Education | Teachers Resources to History

Unlocking Da Vinci's Code 2004 If you are a fan of Dan Brown and have read The Da Vinci Code or Demons and Angels then you will certainly enjoy this documentary. This work deals primarily with the items of interest in the Dan Brown Book, the Teamplars, the Free Masons, The Society of Scion and that inevitable search for the Holy Grail. There is discussion of the painting of the Last Supper by Da Vinci and also the famous sketch of a man in a circle with out-streched arms explaining the mathematics of the human body so ingeniously discovered by Da Vinci.

The documentary doesn't deal with Da Vinci's works in great detail since it's claims to reveal the hidden messages and 'codes' rather than the works itself. It is an intellectual discussion of the origins of the Bible for those that have studied Theology or Religious Doctrine (Click on title to buy)

Murder of Emmett Till 2003 In August 1955, a fourteen-year-old black boy whistled at a white woman in a grocery store in Money, Mississippi. Emmett Till, who was from Chicago, didn't understand that he had broken the unwritten laws of the Jim Crow South until three days later, two white men dragged him from his bed in the dead of night, beat him brutally and then shot him in the head. Although his killers were arrested and charged with murder, they were both acquitted quickly by an all-white, all-male jury. Shortly afterwards, the defendants sold their story, including a detailed account of how they murdered Till, to a journalist. The murder and trial horrified the nation and the world. Till's death was a spark that helped mobilize the civil rights movement. Three months after his body was pulled from the Tallahatchie River, the Montgomery bus boycott began (Click on title to buy)

Civilisation: The Complete Series 1969 Civilisation, A Personal View by Lord Clark, is the definitive documentary series. This ambitious British undertaking which spanned an "80,000 mile journey visiting 13 countries, 117 locations, 18 libraries & 118 museums. This series, clearly identifize Attenborough, and Kenneth Clark as pioneers of the direct-gaze speaking style.

In episode one, The Skin of Our Teeth, Clark stands in front of Notre Dame to question first, if civilization worth preserving, and secondly, what the difference between art and culture (Click on title to buy)

Triumph of the Will 1934 one of the most important documentary ever made. Not because it documents evil (more examples are being made today) Riefenstahl's masterpiece (and it is a masterpiece, politics aside) combines the strengths of documentary & propaganda into a single, overwhelmingly powerful visual force. Riefenstahl was hired by the Reich to create an eternal record of the 1934 rally at Nuremberg, and that's exactly what she does. You might not become a Nazi after watching her film, but you will understand clearly how Germany fell under Hitler's spell.

The early crowd scenes remind one of nothing so much as Beatles concert footage (if only their fans were so well behaved!). Like the fascists it monumentalizes Triumph of the Will the visual motifs are hypnotic, especially for modern viewers. But the occasional iconic vista (banners lining the streets of Nuremberg, Hitler parting a sea of 200,000 members standing at attention) will electrify anyone into wakefulness. (Click on title to buy)

Bowling for Columbine 2002 Michael Moore explores America's predilection for gun violence and the question: Why do Americans kill each other more than people in any other democratic nation? He focuses his quest around the shootings at Columbine High School. Bowling for Columbine is a movie, and like all art it is certainly subjective. Those out there who are afraid of the left wing having a chance to speak out? Don't be.

The war in Iraq still happened despite vocal objections from many Americans, so what do you have to worry about? People (and don't call us anti-Americans) who are disillusioned with the state of the country, disillusioned by the constant violence going on here, disillusioned by lies and the manipulation of media, may find some brief solace in a movie like this. Is that so wrong? I think this is Michael Moore's best work, because it concerns all of us. I can give this film nothing less than my highest recommendation. (Click on title to buy)

Genius: The Science of Einstein, Newton, Darwin & Galileo 1974 Here, in one box, are 4 superb programs that function as absorbing discussions of some of the most profound scientific discoveries in history and as biographies of the scientists responsible for them. Very few breakthroughs in science follow a linear path: there are usually a host of ancillary scientists whose contributions to the intellectual climate of the time provide the essential nutrients for discovery. Then there are the scientists whose insights are crucial to the final momentous breakthrough. Both groups are part of the fabric of these programs. Abstract ideas are easier to explain when there are people and concrete things to drape them on. I found the superb Galileo & Einstein programs particularly valuable (especially if watched in chronological order) for their thoughtful explication of the scientific concept of Relativity.

Relativity, in it's modern sense, originates with Galileo's primal work on motion and gravity. Einstein's profoundly insights into the workings of nature illuminated the Relativity of motion, the speed of light, mass, energy and time. This documentary makes science easier to visualize and understand. The kind of insights that led to Einstein's miraculous year of discovery, 1905, only happen every few centuries. That applies to Newton, Galileo and Darwin.

Extraordinary discoveries require extraordinary minds. These programs help curious nonscientists understand the products of these extraordinary minds, and the ideas that helped seed them. Along the way, they also redress some historical wrongs. Women who were marginalized in the world of science by gender and religious prejudice, Like Emilie du Chatelet & Lisa Meitner, are given overdue exposure and their proper credit.

What the Bleep!? - Down the Rabbit Hole (Three-Disc Special Edition) 2006 The unlikeliest cult hit of 2004 was What the (Bleep) Do We Know?, a lecture on mysticism and science mixed into a sort-of narrative. Marlee Matlin stars in the dramatic thread, about a sourpuss photographer who begins to question her perceptions. Interviews with quantum physics experts and New Age authors are cut into this story, offering a vaguely convincing (and certainly mind-provoking) theory about... well, actually, it sounds a lot like the Power of Positive Thinking, when you get down to it.

Talking heads (not identified until film's end) include JZ Knight, who appears in the movie channeling Ramtha, the ancient sage she claims communicates through her (other speakers are also associated with Knight's organization) What she says actually makes pretty good common sense. It would be easy to accept were it not being credited to a 35,000-year-old mystic from Atlantis (Click on title to buy)

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Teacher Resources - Teacher Courses - World History Guide
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FAMOUS PHOTOS OF THE CENTURY

Teacher Resources - Teacher Courses - World History Guide History Guide - Social Studies - Social Issues

Teacher Resources - Teacher Courses - World History Guide
History Guide - Social Studies - Social Issues