Martin Luther College

"There is no shortage of Hollywood films about historical events, but what do the movies actually get right, and why do they get so much wrong? Hollywood loves a story: good guys versus bad guys, heroes winning the day, and the guy gets the girl. But we all know real life isn't exactly like that, and this is even more true when we look at history. Rarely do the just prevail and the three-act story cannot exist over continents and decades of human...

More than 60,000 books have been published on the Civil War. Most Americans, though, get their ideas about the war--why it was fought, what was won, what was lost--not from books but from movies, television, and other popular media. In an engaging and accessible survey, Gary W. Gallagher guides readers through the stories told in recent film and art, showing how these stories have both reflected and influenced the political, social, and racial currents...

Traces the history of Islamic Spain. Tells how in Southern Spain the Muslims, Christians and Jews lived together and thrived, and the seeds of the Renaissance were sown, but within a few centuries the fragile union of these people dissipated and the time of tolerance was lost forever.

Recounts how the struggle between North and South, long defined by battles like Gettysburg, Antietam, and Bull Run, was actually dependent on events in the West. Although often overlooked, the western theatre saw some of the conflict's bloodiest encounters, such as Shiloh, Vicksburg, and Chickamauga, and featured iconic leaders.

Examines the strengths and weaknesses of a man destined to both win and lose the presidency of the United States in an election landslide. An orphan, Hoover was a self-made millionaire at an early age with a expertise in leadership, crisis management, and humanitarian work. His two terms as Secretary of Commerce left a legacy that impacts Americans' way of life today. Yet, as president, his policy decisions on employment and monetary and fiscal policy...

Beautifully filmed in and around Oxford this engaging biopic follows the creator of The Chronicles of Narnia from the tragic death of his mother when he was just nine years old, through his strained relationship with his father, to the nightmare of the trenches of World War I to Oxford University, where friends like J.R.R. Tolkien challenged his unbelief.

1968: in that single year, MLK and RFK were assassinated, Chicago rioted, Nixon triumphed, and Tet exploded. The top music acts were the Beatles, the Doors, Otis Redding and Marvin Gaye. Man circled the Moon. From Civil Rights to Vietnam, from rock & roll to rocket science, 1968 stands out as a concentrated dose of everything we think of as the Sixties.