Reel American History

Coming Soon! Birth of a Nation created a huge racial furor. JFK generated vicious political controversy. Amistad hoped to influence cultural values. The entire range of American history has been represented on film to enormous numbers of people for varying purposes and with varying consequences, often much to the dismay of professional historians. And the beat goes on: three of the five nominees for best picture in 2005 were about real persons or events, and this year's Flags of Our Fathers is an instant contender. This ever-growing site will initially contain thirty-five case studies on films about persons or events in American history in order to investigate the relation of the "real" to the "reel," the manipulation of "history," and the sources of our cultural memory.

Edward J. Gallagher