Provocative excerpts from primary and secondary sources (some with audio glosses). Read the rationale behind these sound bites for more information.

481-490 of 734 Sound Bites. [show all]

<  451-460  461-470  471-480  481-490  491-500  >

481) The American literary critic Stanley Fish coined the phrase "interpretative communities" in order to analyze conflicts over the interpretation of texts. In a similar way, it might be useful to think in terms of different "memory communities" within a given society. (Peter Burke 107) [SoundBite #481]

482) Memory, we well know, can be selective and capricious. (Michael Kammen, Mystic 309) [SoundBite #482]

483) The best historical films will: 1. Show not just what happened but how what happened means to us. 2. Interrogate the past for the sake of the present. Remember that historians are working for the living not for the dead. 3. Create a historical world complex enough so that it overflows with meaning, so that its meanings cannot be contained or easily expressed in words. (Robert A. Rosenstone 238) [SoundBite #483]

484) Historians and prophets share a common commitment to finding the meaning of endings. (William Cronon 1375) [SoundBite #484]

485) The central importance of history to a good education is beyond dispute. History teaches a reverence for fact and understanding. It calls attention to the great achievements and disasters in human experience. And it establishes the full context of modern life by connecting, in time and place, the development of art, law, language, politics, commerce, and society. All Americans should know about their civilization: the chronology of its development, the ideas and traditions upon which it rests, the political system it enjoys, and the challenges it faces at home and abroad. (William J. Bennett, Madison 20) [SoundBite #485]

486) History is not inevitably useful. It can bind us or free us. It can destroy compassion by showing us the world through the eyes of the comfortable (“the slaves are happy, just listen to them”—leading to “ the poor are content, just look at them”). (Howard Zinn 54) [SoundBite #486]

487) History is a lie agreed upon. (Napoleon) [SoundBite #487]

488) As part of the politics of "representing reality" . . . historical films should offer meditations on reality. (Abrash and Walkowitz 213) [SoundBite #488]

489) Preschool is not too early for starting earnest instruction in literate national culture. Fifth grade is almost too late. (E. D. Hirsch, Jr. 26-27) [SoundBite #489]

490) I think using responsibility in the same sentence as the movie industry–it just doesn’t fit. (John Sayles, qtd. in Carnes 21) [SoundBite #490]