What is the value of popular history?

[luridlysteph14]

I'm doing Extension History, and the whole premise of the course is "What is History?"

Basically, we're allowed to chose any topic in history we want. I've chosen to examine the historical accuracy of The da Vinci Code. My question I've come up with is "What is the Value of Popular History

Comments

[msqu]

+Why do you watch them?

They're always beautiful. They've got rich cinemetography, sweeping scores, attention to details of the set and costuming, etc, etc. Also, I just like them. It's nice, the notion that you're watching things that probably happened (for the most part).

+What entices you to go see them, or to read a book about history?

I guess I started getting into that with the last question. Fictional stories are all well and good, they can take you places you've never been before. But when you get into historical or historical fiction, there's at least some element of ACTUALNESS to the story. It happened, or could've happened, and it's very powerful. It speaks to the humanity inside of me, connecting with those stories from people who have gone before.

+Why not read history itself?

Erm. It can be very dry. But also, history is one person's take on a series of events and something that was accepted by the rest of society as being true. So if you're going to read something that's biased, why not have it be something a little more interesting?

+Do you learn anything from them?

Yes. It lets me understand how things looked, felt, and were experienced, even when they're not 100% accurate. (But then, again, who gets to determine what IS 100% accurate?)

+Do you accept what you see as true? Why/Why not?

I mostly do. There's always bias and misrepresentation, no matter what. But I think that there's always at least an element of truth to the historical stories that are told on film.