Hollywood & History
Study Cycle for History Courses
History 270-02, Nazi Germany (Fall 2023, TuTh, 3:30-4:45 PM, CRN 31798)
Syllabus Details (assignment guidelines and policies, updated 3 August 2023)
Daily Calendar of Learning and Teaching Activities (updated 3 August 2023)
Recorded Lectures for Nazi Germany, Hollywood and History
These lectures can be used to review content originally presented during in-person lecture or when students miss a lecture. Skeletal Lecture Notes (SLN) are provided. Please note, that the in-person lectures are revised more often than the videos, though you the essential content will be the same.
Working Assumptions about Hollywood and History:
The Hollywood Tradition (5:54)
Historians and Hollywood: The Clash of Professional Ethos?
Making Movie Through the Eyes of a Historian
Hitler in History and Movies
Hitler in History and Movies (9:56)
“Desk Murderers” and Perpetrators Working Towards the Führer:
Why so many movies about Eichmann? (12:38)
Why are films about Nazi Germany so popular? (9:50)
Ordinary Germans, Consent, and Resistance
Ordinary Germans, Consent, and Resistance (23:53 with Chapter Markers)
Germans as Victims, Collective Guilt and Responsibility
Germans as Victims, Collective Guilt and Responsibility (13:09)
History 270-06, The Holocaust (Spring 2020)
Syllabus, History 270-06, Holocaust (3:00-4:15 PM MW)
Holocaust Filmography & TVography (update 10 April 2017, pdf)
Historical Documentary Films
Writing Assistance
Writing Manual (updated January 2018)
Words and Phrases to use When Writing Film Reviews (This website will help you develop vocabulary by which to evaluate films. Always know who the targeted reading audience is for a film review.)
Positive Personality Adjectives (useful list but watch out for the pop up ads; always be sure you know the meaning of words before you use them)
Negative Personality Adjectives (useful list but watch out for the pop up ads; always be sure you know the meaning of words before you use them)
Doing Research to Evaluate Claims to Historical Veracity
Evaluating Claims to Historical Veracity (pdf) Reminds students about the goals of the assignment and why you are being asked to do your research in specific databases.
Searching Subscription Research Databases (Screenshots/PPT Slides to Accompany Videos) (pdf)
Finding the Library Course Guides and BU Pilot (5 minutes)
Academic Search Complete (8 minutes)
Lexis-Nexis (5 minutes)
ProQuest (7 minutes)
Historical Abstracts (3 minutes)
News Stories that Explore How Hollywood "does history"
Do the Movies Still Matter? Using Movies in the Classroom as Hollywood Influence Declines (Steven Mintz, Inside HigherEd, 13 April 2022)
TV Cop Shows Affect Real-World Policing, Study Says (Andrew Limbong, NPR, 6 February 2020)
The History and Humanity of Harriet Tubman, Beyond the Big Screen (WBUR, 11 November 2019)
'Harriet,' Fact v. Fiction: 'Of Course I Embellished. I'm a Screenwriter (IndieWire, 6 November 2019)
The 'Superhero Journey'of Harriet Tubman, Now on Film (Noel King, NPR, 1 November 2019)
What's Fact and What's Fiction in "Harriet" (Rachelle Hampton, Slate, 31 October 2019)
Scott Z. Burns on 'The Report' (NPR, 15 November 2019)
Victoria (season 3) on Masterpiece: Fact or Fiction? The screenwriter discusses what she invented.
The Favourite: The Real-Life Power Struggle Between Queen Anne and Sarah Churchill (Vanity Fair, Julie Miller, 25 November 2018
In 'Operation Finale,' Ben Kingsley Summons the Evil of a Holocaust Architect (NPR, Morning Edition, 29 August 2018)
'BlacKkKlansman' Tells Story of Black Cop Infiltrating KKK. But How Much is True? (Robin Young, WBUR, 16 August 2018)
'BlacKkKlansman' Entertains, but Falls Short of Lee's Best (Justin Richmond, Review, NPR, 13 August 2018)
'I Wasn't Sure if it was True': John David Washington ON the 'BlacKkKlansman' Story' (Michel Martin, All Things Considered, 11 August 2018)
'BlacKkKlansman' is a Blisteringly Funny, Urgent Story of RAce and Identity (Review on Fresh Air, Justin Change, 10 August 2018)
What's Fact and What's Fiction in BlacKkKlansman (Jasmine Sanders, Slate, 10 August 2018)
"What's Fact and What's Fiction in The Death of Stalin" (Slate, 9 March 2018)
"Did Darkest Hour get much right?" (BBC,28 March 2018)
TV movie Review:'The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks' (NPR, 20 April 2017)
It's Electric: Novel Re-Creates Charged Rivalry Between Edison and Westinghouse (NPR, 13 August 2016)
"Experimenter" Star Peter Sarsgaard on Stanley Milgrim's Radical Work (NPR, 29 October 2015)
Canadian Envoy Ken Taylor, Who Hid Americans During Iran Hostage Crisis, Dies (NPR, 16 October 2015); part of the story explores the depiction of events in the film Argo.
Immortalized as "The Woman in Gold," How a Young Jew Became a Secular Icon (NPR, 23 June 2015)
In what contexts, if any, is humor about the Holocaust or Nazis appropriate? Check out this episode of Back in Black from Daily Show (aired on 14 May 2015).
Lost Art is Reclaimed in Woman in Gold (NPR, 2 April 2015)
Latin American Icon Simon Bolivar Gets Biopic Treatment in Liberator (NPR, 2 October 2014)
FBI's Abscam Videos are as Unbelievable as 'American Hustle'
For a Rabbi Who Worked with the Nazis, Is Judgment 'Unjust'?
A Heinrich Himmler Documentary, In His Own Words (NPR, 17 February 2014)
'12 Years a Slave' Inspires 'True Conversations' about Slavery (NPR, 16 January 2014)
Death Squads Re-created 'The Act of Killing' for the Camera (NPR, 12 January 2014)
The 'Lone Survivor' Tells the Story of a Tragic Navy Mission (NPR, 12 January 2014)
'12 Years' Gets Story Right but Context, Some Details May be Off (NPR, 23 December 2013)