History: Film

The first step to understanding the present is to study the past. This eight-part series traces the composite history of the mass media, industry by industry, from their roots as novelty attractions to their crucial role in society today. 8-part series
28 minutes each.

This program captures more than a century of moviemaking, from the pioneering work of the Lumière brothers and the early silent classics to recent box office hits and modern masterpieces of world cinema.
(27 minutes)

Few innovations of the 20th century can top the television in overall effect on culture and daily life. This program covers the development of TV from the labs of John Baird, Philo T. Farnsworth, and Vladimir Zworykin to the present day. Pioneered as a futuristic and somewhat farfetched experimental branch of radio technology, television began as a very expensive luxury. Though its progress was slowed by World War II, the television industry exploded in the 1950s and now enjoys a 99 percent penetration of American households, with U.S. viewing reaching 250 billion hours per year. This program is an excellent tool for anyone studying the techno-cultural phenomenon of television.
(28 minutes)

This program is an excellent survey of the history of mass media. Academic and industry experts discuss the invention and impact of the printing press, telegraph, and telephone, all of which have allowed information to be easily transmitted over great distances. Mass media as it is currently evolving is also examined in depth. During the 1920s and ’30s, radio dominated entertainment and the news and changed America’s social habits. The advent of broadcast television in the 1950s and the rise of the Big Three networks further shaped America’s culture. In the ’80s and into the ’90s, broadcast TV audience share has declined due to cable and satellite television, VCRs, and Nintendo, and broadcasting has yielded to narrowcasting. Today, globalization and technological convergence are redefining the boundaries of communications. Where is all this leading the media industry? Only tomorrow will tell for sure.
(28 minutes)

Every generation rewrites history in order to make sense of the present. Was Columbus a hero or a villain? Once you incorporate the history of African Americans or of women or other groups into the American Revolution or the Civil War, the story changes. Daniel Boorstin, Eric Foner, James Horton, and Robert Royal discuss revised history, new history, and the rewriting of history. (26 minutes)

Why History? puts the viewer in the passenger seat for an adventurous field trip through the heartland of the United States. Traveling highways and byways through six states, our host visits a variety of people and places in search of the true meaning of history. Why History? dispels the myth that history is limited to the study of names, dates, and events from the distant past. Instead, it reveals how analyzing and interpreting history is an integral part of understanding the past, present, and future of human activity—including social, political, scientific, economic, and cultural endeavors.
A Cambridge Educational Production.
One 35-minute video.

When Thomas Edison devised a way to capture and replay sounds, he thought it useful for recording business letter dictation—but America had a different vision. This program examines the remarkable history of recorded music, from the Jazz Age, to the Big Band Era and World War II, to rock ’n’ roll and rap. Executives from the BMI archives and Capitol-EMI Music, along with representatives of the Smithsonian Institution, discuss the social and cultural aspects of affordable, mass-produced music, plus the roles of recording originals like Enrico Caruso, Bing Crosby, Glenn Miller, Elvis, the Beatles, Berry Gordy, and Bob Dylan. In the U.S., recorded music has brought races together and split generations apart, while around the globe it has altered cultural identities, changing the way in which nations see others and themselves. (28 minutes)

This classic episode of the U.S. Army’s The Big Picture television series, hosted by NBC news commentator Bob Wilson, shows eight case histories depicting the strife and struggles around the world since World War II. Viewers of this video from the National Archives and Records Administration will gain a greater understanding of cold war events through the U.S. Army camera’s eyes. Cases include Malaya, Vietnam, Greece, Korea, Guatemala, Lebanon, Taiwan, and Cuba. (30 minutes)

Backed by stunning illustrations, David Christian narrates a complete history of the universe, from the Big Bang to the Internet, in a riveting 18 minutes. This is “Big History”: an enlightening, wide-angle look at complexity, life, and humanity set against our slim share of the cosmic timeline.

In our country’s mythic past, the city of Boston shines as a beacon of freedom and resister of tyranny. This A&E Special uncovers the hidden history of America’s first city. Founded on a promise, Boston symbolizes Yankee strength and hard work in the wilderness of the New World. A “city upon a hill,” in first governor John Winthrop’s memorable words. Distributed by A&E Television Networks. (87 minutes)

This A&E Special traces the history of Nazism in America from its early days to today’s neo-Nazis, who rely on both their constitutionally protected freedom of speech and radical action to advance their agenda of Aryan purity. Distributed by A&E Television Networks.

Of all places associated with the Revolutionary War, perhaps none is more revered than Valley Forge, the place where the poorly fed and ill-equipped Continental Army faced its darkest hour and its greatest challenge. And yet no history-changing battle was fought there. It was at Valley Forge that, during the winter of 1777-78, thousands of soldiers died of malnutrition, exposure, and disease—and a new army was born. This program examines archaeological excavations and building preservation efforts at Valley Forge, a destination for millions of sightseers every year. Distributed by A&E Television Networks. (48 minutes)

In this episode, the story comes up to date with the 20th century. Starting at Munich’s beer halls, we learn about Hitler’s first revolt at the Munich Putsch which resulted in his imprisonment at Landsberg, where the young Hitler was to dictate his memoirs, Mein Kampf. Whilst Hitler was fighting for power in Germany, women were fighting a different battle, that of sexual rights. In the back streets of Manhattan, nurse Margaret Sanger works with American heiress Katherine McCormick in a plan to smuggle contraceptives into America from Europe. At the Babi Yar concentration camp outside Kiev, we find out about the brutal mass murder of the Jews by the Nazis across Europe. The episode also travels to Hiroshima in Japan, the site of the world’s first atomic bomb by Oppenheimer, thought to end all wars. In China, we learn about how new thinking came in Mao’s Cultural Revolution, in trying to create a communist utopia. We visit New York to trace the story of man versus machine, Gary Kasparov against IBM’s Deep Blue, in a chess game that gripped the world. The series ends with a 360 degree turn, finishing with the Ayoreo tribe in the Chaco region of South America, a tribe who had only recently made their first contact with the outside world. A BBC/Discovery Channel/Open University Co-production. A part of the series History of the World.

Kovno Ghetto: A Hidden History tells the true story of the German-occupied city in Lithuania, starting in 1941 through the Soviet invasion, as the Jewish population was forced to live in squalid and brutal conditions. Razed to the ground in 1944, with its citizens dispersed to concentration camps as forced labor—or worse—a few buried remnants of Jewish defiance survived as artifacts, letters, and photos, bearing witness to the atrocity. Distributed by A&E Television Networks. (95 minutes)