Histories on Screen
The Past and Present in Anglo-American Cinema and Television
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4156027 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Laura E Baker (Fitchburg State University, Fitchburg, Massachusetts), Laura Baker (0000-0002-9136-7806, Fitchburg State University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 105 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 978-979 |
| Publication date | 2019-03-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of American History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-8723 • E-ISSN: 1945-2314 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/jahist/jaz015 |
| OpenAlex | W2917120835 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
Aimed at undergraduates, this anthology introduces readers to the critical analysis of historical media. It provides introductory essays by each of the three editors, all historians, to current theory and methods of film history, and its case studies examine both film and television. No comparable textbook is available for undergraduate historical methods courses. The first introductory essay provides guidelines for analyzing film as a primary source, outlining three categories to consider: the complex collaborative nature of film “authorship”; the influence of genre, context, and chronology; and the impact of production factors. There is no mention of star discourse, another important dimension of filmic meaning. The second introductory essay examines the validity of film and television as secondary sources, arguing that historical media must be accepted on their own terms as imaginative constructs. To judge—and dismiss—them based on the history profession's standards of historical accuracy misses their capacity to capture the imagination of the public and ignite interest in “untold truths ... forgotten or underrepresented in primary sources” (p. 34). The third introductory essay frames film and television as critical to the study of collective memory and memorialization. Technological preeminence and the economic imperatives of mass appeal combined to make modern mass media dominant “sights of memory” in the twentieth century, a role they continue to play
Aesthetics · Appeal · Art · Collective memory · Context (archaeology · Epistemology · Film studies · Literature · Mass media · Meaning (existential · Media studies · Memorialization · Movie theater · Political science · Sociology · Cinema and Media Studies · European history and politics · History · Italian Fascism and Post-war Society · Law
| Citations per year | 0.17 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2020 - 2020 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |