San Antonio College Library

In 'Screening America', the student is given clear guidance in studying, interpreting, and understanding the motion picture's significance as a primary source. Study questions help students to see the important historical issues raised by the films examined.

History as it is presented on film. Sorlin appraises the 'historical' film, and their potential roles as documentary evidence and sources of social history.

"By looking at production records, scripts, and contemporary reviews, J.E. Smyth argues that certain classical Hollywood filmmakers were actively engaged in a self-conscious history. Her volume is a major reassessment of American historiography and cinematic historians from the advent of sound to the beginning of wartime film production in 1942." "Hollywood's popular and often controversial cycle of historical films from 1931 to 1942 confronted issues...

"With its unparalleled capacity for realism, cinema seems uniquely positioned to bring history to life for a mass audience. Whether retelling stories about past events or reflecting more contemporary issues, cinema has been arguably the primary source of historical knowledge for many people from its earliest years right up to the present. This volume examines some of the key historical issues raised by popular film, including what film might tell...

Discusses how film has affected the culture of presidential politics by looking at fourteen different presidents, including Herbert Hoover, John F. Kennedy, and Barack Obama.

In 1836 in East Texas, nine-year-old Cynthia Ann Parker was kidnapped by Comanches, raised by the tribe, and eventually became the wife of a warrior. Twenty-four years after her capture, she was reclaimed by the U.S. cavalry and Texas Rangers and restored to her white family, to die in misery and obscurity. Cynthia Ann's story has been told over generations to become a foundational American tale. The myth gave rise to operas and one-act plays, and...