'Provocative and assured, History on Film/Film on History is a pioneering work of critical analysis. With his usual stylistic elegance, Robert A. Rosenstone conveys a sense of passion and tough intelligence in a series of intensely engaging arguments. It is the definitive work in the field.'
Robert Burgoyne, University of St Andrews
'Robert Rosenstone’s History on Film/Film on History is a provocative, important book about nothing less than how we define history in the twenty-first century. ... [It] offers a compelling case for the power of film to make visible larger historical truths. ... a must read for anyone who cares about history in an age of mass culture.'
Alison Landsberg, George Mason University
'In its second edition, Rosenstone’s book remains a benchmark in the ever-expanding fields of film history and history.'
Frances Guerin, University of Kent
Since first publication in 2006, Robert A. Rosenstone’s History on Film/Film on History has established itself as a classic treatise on the historical film and its role in bringing history to life.
In this updated version of his ground-breaking and widely-acclaimed text, Robert Rosenstone argues that to leave history films out of the discussion of the meaning of the past is to ignore a major factor in our understanding of past events. He champions the dramatic feature as a legitimate way of doing history, even though it is largely fictional. He examines what history films convey about the past and how they convey it, demonstrating the need to learn how to read and understand this new visual world. Integrating detailed analysis of individual history films, such as Glory, Reds, October and Schindler’s List, this new edition includes:
· A new introduction, outlining the impact this work has had on the topic of history and film as well as general developments in the field
· New, up-to-date ‘Guide to Key Reading’
· Detailed examinations of a variety of films – American, European, Mexican and Soviet – made in different political systems and climates
· A chapter focusing on Oliver Stone as a brilliant historian of the Vietnam era
· A chapter on recent Holocaust films, showing how a group of works, taken together, can provide a wide-ranging understanding of a single historical event.
With its useful guidance on how to effectively analyse films as historical interpretations, this new edition will continue to hold its place as a text which not only shows the value of film on history, but also demonstrates how history can work on film.
Professor Robert A. Rosenstone of the California Institute of Technology is a leading scholar in the growing field of history and film. His award-winning biography of John Reed, Romantic Revolutionary (1975), was used as the basis of Warren Beatty's multiple Academy Award winner, Reds, on which Rosenstone served as historical consultant. He is author of several books, including Visions of the Past: The Challenge of Film to Our Idea of History (1995), Crusade of the Left: The Lincoln Battalion in the Spanish Civil War (1969) and Mirror in the Shrine: American Encounters with Japan (1988), and is the founding editor of Rethinking History: The Journal of Theory and Practice.