detailed chronological history of the film's production, identifying the key functions performed by the scriptwriter, art director, cinematographer, editor, sound engineer, special effects technicians, and music director, and distinguishing the nature of Welles's own contributions. On Citizen Kane, he shows, Welles was fortunate to have collaborators who were at the least well qualified, in some cases gifted, and in a few cases truly inspired. The quality of collaboration, he argues, was the crucial element in the film's triumphantly successful realization.