Histories on Screen
The Past and Present in Anglo-American Cinema and Television
2nd Edition
Will be published approx. on 24. December 2026
Book
Hardback
408 pages
978-1-350-53915-0 (ISBN)
Description
What can historical films and period television tell us about history? How reliable are these sources? How, as historians, should we 'read' a film? This second edition of Histories on Screen gets to the heart of these questions and more in a comprehensive volume which greatly enhances our understanding of the relationship between film/television and history.
The book begins with a theoretical 'Thinking about Film' section that explores the ways in which film and television 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 provides diverse case studies which put this theory into practice. It explores vital areas of historical analysis in the process, including gender, class, race, war, genocide, sexuality, propaganda, national identity and memory. 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 that features prominently throughout the text.
This new edition includes six brand new chapters exploring the following key topics:
* Depictions of women in period dramas
* Black British history on film
* LGBTQ+ history and documentary film production
* The Holocaust, film and post-genocidal trauma
* US Civil Rights and television
* The Hollywood Western and the Cold War
The book begins with a theoretical 'Thinking about Film' section that explores the ways in which film and television 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 provides diverse case studies which put this theory into practice. It explores vital areas of historical analysis in the process, including gender, class, race, war, genocide, sexuality, propaganda, national identity and memory. 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 that features prominently throughout the text.
This new edition includes six brand new chapters exploring the following key topics:
* Depictions of women in period dramas
* Black British history on film
* LGBTQ+ history and documentary film production
* The Holocaust, film and post-genocidal trauma
* US Civil Rights and television
* The Hollywood Western and the Cold War
Reviews / Votes
Film, television and documentaries provide opportunities to learn about complex and multi-faceted Her stories and His stories. Histories on Screen offers a rich collection of essays that provide tools for understanding visual depictions and analyses of past and present. A wide range of topics are insightfully addressed, including the uses and abuses of propaganda, diverse interpretations of culture, the plague of ahistoricism, and the ways individuals and nations shape and interpret historical memory. * Dale T. Graden, Professor of History, University of Idaho, USA * This is a lively and engaging collection of essays breaking new ground in the way we understand the presentation of history in cinema and television. The focus on the portrayal of different identities and backgrounds brings fascinating insights and perspectives of great value to all who are interested in the way the visual media presents history and a sense of the past. * Mark Connelly, Emeritus Professor of Modern British History, University of Kent, UK * This valuable collection brings together experts in history, memory and visual culture to explore the different ways in which film shapes our sense of the past, and to provide a useful guide to students of history wanting to make use of film as a source. Film and television provide a powerful means through which people encounter and understand the past; their analysis deserves this accessible, lively and scholarly volume. * Lucy Noakes, Rab Butler Professor of Modern History, University of Essex, President, Royal Historical Society, UK * Histories on Screen offers students, historians and film scholars an excellent introduction to the representations of multiple histories on screen. Utilising film theory and historiography, among other approaches, the book demonstrates the myriad ways in which these histories can be interpreted, providing a sophisticated understanding of visual heritage, history and culture. * Simon Topping, Associate Professor of United States History, University of Plymouth, UK *More details
Edition
2nd edition
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
College/higher education
Illustrations
31 bw illus
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 28 mm
Weight
503 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-350-53915-0 (9781350539150)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Sam Edwards is Reader in Modern Political History at Loughborough University, UK. He is the author of Allies in Memory: World War II and the Politics of Transatlantic Commemoration, c. 1941-2001 (2015) and 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).
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).
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).
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.
Content
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 (University of Birmingham, UK)
3. The Moving Image as Memory: Past and Present on Screen, Sam Edwards (Loughborough 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)
8. CASE STUDY: "If I am unable to find a husband, I shall be worthless": Reading the roles of Women in the worlds of Bridgerton and Sanditon, Lizzie Rogers (Independent Scholar)
9. CASE STUDY: Watching a Black Screen: Cinema and Race in Britain, Clive Webb (University of Sussex, UK)
Reel Life and Real Life: Documenting and Narrating the Past
10. CASE STUDY: The Empire at the Movies: India in Newsreels, c. 1911 to 1947, Tilman Frasch (Manchester Metropolitan University, UK)
11. CASE STUDY: 'Truth' and 'Interiority': Screening and Interpreting the Early Modern Era, Jonathan Spangler (Manchester Metropolitan University, UK)
12. CASE STUDY: Hollywood Musicals Make History, Nicholas Gebhardt (Birmingham City University, UK)
13. CASE STUDY: The Hollywood Western in the Cold War, Joshua Wolf (Benedictine College, USA)
14. CASE STUDY: 'Moving' Images: Educational Uses of D-Day Imagery, Michael Dolski (Defense POW/MIA Accounting Command, USA)
15. CASE STUDY: CASE STUDY: Using Televisual Sources to Understand the History of the Civil Rights Movement, Sage Goodwin (Harvard University, USA)
Making Memory and Identity: The Politics and Purpose of Film and TV
16. CASE STUDY: Do It Yourself: Community Programming, Documentary Filmmaking and Lesbian, Gay and Trans Campaigning in Postwar Britain, Marcus Collins (Loughborough University, UK)
17. CASE STUDY: Superhero Films and American National Identity, Michael Goodrum (University of Essex, UK)
18. CASE STUDY: After the Holocaust: Post-Genocidal Trauma on Screen, Tereza Valny (University of Edinburgh, UK)
19. CASE STUDY: 'We Will Remember Them?': Film, Television and the First World War in British Memory, Sam Edwards (Loughborough University, UK)
20. CASE STUDY: Presenting the Past: New Directions in Television History, Nicola Bishop (Loughborough University, UK)
Filmography
Bibliography
Index
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 (University of Birmingham, UK)
3. The Moving Image as Memory: Past and Present on Screen, Sam Edwards (Loughborough 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)
8. CASE STUDY: "If I am unable to find a husband, I shall be worthless": Reading the roles of Women in the worlds of Bridgerton and Sanditon, Lizzie Rogers (Independent Scholar)
9. CASE STUDY: Watching a Black Screen: Cinema and Race in Britain, Clive Webb (University of Sussex, UK)
Reel Life and Real Life: Documenting and Narrating the Past
10. CASE STUDY: The Empire at the Movies: India in Newsreels, c. 1911 to 1947, Tilman Frasch (Manchester Metropolitan University, UK)
11. CASE STUDY: 'Truth' and 'Interiority': Screening and Interpreting the Early Modern Era, Jonathan Spangler (Manchester Metropolitan University, UK)
12. CASE STUDY: Hollywood Musicals Make History, Nicholas Gebhardt (Birmingham City University, UK)
13. CASE STUDY: The Hollywood Western in the Cold War, Joshua Wolf (Benedictine College, USA)
14. CASE STUDY: 'Moving' Images: Educational Uses of D-Day Imagery, Michael Dolski (Defense POW/MIA Accounting Command, USA)
15. CASE STUDY: CASE STUDY: Using Televisual Sources to Understand the History of the Civil Rights Movement, Sage Goodwin (Harvard University, USA)
Making Memory and Identity: The Politics and Purpose of Film and TV
16. CASE STUDY: Do It Yourself: Community Programming, Documentary Filmmaking and Lesbian, Gay and Trans Campaigning in Postwar Britain, Marcus Collins (Loughborough University, UK)
17. CASE STUDY: Superhero Films and American National Identity, Michael Goodrum (University of Essex, UK)
18. CASE STUDY: After the Holocaust: Post-Genocidal Trauma on Screen, Tereza Valny (University of Edinburgh, UK)
19. CASE STUDY: 'We Will Remember Them?': Film, Television and the First World War in British Memory, Sam Edwards (Loughborough University, UK)
20. CASE STUDY: Presenting the Past: New Directions in Television History, Nicola Bishop (Loughborough University, UK)
Filmography
Bibliography
Index