The Hollywood History Of The World

"There is a fashionable myth that Hollywood always gets its history wrong. George MacDonald Fraser believes that it often gets it right, and that we owe a huge unacknowledged debt to the cinema as an illuminator of the story of mankind. Drawing on his experiences as an historical novelist, historian, and screenwriter, he puts the case for the costume movies - Biblical, classical, swashbuckler, imperial, Western, and even the gangster film - not only as entertainments but, at their best, as pictures of the past "more vivid than Tacitus or Gibbon or Macaulay.""--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

The author analyzes historic film moments alongside historical facts. The result is a highly entertaining book on Hollywood's extravagant relationship with the past, a celebration of the cinema as an illuminator of the story of mankind. By the author of the bestselling Flashman novels. 200 photos.

Featuring nearly three thousand film stills, production shots, and other illustrations, an authoritative history of the cinema traces the development of the medium, its filmmakers and stars, and the evolution of national cinemas around the world

The challenges of teaching history are acute where we consider the world history classroom. Generalized world history courses are a part of many, if not most, K-12 curricular frameworks in the United States. While United States history tends to dominate the scholarship and conversation, there are an equally wide number of middle-level and secondary students and teachers engaged in the study of world history in our public schools. And the challenges are real. In the first place, if we are to mark content coverage as a curricular obstacle in the history classroom, generally, then we must underscore that concern in the world history classroom and for obvious reasons. The curricular terrain to choose from is immense and forever expanding, dealing with the development of numerous civilizations over millennia and across a wide geographic expanse. In addition to curricular concerns, world historical topics are inherently farther away from most students’ lives, not just temporally, but often geographically and culturally. Thus the rationale for the present text, Hollywood or History? An Inquiry-Based Strategy for Using Film to Teach World History. The reviews of the first volume Hollywood or History? An Inquiry-Based Strategy for Using Film to Teach Untied States History strategy have been overwhelmingly positive, especially as it pertains to the application of the strategy for practitioner. Classroom utility and teacher practice have remained our primary objectives in developing the Hollywood or History? strategy and we are encouraged by the possibilities of Volume II and the capacity of this most recent text to impact teaching and learning in world history. We believe that students’ connection to film, along with teachers’ ability to use film in an effective manner, will help alleviate some of the challenges of teaching world history. The book provides 30 secondary lesson plans (grades 6-12) that address nine eras in world history.

World War II on Film examines the war through the lens of 12 films. The movies selected include productions made during World War II and in each succeeding decade, providing a sense of how different generations perceive the war. World War II on Film provides a succinct yet well-grounded appraisal of that war as seen through 12 representative films. The book separates fact from fiction, showing where the movies were accurate and where they departed from reality, and places them in the larger context of historical and social events. Each movie chosen represents a particular aspect of the conflict, including the air war over Europe, the condition of prisoners of war, Nazi atrocities, and the British evacuation at Dunkirk. Unlike most histories of Hollywood during World War II or the genre of war movies, World War II on Film examines in depth the relation between the depictions of events, beliefs, attitudes, and ways of life as seen on film with reality as documented by historians or recorded by journalists or eye-witnesses to the war. The volume will appeal to high school and college readers, as well as general interest readers and film buffs.

Despite being one of the biggest industries in the United States, indeed the World, the internal workings of the 'dream factory' that is Hollywood is little understood outside the business. The Hollywood Studio System: A History is the first book to describe and analyse the complete development, classic operation, and reinvention of the global corporate entitles which produce and distribute most of the films we watch. Starting in 1920, Adolph Zukor, Head of Paramount Pictures, over the decade of the 1920s helped to fashion Hollywood into a vertically integrated system, a set of economic innovations which was firmly in place by 1930. For the next three decades, the movie industry in the United States and the rest of the world operated by according to these principles. Cultural, social and economic changes ensured the dernise of this system after the Second World War. A new way to run Hollywood was required. Beginning in 1962, Lew Wasserman of Universal Studios emerged as the key innovator in creating a second studio system. He realized that creating a global media conglomerate was more important than simply being vertically integrated. Gomery's history tells the story of a 'tale of two systems 'using primary materials from a score of archives across the United States as well as a close reading of both the business and trade press of the time. Together with a range of photographs never before published the book also features over 150 box features illuminating aspect of the business.

Debunking myths in U.S. history : will the real story of Pocahontas please rise? / Nancy Sardone -- The new world, gender roles, and issues of point-of-view / Anne Perry -- Pocahontas saves John Smith / Kristen Wobler -- Myth busters : the Salem witch trials / Brianna Scatorchia and Nancy Sardone -- The various roles of African Americans in the American Revolution / Paul J. Yoder, Katrina Yoder, and Aaron P. Johnson -- Contributions of African Americans during the Revolutionary War / Ryan Warriner -- John Henry vs. the machine / Kristal Curry -- Years a slave: using film to explore freedom and (in)humanity / Gregory and Amy Samuels -- Did he really create the Great Lakes? Tall tales and their place in history / Megan Cullen -- Portrayals of American slavery in film : a study of Gone with the wind, Roots, and Unchained memories / Dennis Urban -- Women and the wild, wild west / James Nunez -- The ox bow incident : a historiographical lesson in vigilantism and due process / Michael Lovorn -- Suffragettes parade for the vote / Michele Celani and Elizabeth Blackmon -- The iron jawed angels and the fight for women's suffrage / Wendy Rouse -- The economic and social effects of the Dust Bowl / Rebecca Bidwell -- "The greater good" : using Flags of our fathers for critical thinking and historical inquiry / Mark Percy -- Rosa's refusal : serendipity or sustained activism? / Eric Groce, Theresa Redmond, and Robin Groce -- Chicano power and youth resistance : walking out for civil rights / Tim Monreal -- Amish neighbors / Ronald Morris -- Exploring the lives of others in the social studies classroom : where dissent and technology intersect in contemporary America / Rory P. Tannebaum.