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and therefore had total control of their product. An outside expert could present a verydifferent and possibly challenging situation - they could publicly contest the facts, whichmight be commercially damaging. However while care was taken to get the 'environment'right the 'historicity and accuracy' of the narrative were 'attractive as long as theyremained selling points.' 21 Getting the facts straight was just one aspect of the productionprocess. 22 The industry's own Production Code laid down what could, and could not, be"7 ^shown. " Furthermore the development of genre - a set of conventions in style, subjectmatter and values - provided a recognisable formula that served the interests of producersand audience. 24 Besides, the success of the early Civil War films and Birth in particular,showed Hollywood how much the public liked its history films. But, to historians, the factthat film production was essentially a commercial enterprise could only confirm their viewthat history films had nothing to add to an understanding of the past.However, there is one example of an historian suggesting to Hollywood that historiansmight have a beneficial role in the production of history films. In 1935 Louis Gottschalkwrote to the head of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios suggesting that 'if the cinema art isgoing to draw its subjects so generously from history, it owes it to its patrons and to itsown high ideals to achieve a greater accuracy. No picture of a historical nature ought to beoffered to the public until a reputable historian has had a chance to criticise and revise it.' 25There was no reply and Hollywood continued to produce history films full of the'inaccuracies' that Gottschalk had wanted to correct. Other historians appeared either notinterested or remained silent. Robert Rosenstone has commented recently that it isimpossible to make films 'absolutely accurate, absolutely true' to the past and, if so, theywould be 'dull both as film and history.' 26The challenge to traditional methodologyFrom the 1960s, postmodernism opened up the debate on the interpretation of history bychallenging the traditional model - the primacy of fact and the historian's objectivity. Itscritique, that truth is not absolute, timeless or eternal but relative to the needs of the author,if applied to written history, could lead to a fundamental reappraisal of the way thehistorian presented the past and of his role in the process.Postmodernism was attractive to some historians who had begun to look at history films as10
historical texts. Hayden White compared the processes of writing history with theprocesses of film production:Every written history is a product of processes of condensation, displacement,symbolisation and qualification exactly like those used in the production of a filmedrepresentation. It is only the medium that differs, not the way in which the messagesare produced. 27Taking this approach, the history film had equal validity as a 'vision' of the past to that ofa text written by an historian and therefore opened up the range of possible interpretations.Film historians, such as Robert Rosenstone and Robert Toplin, who support this view,consider that the role of the history film is not to attempt to present an exact image of whathad happened but to give a sufficient representation of the events. The history film, theysay, can give the 'look' and 'feel' of history, which would resonate with the audience andhave meaning for the present day. 28However this left postmodernists open to the charge that they had no standards to judgewhat did or did not happen or the quality of one text against another. And if everything inthe past is a recreation by the present it cuts us off from a past that not only tells us who weare, but gives meaning and support to our daily lives. Whilst some postmodernists likeRosenstone continue to champion experimental films, 29 others, like Toplin, distinguishbetween 'true' and 'false' invention. They separate those films that give a sufficientlysymbolic representation of the past, which, they feel, can override the scruples of thosehistorians who condemn films if any detail does not exactly fit the historical record - the'accuracy police' 30 - from those that are so totally against the historical record as to takethe film 'out of history.' 31As postmodernism challenged the writing of history from the outside, younger 'New Left'historians challenged history's traditional methodology from within. 32 These historianscame from a more left-wing background and began to look at history from the point ofview of ordinary people than that of the power elites. In this respect they were more in tunewith Hollywood, which provided entertainment for the masses and produced films thatreflected everyday experiences. They were also more open to a multi-disciplinaryapproach, which embraced methodologies from the social sciences and were encouragedby the developing areas of feminism, semiotics and black studies. 33 As a generationbrought up with film as an integral part of popular culture they were more aware of the11
Page 1 and 2: Greenwich Academic Literature Archi
Page 3: REEL WARS: COLD WAR, CIVIL RIGHTSAN
Page 6 and 7: ABSTRACTThis study is an examinatio
Page 8 and 9: ABBREVIATIONSAMPASAHRBirthCommissio
Page 10 and 11: Historians using film as a resource
Page 12 and 13: dominated America's foreign policy
Page 14 and 15: Mary L. Dudziak explores this relat
Page 17: pure and simple' and were therefore
Page 21 and 22: Historians, history films and film
Page 23 and 24: How have sympathetic film historian
Page 25 and 26: Therefore historians can, with over
Page 27 and 28: identity and these were taken as th
Page 29 and 30: 21 George F. Custen, 'Hollywood and
Page 31 and 32: 63 Rosenstone, The Historical Film,
Page 33 and 34: of Honor dedicated to, and listing,
Page 35 and 36: War.....[it] defined us as to what
Page 37 and 38: The Civil War and popular cultureJu
Page 39 and 40: memory,53 the place where Union and
Page 41 and 42: Despite being a new medium Hollywoo
Page 43 and 44: From the late 1940s Hollywood was u
Page 45 and 46: 1 William Faulkner, Requiem for a N
Page 47 and 48: 36 Blight, Race and Reunion, 77, 81
Page 49 and 50: mainly composed of members of the w
Page 51 and 52: there was cowardice, it was either
Page 53 and 54: This was another Lost Cause myth -
Page 55 and 56: stuff with plenty of clothes, rich
Page 57 and 58: women into or within slavery. 47 Th
Page 59 and 60: departure when, in the discussion o
Page 61 and 62: 1 William Dean Howells, Los Angeles
Page 63 and 64: 37 Melvyn Stokes, The Civil War in
Page 65 and 66: All races and religions, that's Ame
Page 67 and 68: Hollywood almost abandoned Civil Wa
Page 69 and 70:
charged with disloyalty and silence
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ecover from the HUAC investigations
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a living. The daughters grow up to
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Gettysburg. 'You know,' says Henry,
Page 77 and 78:
combining two great myths, which co
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(1948), Tom Dunson's style of autoc
Page 81 and 82:
Patriotism became a white attribute
Page 83 and 84:
In the absence of African Americans
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(Horizons West) and businessmen (An
Page 87 and 88:
year later, and there was no lead f
Page 89 and 90:
20 Mary L. Dudziak, Cold War, Civil
Page 91 and 92:
56 Richard White, 'Western History'
Page 93 and 94:
7 have seen the promised land.' 'Th
Page 95 and 96:
those between whites and African Am
Page 97 and 98:
change, to forget what made him, he
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eported that the film had 'already
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campaigning for Lincoln. John's rea
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lack/white relationships, in Civil
Page 105 and 106:
McCarthy discredited and a more rel
Page 107 and 108:
dispute which once divided our nati
Page 109 and 110:
pressure, continued to hold. The me
Page 111 and 112:
discrimination, attempts at univers
Page 113 and 114:
talks about Lincoln pleading that '
Page 115 and 116:
creativity. The Confederates use a
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police in Birmingham and Kennedy's
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1 Martin Luther King Jr.'s, speech,
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44 Blight, Race and Reunion, 8-11,
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- self-belief, reasons for fighting
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Sexploitation - which reversed the
Page 127 and 128:
would surely recognise the Mexicans
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There are similar examples in Major
Page 131 and 132:
on working class whites nor receive
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The conflict between civil rights a
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e trusted from the wiles of the mis
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field-hands are too valuable an inv
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moving the civil rights agenda to a
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McBurney, even though he is wounded
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Most reviewers were sympathetic, se
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conservatism,' as a natural ally fo
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By the early 1970s, Hollywood's opt
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20 Enoch, in Friendly Persuasion (1
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62 Johnson called what happened the
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The world is white no longer; and i
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proceed with civil rights legislati
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would have been counter to the poli
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mid-1990s was rejected as the compa
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those historians who were contestin
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1 James Baldwin, Stranger in the Vi
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39 Robert Brent Toplin, Reel Histor
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1210mmmto3sCT>The number of America
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There is a third problem - that of
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the Library of Congress and the Uni
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mainly contain copies of correspond
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killing. There were two other areas
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are 'no compensating moral values a
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epresented.' 32 However, this was t
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Reference has already been made to
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It is in the final period that anti
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22 Letter from Shurlock to William
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Year Director Company190819091910Ba
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191119121912Grant and LincolnHe Fou
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19131913Call to Arms, TheCarpenter,
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1915 Birth of a Nation, TheColonel
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19341935193619371938193919401941194
Page 197 and 198:
Searchers, TheShowdown at AbileneTh
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Alien, Robert C., and Douglas Gomer
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Cassidy, John M., Civil War Cinema:
Page 203 and 204:
Foner, Eric, Who Owns History, (New
Page 205 and 206:
Landy, Marcia, (ed.), The Historica
Page 207 and 208:
Prince, Stephen, A New Pot of Gold:
Page 209 and 210:
Sternsher, Bernard, Consensus, Conf
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