People who witness notable historic moments, either in real time or on film, remember forever how they felt at the time. Who can forget the shock of seeing the helicopter pushed off the USS Blue Ridge carrier at the Fall of Saigon in 1975, or the thrill of watching Neil Armstrong taking his first step onto the moon’s surface? Now you can experience these and tens of thousands of other historical moments in the same visceral way, with American History in Video.
American History in Video includes 2,000 total hours of streaming video content. More than half is contemporaneous video from the 1890s to the 1980s. The early newsreels, including the complete series of United Newsreel and Universal Newsreel, available online in their entirety only in this collection, capture history as it was made and reported to viewers of the time.
American History in Video also includes hundreds of the documentaries most frequently used in history classrooms, from leading video content producers such as PBS, California Newsreel, Bullfrog Films, Documentary Educational Resources, Pennebaker Hegedus Films, The History Channel®, and others. Featuring dramatic reenactments and engaging analysis from prominent scholars and experts, these documentaries bring history alive for students and give public library patrons hundreds of educational video titles they can enjoy from home. Learn about the Battle of Gettysburg from Pulitzer Prize-winning historian James McPherson. Understand the scope and legacy of the American Civil War with Ken Burns’s riveting PBS series. Grasp the zeitgeist of an era through PBS’s Summer of Love, Ken Burns's The West, and Africans in America.
American History in Video is designed specifically for teaching and research, packed with features that help you find, view, share, and analyze.
As a biographical resource, American History in Video includes hundreds of profiles of great American leaders and personalities. As an encyclopedia of history, it provides footage of seminal historic events. Compare Kennedy’s rhetorical flair with Nixon’s. Examine racial stereotypes as presented in newsreels featuring African Americans prior to 1950. Consider Ed Herlihy’s use of alliteration and other tropes of propaganda in WWII newsreels. These and thousands of other searches are easy with American History in Video.
American History in Video is an online collection available to academic, public, and school libraries via subscription or one-time purchase of perpetual rights. No special setup or software is required—all you need is an Internet browser.
A solid ten. It tops any other similarly themed resource in its field and, at this price, is an amazing deal. . . This is a product I wish every library in the United States could make accessible to its researchers, from elementary-school children to history scholars, and everybody in between. Resoundingly recommended.
Library Journal