History by HBO
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About This Book
The television industry is changing, and with it, the small screen's potential to engage in debate and present valuable representations of American history. Founded in 1972, HBO has been at the forefront of these changes, leading the way for many network, cable, and streaming services into the "post-network" era. Despite this, most scholarship has been dedicated to analyzing historical feature films and documentary films, leaving TV and the long-form drama hungry for coverage. In History by HBO:
Our Review
This incisive analysis tackles the significant gap in media scholarship by focusing on how HBO's long-form television dramas have become a primary vehicle for representing and debating American history. Rebecca Weeks positions the network as a pivotal force in the post-network era, arguing that its prestige series offer a unique and underexplored form of historical engagement that rivals, and often surpasses, the capabilities of traditional historical films and documentaries.
Weeks’s work is particularly compelling for how it connects industrial shifts in television to evolving narrative possibilities, demonstrating how the freedom of cable and streaming platforms allowed for more complex and challenging historical narratives. Media students and pop culture enthusiasts will find a powerful framework for understanding how shows from "The Wire" to "Chernobyl" don't just entertain but actively shape our collective memory and public discourse about the past.
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