Editor's note: There has been a lot of discussion, lately, about text books for the study of television. Here is a book just about to hit the stores--an anthology created from the pages of Film & History plus additional contributions by senior scholars such as David Culbert, Phil Taylor, Thomas Doherty, and others Peter Rollins [log in to unmask] ____________________________________________________ _Television Histories: Shaping Collective Memory in the Media Age_ Edited by Gary R. Edgerton and Peter C. Rollins "A pioneer work, weaving an inspired and informed interdisciplinary analysis of television and history. The chapters are enlightening, readable, and entertaining; the editors and the authors have produced a work that enriches and strengthens the study of film and history."-Michael Schoenecke, Texas Tech U From Ken Burns's documentaries to historical dramas such as Roots, from A&E's Biography series to CNN's coverage of such events as the fall of the Berlin Wall, television has become the primary source for historical information for tens of millions of Americans today. Why has television become such a respected authority? What falsehoods enter our collective memory as truths? How is one to know what is real and what is imagined-or ignored-by producers, directors, or writers? Gary Edgerton and Peter Rollins have collected a group of essays that answer these and many other questions. The contributors examine the full spectrum of historical genres, but also institutions such as the History Channel and production histories of such series as The Jack Benny Show, which ran for fifteen years. The authors explore the tensions between popular history and professional history, and the tendency of some academics to declare the past "off limits" to nonscholars. Several of them point to the tendency for television histories to embed current concerns and priorities within the past, as in such popular shows as Quantum Leap and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. The result is an insightful portrayal of the power television possesses to influence our culture. Gary R. Edgerton, professor and chair of the Communication and Theatre Arts Department at Old Dominion University, is the co-editor of the Journal of Popular Film and Television and the author of several books, most recently In the Eye of the Beholder: Critical Perspectives in Popular Film and Television. Peter C. Rollins, Regents Professor of English at Oklahoma State University, is editor of the journal Film & History and of numerous books, including _Hollywood's Indian_ and _Hollywood as Historian_. Contents Introduction-Television as Historian: A Different Kind of History Altogether by Gary R. Edgerton Part 1: Prime-Time Entertainment Programming as Historian 1. History TV and Popular Memory by Steve Anderson 2. Masculinity and Femininity in Television's Historical Fictions: Young Indiana Jones Chronicles and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman by Mimi White 3. Quantum Leap: The Postmodern Challenge of Television as History by Robert Hanke 4. Profiles in Courage: Televisual History in the New Frontier by Daniel Marcus Part 2: The Television Documentary as Historian 5. Victory at Sea: Cold War Epic by Peter C. Rollins 6. Breaking the Mirror: Dutch Television and the History of the Second World War by Chris Vos 7. Contested Public Memories: Hawaiian History as Hawaiian or American Experience by Carolyn Anderson 8. Mediating Thomas Jefferson: Ken Burns as Popular Historian by Gary R. Edgerton Part 3: TV News and Public Affairs Programming as Historian 9. Pixies: Homosexuality, Anti-Communism, and the Army-McCarthy Hearings by Thomas Doherty 10. Images of History in Israel Television News: The Territorial Dimension of Collective Memories, 1987-1990 by Netta Ha-Ilan 11. Memories of 1945 and 1963: American Television Coverage of the End of the Berlin Wall, November 9, 1989 by David Culbert 12. Television: The First Flawed Rough Drafts of History by Philip M. Taylor Part 4: Television Production, Reception, and History 13. The History Channel and the Challenge of Historical Programming by Brian Taves 14. Rethinking Television History by Douglas Gomery 15. Nice Guys Last Fifteen Seasons: Jack Benny on Television, 1950-1965 by James L. Baughman 16. Organizing Difference on Global TV: Television History and Cultural Geography by Michael Curtin ISBN 0-8131-2190-6 352 pages, 62 photographs $29.95 hardback Phone Orders: 800/839-6855 Mail Orders to: The University Press of Kentucky Order Department 663 South Limestone Street Lexington, KY 40508-4008 www.kentuckypress.com ---- Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the University of Alabama: http://www.tcf.ua.edu