The History Machine

Written and narrated by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., The History Machine is a compilation of 50 short (approx. 6 min. each) films covering U.S. history from roughly WWI to the Apollo 11 mission in 1969. We watched the opening volume, The Pre-Roosevelt Era, which contained nine individual short films, ranging in subject from the flight of the first military airplane built by the Wright brothers in 1908 to a look at the social and cultural trends of the 1920s. Although the original footage used throughout the series is invaluable from a historical perspective, the series leaves much to be desired. Disproportionate time is given to unequal subjects (the piece on the military airplane and the social upheavals of the 1920s are roughly the same length); and Schlesinger's narration is spotty (long stretches of silent footage crop up in each sequence), occasionally too brief to offer any insight into the topic, and sometimes mismatched with the footage. In one poor choice, Schlesinger's observation that the 1920s were characterized by a "dynamic confrontation between solid tradition and surging innovation" is undercut by a montage of images which includes a brief clip of a Ku Klux Klan march just as the words "solid tradition" are being spoken. Still, as an audio-visual historical document from one of the major historians of our time, The History Machine is a strong optional purchase for archival academic collections. Its value for junior high and high schools--its intended audience--is marginal. Other titles in the series include: World War II; Eisenhower to Kennedy; and Assassination, Vietnam and Man on the Moon. Aud: J, H, C, P. (R. Pitman)