Allyn & Bacon

Communication, Film & Theatre

Browse available resources for Mass Communication / Public Relations / Film:



History on Film/Film on History
Robert Rosenstone, California Institute of Technology

ISBN-10: 0582505844
ISBN-13: 9780582505841

Publisher: Longman
Copyright: 2006
Format: Paper; 200 pp
Published: 03/07/2006

Suggested retail price: $33.33
Buy from myPearsonStore



To deal with film is to deal with a historical game pretty much outside the control of historians.This book provides a broad historical and theoretical overview to the rapidly growing field of history and film. It introduces the varieties, types, and traditions of historical films made in Hollywood, Europe, and the rest of the world and the various and changing ways historians and other public critics (reviewers, teachers, politicians, historical actors) have greeted, evaluated, and debated the way particular historical events and history in have been presented on the screen.

 

Rosenstone argues that historical films utilize specific codes of conventions, visual, aural and dramatic, to engage us with and alter and complexify our view of the past. This allows film to create a sort of new history, one that we must approach with new conceptual tools if we are to evaluate its contribution to our understanding of the past.

 

Suitable for undergraduate history and film studies students studying history and film.

  • Detailed examination of different types of films – American, European, Mexican and Soviet – made in different political systems and climates, supports the theoretical ideas in the book
  • Chapter on recent Holocaust films shows how they present a wide ranging understanding of those horrific events
  • Analysis of October, Eisenstein’s masterpiece on the Bolshevik revolution, in the context of the best written histories on the topic
  • Chapter on Oliver Stone demonstrates why he is a brilliant historian of the Vietnamera
  • Rosenstone is both a respected scholar in this field and also a participant in several major film projects, which allows him to unite the perspectives of both film maker and historian

1. History on Film

2. To See the Past

3. Mainstream Drama

4. Innovative Drama

5. Documentary

6. Telling Lives

7. Film maker/ Historian

8. Engaging the Discourse

9. Film on History

Bibliography

Professor Robert A Rosenstone of the California Institute of Technology is currently the leading scholar in the world in the controversial and growing field of history and film. He was the historical consultant on Warren Beatty's Academy Award winning film Reds.

Rosenstone is the Founding Editor of Rethinking History: The Journal of Theory and Practiceand his other publications include Crusade of the Left: The Lincoln Battalion in the Spanish Civil War (1969),  Mirror in the Shrine: American Encounters with Meiji Japan(1988),  King of Odessa (2003), and The Man Who Swam Into History (2005). He also wrote the award winning Romantic Revolutionary (1975) upon which the film Reds was based.

 

History films have often been criticised by academics and journalists as inaccurate depictions of the past. Yet there is no escaping the fact that blockbuster history films, documentaries and docudramas are increasingly influential in shaping our understanding of historical people and events. The very controversies that erupt over so many historical films are testament to the central role that films play in making history accessible.

 

Robert A. Rosenstone argues that to leave history films out of the discussion of the meaning of the past is to ignore a major factor in our understanding of past events. He champions the dramatic feature as a legitimate way of doing history, even though it is largely fictional. He examines what history films convey about the past and how they convey it, demonstrating the need to learn how to read and understand this new visual world. Integrating detailed analysis of individual history films, including Glory, Reds, October and Schindler’s List, Rosenstone examines:

·         different types of films – American, European, Mexican and Soviet – made in different political systems and climates

·         the dramatic feature, the Biofilm, the documentary and the Innovative or Opposition drama.

·         the filmmaker as historian, focusing on Oliver Stone as a brilliant historian of the Vietnam era.

·         how a group of works devoted to a single topic, such as the Holocaust, can engage the larger discourse

 

 

Professor Robert A. Rosenstone of the California Institute of Technology is a leading scholar in the controversial and growing field of history and film.  His award winning biography of John Reed, Romantic Revolutionary (1975), was used as the basis of Warren Beatty's multiple Academy Award winner, Reds, on which Rosenstone served as historical consultant. He is author of several works of history, including Visions of the Past: The Challenge of Film to Our Idea of History (1995) Crusade of the Left: The Lincoln Battalion in the Spanish Civil War (1969) and Mirror in the Shrine: American Encounters with Japan (1988). He is editor of Revisioning History: Film and the Construction of a New Past (1995) and Experiments in Rethinking History (2004). He is the Founding Editor of Rethinking History: The Journal of Theory and Practice.

View a Sample Chapter PDF:

For Film History


Pearson Higher Education offers special pricing when you choose to package your text with other student resources. If you're interested in creating a cost-saving package for your students, contact your Pearson Higher Education representative for pricing and ordering information.

This title is a member of the History: Concepts,Theories and Practice, which also contains the titles below . You can also visit the History: Concepts,Theories and Practice page.

    This book looks at the changes that caused the crisis in the study of class and shows how new, vibrant theories have appeared that will drive forward our understanding of history and sociology.

    Dworkin traces contemporary understanding of social class and argues that claims about its lack of importance in modern society are incorrect. He works to discuss its status as an explanatory concept for historians, sociologists and those studying culture. In doing so, he examines contemporary discussions and debates to assess the position of class now and through history.

     

  • 1405801387Class Struggles
    Dworkin
    © 2007 | Longman | Paper; 272 pages | Instock
    ISBN-10: 1405801387 | ISBN-13: 9781405801386
    Brief Description | Buy from myPearsonStore

    • To deal with film is to deal with a historical game pretty much outside the control of historians.This book provides a broad historical and theoretical overview to the rapidly growing field of history and film. It introduces the varieties, types, and traditions of historical films made in Hollywood, Europe, and the rest of the world and the various and changing ways historians and other public critics (reviewers, teachers, politicians, historical actors) have greeted, evaluated, and debated the way particular historical events and history in have been presented on the screen.

     

    Rosenstone argues that historical films utilize specific codes of conventions, visual, aural and dramatic, to engage us with and alter and complexify our view of the past. This allows film to create a sort of new history, one that we must approach with new conceptual tools if we are to evaluate its contribution to our understanding of the past.

     

    Suitable for undergraduate history and film studies students studying history and film.
  • 0582505844History on Film/Film on History
    Rosenstone
    © 2006 | Longman | Paper; 200 pages | Instock
    ISBN-10: 0582505844 | ISBN-13: 9780582505841
    Brief Description | Buy from myPearsonStore

    • Barbara Bush has taken up a remarkable challenge. Through significant case studies, she has produced a strikingly original and formidably wide-ranging examination of the conceptual and theoretical approaches which help us to understand the forms of imperial authority that have shaped our world. The cumulative effect is indeed impressive, and the book will be invaluable to all those who wish to understand globalization and the power relationships which underlie it.

    Professor John MacKenzie, Professor Emeritus of Imperial History, Lancaster University

    This account of imperialism explores recent intellectual, theoretical and conceptual developments in imperial history, including interdisciplinary and post-colonial perspectives. Exploring the links between empire and domestic history, it looks at the interconnections and comparisons between empire and imperial power within wider developments in world history, covering the period from the Roman to the present American empire.

    The book begins by examining the nature of empire, then looks at continuity and change in the historiography of imperialism and theoretical and conceptual developments. It covers themes such as the relationship between imperialism and modernity, culture and national identity in Britain.

    Suitable for undergraduates taking courses in imperial and colonial history.

  • 0582505836Imperialism and Postcolonialism
    Bush
    © 2006 | Longman | Paper; 304 pages | Instock
    ISBN-10: 0582505836 | ISBN-13: 9780582505834
    Brief Description | Buy from myPearsonStore

    • This important new textbook provides an evaluation and overview of the state of history as it is imagined, conceptualised and practised today. Written by one of the leading 'postmodern historians' working today, the book represents a provocative re-thinking of our engagement with the past.
    From its explicit postmodern position the book addresses the significance of the difference between ?the past? and ?history?.

  • 0582472822The New History
    Munslow
    © 2004 | Longman | Paper; 248 pages | Instock
    ISBN-10: 0582472822 | ISBN-13: 9780582472822
    Brief Description | Buy from myPearsonStore

Pearson Higher Education offers special pricing when you choose to package your text with other student resources. If you're interested in creating a cost-saving package for your students contact your Pearson Higher Education representative.


Copyright ©2009 Pearson Education. All rights reserved. Legal Notice | Privacy Policy | Permissions