History and Film: Moving Pictures and the Study of the Past

        Moving pictures have had a great influence on human culture, and this book focuses on using moving images as historical evidence.  Studying history means examining evidence from the past to understand, interpret and present what has happened in different times and places.  We talk and write about what we have learned, hoping to establish credibility both for what we have determined to be the facts and for whatever meaning or significance we may attach to our reconstruction of the past.  Studying history is a scientific process, involving a fairly set methodology.  We tend to favor written sources, and we have tended to favor writing as a means of presenting our views of the past.  But historians also use all kinds of other documents and artifacts in their work of interpreting the past, including moving pictures.