Provocative excerpts from primary and secondary sources (some with audio glosses). Read the rationale behind these sound bites for more information.
311-320 of 734 Sound Bites. [show all]
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311) Blacks and Indians confront American democracy with its most tragic challenge. (Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. 58) [SoundBite #311]
312) While films often fail to deliver a comprehensive view of a subject, they may, nevertheless, contribute to understanding as stimuli for thought. Films work well, not in presenting a complete chronology of events . . . but in exciting feeling and emotions. The medium functions as poetry, not as an encyclopedia. (Robert Brent Toplin, "Filmmaker" 1213) [SoundBite #312]
313) History is a line we ourselves must rig up, to a past we ourselves must populate. (David Harlan xxxii) [SoundBite #225]
314) If not in the sense of overt propaganda, then, how are we to understand the political nature of Hollywood film? The answer is in an indirect, mediated, and symbolic process whereby Hollywood films reference salient clusters of social and political values and, through the operations of narrative, create a dialogue through and with these values and, on occasion, transform or revise them (within the world of narrative). Hollywood entertainment films may embody, question, or critique constellations of established social values that underlie our attitudes and assumptions about real historical, social, or political events or conditions (e.g., the Vietnam war, Corporate and consumer society). . . . "Political" is understood here not just in terms of parties and electoral institutions, or the design of overt propaganda, but as the realm of collective values and fantasies that underlie and inform socioeconomic systems and behavior in the real world. To the extent that Hollywood entertainment films dramatize these systems and this behavior and allude to real historical events, and do it by way of appeals to collective desires and fantasies, such films are deservedly seen as political works. (Stephen Prince 7-8) [SoundBite #314]
315) Watching historical films is a new way to look at history. Historical films may not be as impartial and factual as textbooks, always involving, as they do, the personal perspectives of directors, writers, or producers. However, historical films leave room for the audience to fill in the blanks. The audience, intrigued by such films, should dig deeper into the historical event and establish their own thoughts on the matter. So, good historical films should not only entertain but motivate viewers to take a deeper look at the historical events. (Jaeyong Shim, Lehigh University) [SoundBite #3663]
316) As a man may hate a memory, men may hate history, but they cannot get along without it. (Boyd C. Shafer 154) [SoundBite #316]
317) Remembering the past and writing about it no longer seem the innocent activities they were once taken to be. Neither memories nor histories seem objective any longer. In both cases we are learning to take account of conscious or unconscious selection, interpretation and distortion. In both cases this selection, interpretation and distortion is socially conditioned. It is not the work of individuals alone. (Peter Burke 98) [SoundBite #317]
318) If we do our jobs, our projects will not only inform but motivate our readers to dive even deeper into the research we have started in an effort to knock down barriers that have blocked out voices from the past. (Nathan Laver, Lehigh University) [SoundBite #318]
319) The matter of how much slack is acceptable in the rope of creative liberty remains an intriguing question. (Robert Brent Toplin, History 2) [SoundBite #319]
320) Too many voices can cause a kind of false construction without any basis in an actual truth. It’s something like reading Faulkner’s Absalom Absalom, where a history is told several times without any way to verify the truth of the voices. I suppose we could be left like Quentin Compson, to try and piece together a history in our dorm room. (Edward Tabor, Lehigh University) [SoundBite #2963]
