History and the Media

History is everywhere in the media. Television viewers can spend every evening watching a different historian expound upon Empire, Witchcraft, the Civil War or Royal Mistresses or go to the cinema and watch reconstructions of the Second World War, American Civil War or Imperial China. Even current affairs reporting on television, radio or in newspapers implicitly or explicitly includes historical explanations. This book examines the boom in history, in television and film, newspapers and radio and the constraints and opportunities it offers. Leading historians and high profile broadcasters, such as Melvyn Bragg, Simon Schama, Tristram Hunt, Ian Kershaw and David Puttnam, draw on their personal experiences to explore the problems and highlights of representing history in the media. MELVYN BRAGG Novelist and Broadcaster TAYLOR DOWNING Writer and Independent Television Producer MAX HASTINGS Writer and Historian TRISTRAM HUNT Writer and Historian, Queen Mary College, University of London, UK JEREMY ISAACS Independent Television Producer IAN KERSHAW Professor of Modern History, University of Sheffield, UK DAVID PUTTNAM Film Producer SIMON SCHAMA University Professor of Art History and History, Columbia University, New York, USA JEAN SEATON Professor of Media History, University of Westminster, London, UK ROGER SMITHER Keeper of the Film and Video Archives, Imperial War Museum, London, UK JOHN TUSA Managing Director of the Barbican Arts Centre, London, UK