Reel History: United States History Through Film
History 501, Summer 2015
Dale Graden

This course provides a selected overview of US history through films and readings. The goal is to offer tools for the effective teaching of United States History.

Week One: Indigenous North America

Dances with Wolves (1990, directed by Kevin Costner)

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (2007, directed by Yves Simoneau)

Smoke Signals (1998, directed by Chris Eyre)

Reading: Geraldine Brooks, Caleb’s Crossing

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Week Two: Colonial North America

Last of the Mohicans (1992, directed by Michael Mann)

Black Robe (1991, directed by Bruce Beresford)

The Patriot (2000, directed by Roland Emmerich)

Recommended: John Adams (2008, directed by Tom Hooper)

Reading: Gordon S. Wood, The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin

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Week Three: African America

Glory (1989, directed by Edward Zwick)

Amistad (1997, directed by Stephen Spielberg)

12 Years a Slave (2013, directed by Steve McQueen)

Recommended: Lincoln (2012, directed by Stephen Spielberg); Birth of a Nation (1915, directed by D.W. Griffith); Rosewood (1997, directed by John Singleton); The Color Purple (1985, directed by Stephen Spielberg)

Reading: Marcus Rediker, The Amistad Rebellion: An Atlantic Odyssey of Slavery and Freedom

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Week Four: Immigration

Far and Away (1992, directed by Ron Howard)

The Gangs of New York (2002, directed by Martin Scorsese)

There Will be Blood (2007, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson)

Recommended Films: Bugsy; Days of Heaven; The Molly Maguires; Heartland; The Homesman; Heaven’s Gate; Lone Star.

Reading: Nicholas Gage, A Place for Us

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Week Five: The Cold War

Films:

Good Night and Good Luck (2005, directed by George Clooney)

Far from Heaven (2002, directed by Todd Haynes)

The US vs John Lennon (2006, directed by David Leaf and John Scheinfeld)

Recommended : Selma (2014, directed by Ava DuVernay); J. Edgar (2011, directed by Clint Eastwood); Breach (2007, directed by Billy Ray)

Reading: Stephen Kinzer, The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War

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Week Six: The 1960s

J.F.K. (1991, directed by Oliver Stone)

The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (2003, directed by Errol Morris)

Ali (2001) or I am Ali (2014)

Recommended films: We Were Soldiers (2002, directed by Randall Wallace); Platoon (1986, directed by Oliver Stone); The Deer Hunter (1978, directed by Michael Cimino); Mississippi Burning (2001, Alan Parker); Ray (2004, directed by Taylor Hackford); The Graduate; Bonnie and Clyde; Cool Hand Luke; Five Easy Pieces; Malcolm X; Incident at Oglala.

Reading: Tom Wolfe, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test

For other possible readings, see list of good reads related to “The Counter-Culture of the 1960s” on line at:
http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/35462.The_Counter_Culture_of_the_1960s

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Recommended readings

Melvyn Stokes, American History Through Hollywood Film: From the Revolution to the 1960s

John Mack Faragher et.al., Out of Many: A History of the American People

Eric Foner, Give Me Liberty: An American History

James L. Roark, et.al., The American Promise: A History of the United States

Fareed Zakaria, In Defense of Liberal Education

Michael S. Roth, Beyond the University: Why Liberal Education Matters

Reel American History on line at: http://digital.lib.lehigh.edu/trial/reels/bibliography/

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Course Requirements

Five film reviews of one to two pages (worth six points each, a total of 30 points)

Two film / book critiques of three to four pages (35 points each, a total of 70 points)