History Television: Week One
I started my internship at History Television this week. Pretty damn cool. It's the most laid back (professional) work atmosphere in which I have ever been employed.
The internship is only three days a week, and I’ll have to commute for about two hours every day, all told, on the subway and train. So, I have a lot of sitting to do, trapped in locomotives.
Thus, to wile away my time, I’ve set myself the lofty goal of doing some readings. Because I’m working in film and television, but coming at it from a public history viewpoint, the major theme of my reading list is film / television and public history.
For anyone else interested, I am including my reading list here. It’s a compilation (though incomplete, I know) of works I think are pertinent to the subject matter. If I were doing a dissertation on this subject, I think I'd submit this, with other supplementary works, as my proposed reading list. If you know of any other readings I could - or should - add, please let me know.
I have no grandiose illusions of getting through this body of literature. But merely compiling it has been a helpful exercise in seeing what's out there on this topic. And besides, even if I could read fast enough to get through this list over the course of my internship, I doubt I would; there are other things I want to read this summer too, you know? I mean, let’s be honest: it’s not as if I am writing a dissertation or anything. Which, by way of tribute, is, sort of, where the idea for posting this reading list came from.
1. Allen, Gene, et al. “’Canadian History in Film’: A Roundtable Discussion.” Canadian Historical Review 82:2 (June 2001): 331-346.
2. “An Interview with Steven M. Gillon, Host of the History Channel's History or Hollywood.” Film & History September 2000 (30:2): 60-62.
3. Barta, Tony, ed. Screening the Past: Film and the Representation of History. Westport: Praeger, 1998.
4. Bercuson, David J. and S.F. Wise, eds. The Valour and the Horror Revisited. Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1994.
5. Carnes, Mark C., ed. Past Imperfect: History According to the Movies. New York: Henry Holt & Company, 1995.
6. CHR Forum: “Canadian History in Film. Excerpts from a Roundtable Session on Canadian History in Film, University of Alberta, 2001.” Canadian Historical Review 82:2 (June 2001): 331-346.
7. Cohen, Barri. “Senate Hearings: The Valour and The Horror.” Point of View 21 (Spring 1993): 16-19.
8. Collins, Anne. “The Valour and the Uproar: The Battle over the Valour and the Horror.” Saturday Night (May 1993): 44-49, 72-76.
9. Collins, Peter C. Hollywood As Historian: American Film in a Cultural Context. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1983.
10. Cook, Pam. Screening the Past: Memory and Nostalgia in Cinema. New York: Routledge, 2005.
11. Davis, Natalie Z. “’Any Resemblance to Persons Living or Dead’: Film and the Challenge of Authenticity.” Yale Review 76:4 (September 1987): 457-82.
12. Davis, Natalie Z. “Movie or Monograph? A Historian/Filmmaker's Perspective.” Public Historian 25:3 (Summer 2003): 45-9.
13. Druick, Zoe. “’Non-Theatrical Dreams with Dreams of Theatrical’: Paradoxes of a Canadian Semi-Documentary Film Noir.” Canadian Journal of Film Studies 12:2 (Fall 2003): 46-63.
14. Druick, Zoe. “’Ambiguous Identities’ and the Representation of Everyday Life: Notes Toward a New History of Production Policies at the National Film Board of Canada.” Canadian Issues 20 (1998): 125-137.
15. Edgerton, David. “Television as Historian: An Introduction.” Film & History 30:1 (March 2000): 7-12.
16. Edgerton, David. “Television as Historian, Part 2: Reframing the Pat from Inside the TV Environment.” Film & History 30:2 (September 2000): 5-6.
17. Ferro, Marc. Cinema and History, trans. Naomi Greene. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1988.
18. Forsyth, Scott. “The Failures of Nationalism and Documentary: Grierson and Gouzenko.” Canadian Journal of Film Studies 1 (1991): 74-82.
19. Guynn, William Howard. Writing History in Film. New York: Routledge, 2006.
20. Grindon, Leger. Shadows on the Past: Studies in the Historical Film. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1994.
21. Hanke, Robert. “Quantum Leap: The Postmodern Challenge of Television as History.” Film & History 30:2 (September 2000): 41-49.
22. Harcourt, Peter. “A Moving Target: Federal Film Policy within a Global Culture.” Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada 4 (1989): 169-179.
23. Herlihy, David. “Am I a Camera? Other Reflections on Films and History.” American Historical Review 93:5 (December 1988): 1186-1192.
24. Hughes-Warrington, Marnie. History Goes to the Movies: Studying History on Film. New York: Routledge, 2007.
25. Kaes, Anton. “History and Film: Public Memory in the Age of Electronic Dissemination.” History and Memory 2:1 (1990): 111-29.
26. Landy, Marcia. Cinematic Uses of the Past. Minneapolis: University of Minneapolis Press, 1996.
27. Landy, Marcia, ed. The Historical Film: History and Memory in Media. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2001.
28. McIlroy, Brian. Shooting to Kill: Filmmaking and the ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland. Richmond: Steveston Press, 2001.
29. Moore, Christopher. “Valour, Horror and Freedom.” The Beaver 72:6 (December 1992 / January 1993): 54-56.
30. O’Connor, John. E. “History in Images / History in Words: Reflections on the Possibility of Really Putting History into Film.” American Historical Review 93:5 (December 1988): 1200-09.
31. O’Connor, John. E. Image as Artifact: The Historical Analysis of Film and Television. Malabar: Krieger, 1990.
32. O’Connor, John E., Robert Brent Toplin, Steven Mintz, Ron Briley, and Ken Nolley. “Michael Moore: Cinematic Historian or Propagandist?: A Historians Film Committee Panel Presented at the 2005 American Historical Association Meeting.” Film & History 35:2 (September 2005): 7-16.
33. Rosenstone, Robert A. “History in Images / History in Words: Reflections on the Possibility of Really Putting History into Film.” American Historical Review 93:5 (December 1988): 1173-85.
34. Rosenstone, Robert A. Visions of the Past: The Challenge of Film to Our Idea of History. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1995.
35. Rosenstone, Robert A. Revisioning History: Film and the Construction of a New Past. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995.
36. Rosenstone, Robert A. History on Film/Film on History (History: Concepts, Theories and Practice). Harlow: Longmans, 2006.
37. Rozensweig, Roy. and Thelen, David. The Presence of the Past: Popular Uses of History in American Life. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998.
38. Schama, Simon. “Fine-Cutting Clio.” Public Historian Summer 25:3( 2003): 15-25.
39. Sorlin, Pierre. The Film in History. Oxford: Blackwell, 1980.
40. Taves, Brian. “The History Channel and the Challenge of Historical Programming.” Film & History 30:2 (September 2000): 7-16.
41. Toplin, Robert Brent. “The Filmmaker as Historian.” American Historical Review 93:5 (December 1988): 1210-1227.
42. Toplin, Robert Brent. History by Hollywood: The Use and Abuse of the American Past. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1996.
43. Toplin, Robert Brent. Reel History: In Defense of Hollywood. Lawrence: Kansas University Press, 2002.
44. Toplin, Robert Brent. “Cinematic History: Where Do We Go From Here?” Public Historian
45. Walkowitz, Daniel J. “Visual History: The Craft of the Historian-Filmmaker.” Public Historian 7:1 (Winter 1985): 52-64.
46. Walz, Gene. Flashback: People and Institutions in Canadian Film History. Montréal: Mediatexte Publications Inc., 1986.
47. White, Hayden. “Historiography and Historiophoty.” American Historical Review 93:5 (December 1988): 1193-1199. 25:3 (Summer 2003): 79-91.
