Reel History
Film has had a profound impact on historical memory. Whether watching the soldiers of 1917 running through exploding fields or seeing the Civil War through the eyes of the March sisters in Little Women, Hollywood sends history students into the classroom with understandings of the past with varied levels of accuracy. In the March cover story, Lucy Barnhouse discusses how she introduces students to medieval history through film, using historic figures like Joan of Arc and Ibn Fadlan and fictional characters like Robin Hood and King Arthur to teach students how to assess the reliability of their sources—even movies. This issue also includes an assessment of Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of Little Women, which Christine Jacobson calls a “love letter” to the novel and its author. Together, these articles ask us to think more deeply about the history in the films we love.
Photo: Timothy Vollmer/Flickr/CC BY 2.0
Staff
A More Inclusive Discipline
In higher education, professional associations play an important role in creating and reinforcing norms. Even as associations advocate for change,…
Townhouse Notes
After the Great Depression sent diamond sales plummeting, a simple advertising campaign put diamond rings at the center of a…
An Immodest Proposal
Nearly 20 years ago, I somewhat unwillingly agreed to teach a course called How Historians Think. Quickly rebaptized by witty…
Stephen Philip Cohen (1936–2019)
Stephen Philip Cohen, the doyen of South Asian security studies, died on October 27, 2019, after an illness. He was…
Abbas Husayn Hamdani (1926–2019)
Abbas Hamdani, historian of the Middle East and Islam, died on December 23, 2019. Hamdani was born on August 11,…
Henry Horwitz (1938–2019)
Henry Horwitz died on January 19, 2019, leaving to mourn him family, friends, former students, and former colleagues, especially those…
Joel H. Silbey (1933–2018)
Joel Henry Silbey, the President White Professor of History emeritus at Cornell University, died on August 7, 2018. He was…
AHA Member Spotlight: Jeffrey Ahlman
Jeffrey Ahlman is an associate professor at Smith College. He lives in Northampton, Massachusetts, and has been a member since…
AHA Member Spotlight: Nicole Lopez-Jantzen
Nicole Lopez-Jantzen is an assistant professor at Borough of Manhattan Community College. She lives in Jackson Heights, New York, and…
AHA Member Spotlight: Martha B. Katz-Hyman
Martha B. Katz-Hyman is an assistant curator at Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation. She lives in Newport News, Virginia, and has been a…
Transitioning to Online Teaching
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