Book Description

History teachers should be less concerned with having students try to re-experience the past and more concerned with teaching them how to learn from the study of it. Keeping this in mind, teachers should integrate more critical film and television analysis into their history classes, but not in place of reading or at the expense of traditional approaches. Teachers must show students how to engage, rather than suspend, their critical faculties when the projector or television monitor is turned on. The first major section of this book, "Analyzing a Moving Image as a Historical Document," discusses the two stages in the analysis of a moving image document: (1) a general analysis of content, production, and reception; and (2) the study of the moving image document as a representation of history, as evidence for social and cultural history, as evidence for historical fact, or as evidence for the history of film and television. Strategies for the classroom are also discussed. The second major section, "Visual Language," is an introduction to visual language meant to serve as a general and selective guide for history teachers new to the critical use of moving-image media in the classroom. Discussions of various aspects of film history and film techniques help to illustrate the possible use of films and television as historical documents and show how film history is a manifestation of the same socio-cultural forces that shape the larger history of society. A 103-item bibliography and a sample class assignment are included. (JB)