History is everywhere in the media. Television viewers can spend every evening watching a different historian expound upon Empire, Witchcraft, the Civil War or Royal Mistresses or go to the cinema and watch reconstructions of the Second World War, the American Civil War or Imperial China. Even current affairs reporting on television, radio or in newspapers implicitly or explicitly includes historical explanations. This book examines the boom in history in television and film, newspapers and radio and the constraints and opportunities it offers. Leading historians and high-profile broadcasters, such as Melvyn Bragg, Simon Schama, Tristram Hunt, Ian Kershaw and David Puttnam, draw on their personal experiences to explore the problems and highlights of representing history in the media.
'This book brings us the thoughts of Ian Kershaw, Tristram Hunt, Melvyn Bragg, Simon Schama, John Tusa, Jeremy Isaacs and others, in pieces that build up into a surprisingly penetrating look at what history can do for the media, and - this is the surprising bit - what the broadcast media can do for history...History made and in the making, and the time-loops it both creates and follows, prove endlessly fascinating in these writings. There is something here that will make anyone think more deeply about the interaction between a new and apparently instant medium and an old and apparently time-enhanced discipline. It is unlikely, after this, that anyone can continue to accuse the best of TV history of being nothing byt a pageant of kings and queens.' - Financial Times Magazine
'interesting and illuminating essays on diverse aspects of this recent cultural and intellectual revolution [the flourishing of history in the media]. - The Sunday Telegraph
'Simon Schama and Jeremy Isaacs offer particularly eloquent apologia for the sort of period dramatics that have happened on television' - The Spectator
Notes on Contributors
Introduction; D.Cannadine
Bringing the Past to the Small Screen; T.Downing
Television and the Trouble with History; S.Schama
All Our Yesterdays; J.Isaacs
Why is so much Television History about War?; R.Smither
The Adventure of Making 'The Adventure of English'; M.Bragg
How Does Television Enhance History?; T.Hunt
Hacks and Scholars: Allies of a Kind; M.Hastings
The Past on the Box: Strengths and Weaknesses; I.Kershaw
A Deep and Continuing Use of History; J.Tusa
Writing the History of Broadcasting; J.Seaton
Has Hollywood Stolen Our History?; D.Puttnam
Index
DAVID CANNADINE is Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Professor of British History at the University of London, UK. His many books include The Pleasures of the Past, History in Our Time, The Rise and Fall of Class in Britain and Ornamentalism: How the British Saw their Empire.
Description
History is everywhere in the media. Television viewers can spend every evening watching a different historian expound upon Empire, Witchcraft, the Civil War or Royal Mistresses or go to the cinema and watch reconstructions of the Second World War, the American Civil War or Imperial China. Even current affairs reporting on television, radio or in newspapers implicitly or explicitly includes historical explanations. This book examines the boom in history in television and film, newspapers and radio and the constraints and opportunities it offers. Leading historians and high-profile broadcasters, such as Melvyn Bragg, Simon Schama, Tristram Hunt, Ian Kershaw and David Puttnam, draw on their personal experiences to explore the problems and highlights of representing history in the media.
Reviews
'This book brings us the thoughts of Ian Kershaw, Tristram Hunt, Melvyn Bragg, Simon Schama, John Tusa, Jeremy Isaacs and others, in pieces that build up into a surprisingly penetrating look at what history can do for the media, and - this is the surprising bit - what the broadcast media can do for history...History made and in the making, and the time-loops it both creates and follows, prove endlessly fascinating in these writings. There is something here that will make anyone think more deeply about the interaction between a new and apparently instant medium and an old and apparently time-enhanced discipline. It is unlikely, after this, that anyone can continue to accuse the best of TV history of being nothing byt a pageant of kings and queens.' - Financial Times Magazine
'interesting and illuminating essays on diverse aspects of this recent cultural and intellectual revolution [the flourishing of history in the media]. - The Sunday Telegraph
'Simon Schama and Jeremy Isaacs offer particularly eloquent apologia for the sort of period dramatics that have happened on television' - The Spectator
Contents
Notes on Contributors
Introduction; D.Cannadine
Bringing the Past to the Small Screen; T.Downing
Television and the Trouble with History; S.Schama
All Our Yesterdays; J.Isaacs
Why is so much Television History about War?; R.Smither
The Adventure of Making 'The Adventure of English'; M.Bragg
How Does Television Enhance History?; T.Hunt
Hacks and Scholars: Allies of a Kind; M.Hastings
The Past on the Box: Strengths and Weaknesses; I.Kershaw
A Deep and Continuing Use of History; J.Tusa
Writing the History of Broadcasting; J.Seaton
Has Hollywood Stolen Our History?; D.Puttnam
Index
Authors
DAVID CANNADINE is Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Professor of British History at the University of London, UK. His many books include The Pleasures of the Past, History in Our Time, The Rise and Fall of Class in Britain and Ornamentalism: How the British Saw their Empire.
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