Provocative excerpts from primary and secondary sources (some with audio glosses). Read the rationale behind these sound bites for more information.
151-160 of 734 Sound Bites. [show all]
< 151-160 161-170 171-180 181-190 191-200 >
151) The preeminence of the moving image in contemporary culture has reshaped our collective imaginary relation to history. (Robert Burgoyne, "Prosthetic") [SoundBite #151]
152) The aim of the historian, then, is to know the elements of the present by understanding what came into the present from the past, for the present is simply the developing past. . . . The goal of the historian is the living present. (Frederick Jackson Turner 180) [SoundBite #152]
153) [F]ilm must provide a face for the faceless. (Robert A. Rosenstone 36) [SoundBite #153]
154) Imagine a public library of the near future, for instance. There will be long rows of boxes or pillars, properly classified and indexed, of course. At each box a push button and before each box a seat. Suppose you wish to "read up" on a certain episode in Napoleon's life. Instead of consulting all the authorities, wading laboriously through a host of books, and ending bewildered, without a clear idea of exactly what did happen and confused at every point by conflicting opinions about what did happen, you will merely seat yourself at a properly adjusted window, in a scientifically prepared room, press the button, and actually see what happened. (D. W. Griffith, qtd. in Stevens 2) [SoundBite #154]
155) Cinematic history, a curious blend of entertainment and interpretation. (Robert Brent Toplin, History x) [SoundBite #155]
156) The task of the historian is to understand the peoples of the past better than they understood themselves. (Herbert Butterfield, qtd. by Marwick 327) [SoundBite #156]
157) Intellectual honesty requires us to concede at the onset that history has little practical utility comparable to the physical sciences. As the great British historian George Macaulay Trevelyan wrote in 1913, "No one can by the knowledge of history, however profound, invent the steam engine, or light a town, or cure cancer, or make wheat grow near the artic circle." (William J. Bennett, Children 163) [SoundBite #157]
158) Slippery history! (Frances FitzGerald, America 16) [SoundBite #158]
159) Movies are like commercials for history. You get intrigued, then you go and do some research. Some times you find that the movie portrays things accurately, sometimes you don't, but you are responsible to find these things out. Movies may or may not be historically correct but it shouldn't matter since it isn't the responsibility of the movie makers to teach you anything, it is up to us to learn for ourselves. (James Clewley, Lehigh University) (hear audio gloss by Lindsay Totams) [SoundBite #159]
160) This chapter is about heroification, a degenerative process (much like calcification) that makes people over into heroes. Through this process, our educational media turn flesh-and-blood individuals into pious, perfect creatures without conflicts, pain, credibility, or human interest. (James W. Loewen 19) [SoundBite #1272]
