Histories on Screen: The Past and Present in Anglo-American Cinema and Television

by Sam Edwards (Editor), Faye Sayer (Editor), Michael Dolski (Editor)

Overview

How, as historians, should we 'read' a film? Histories on Screen answers this and other questions in a crucial volume for any history student keen to master source use.

The book begins with a theoretical 'Thinking about Film' section that explores the ways in which films can be analyzed and interrogated as either primary sources, secondary sources or indeed as both. The much larger 'Using Film' segment of the book then offers engaging case studies which put this theory into practice. Topics including gender, class, race, war, propaganda, national identity and memory all receive good coverage in what is an eclectic multi-contributor volume. Documentaries, films and television from Britain and the United States are examined and there is a jargon-free emphasis on the skills and methods needed to analyze films in historical study featuring prominently throughout the text.

Histories on Screen is a vital resource for all history students as it enables them to understand film as a source and empowers them with the analytical tools needed to use that knowledge in their own work.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781474217064
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	02/08/2018
Series:	Bloomsbury Research Skills for History
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Sam Edwards is Senior Lecturer in American History at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. He has published widely on the cultural history of twentieth century conflict. He is the author of Allies in Memory: World War II and the Politics of Transatlantic Commemoration, c.1941-2001 (2015), which was shortlisted for the Royal Historical Society's Gladstone Prize.

Michael Dolski is a historian with the Joint Prisoner of War-Missing in Action Accounting Command's Central Identification Laboratory in the USA. Together with Sam Edwards and John Buckley, he is editor of D-Day in History and Memory: The Normandy Landings in International Remembrance and Commemoration (2014), and he is the author of D-Day Remembered: The Normandy Landings in American Collective Memory (2016).

Faye Sayer is Senior Lecturer in Public History and Community Archaeology at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. She has published extensively on the value of public history and community archaeology, and she is the author of Public History: A Practical Guide (Bloomsbury Academic, 2015).
Sam Edwards is Lecturer in American History at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. He has published essays discussing various aspects of American war commemoration and he is the co-editor, along with Michael Dolski and John Buckley, of D-Day in History and Memory: The Normandy Landings in International Remembrance and Commemoration (2014).
Faye Sayer is Assistant Professor in Heritage and History at University of Birmingham, UK. She has published major articles on community heritage and worked for some of the UK's most significant heritage organizations, including English Heritage, The Portable Antiquities Scheme and the Museum of London. She has been involved in public heritage projects around the world, including in the USA, Europe, and Australia, and she is also a well-known, former Time Team archaeologist.
Michael Dolski is a historian with the Joint Prisoner of War-Missing in Action Accounting Command's Central Identification Laboratory in the USA. Together with Sam Edwards and John Buckley, he is editor of D-Day in History and Memory: The Normandy Landings in International Remembrance and Commemoration (2014).

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
List of Contributors
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part I: Thinking about Film and Television
1. The Moving Image as Primary Source: Author, Text and Context, Michael Dolski (Defense POW/MIA Accounting Command, USA)
2. The Moving Image as a Secondary Source: Truth, Authenticity and Narrative, Faye Sayer (Manchester Metropolitan University, UK)
3. The Moving Image as Memory: Past and Present on Screen, Sam Edwards (Manchester Metropolitan University, UK)
Part II: Using Film and Television: Case Studies
The Lens of History: Race, Class and Gender on Screen
4. CASE STUDY: 'The Way We Are': Class and Britishness on Film, Marcus Morris (Manchester Metropolitan University, UK)
5. CASE STUDY: Were Fires Started? Exploring Gender in British Cinema of the Second World War, Corinna Penniston-Bird (Lancaster University, UK)
6. CASE STUDY: Screening Multicultural Britain: Blair, Britishness and Bend it Like Beckham, Sarah Ilot (Teeside University, UK)
7. CASE STUDY: Mammy, Mandingo, Django and Solomon: A Century of American Slavery in Cinema from Uncle Tom's Cabin to Twelve Years a Slave, Lydia Plath (Canterbury Christ Church University, UK)
Reel Life and Real Life: Documenting and Narrating the Past
8. CASE STUDY: The Empire at the Movies: India in Newsreels, c. 1911 to 1947, Tilman Frasch (Manchester Metropolitan University, UK)
9. CASE STUDY: 'Truth' and 'Interiority': Screening and Interpreting the Early Modern Era, Jonathan Spangler (Manchester Metropolitan University, UK)
10. CASE STUDY: Hollywood Musicals Make History, Nicholas Gebhardt (Birmingham City University, UK)
11. CASE STUDY: 'Moving' Images: Educational Uses of D-Day Imagery, Michael Dolski (Defense POW/MIA Accounting Command, USA)
Part III: Making Memory and Identity: The Politics and Purpose of Film and TV
12. CASE STUDY: Superhero Films and American National Identity, Michael Goodrum (University of Essex, UK)
13. CASE STUDY: 'We Will Remember Them?': Film, Television and the First World War in British Memor, Sam Edwards (Manchester Metropolitan University, UK)
14. CASE STUDY: Presenting the Past: New Directions in Television History, Nicola Bishop (Manchester Metropolitan University, UK)
Filmography
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

Each chapter begins with a concise introduction, provides historical and historiographical context before moving into discussion of the particular film or television show, and often ends by exploring the specific material as a source ... [This] volume succeeds in providing educators with insights to use in the classroom. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels/libraries.
CHOICE

Sam Edwards, Michael Dolski and Faye Sayer are to be congratulated for bringing together such a fascinating set of essays. It is well known that people often understand the past by what they see on the screen, but we often don't stop to consider the processes behind the persuasive effect of film and television. The contributors to this volume bring the complexity of the relationship between consumer and producer of history on screen to light in a lively and engaging manner.
Mark Connelly, Professor of Modern British History, University of Kent, UK

Today most people learn most of what they know about history from films and television. This thoughtful, wide-ranging and stimulating collection of essays explores in depth how and why this is so. An invaluable contribution to our understanding of an often misunderstood cultural phenomenon.
Jeffrey Richards, Emeritus Professor of Cultural History, Lancaster University, UK

From the Publisher