The Use of Television Mini-Series as the Basis for History Classes
Paul H. Scherer · The History Teacher · 1991
proved to be remarkably successful at this urban university, and others similarly situated might wish to duplicate our experience. I had been teaching a course on World War II for some time and had used the historical novel War and Remembrance by Herman Wouk as one of my course readings. Students had found it stimulating and I was impressed with the unusually accurate use of history by the author. Therefore, when the television mini-series The Winds of War based on this novel was announced I resolved, with a colleague, to try to base a full-fledged credit course in history on the weekly showings of this series. Students would watch the series on their television sets as it aired, and this, with solid readings and other work, would form the course. We encountered many problems. The television series was broadcast in February and March, which did not fit into the usual academic schedule. We, therefore, had to try the radical approach of offering a class which did not run for an entire semester, but was concentrated into an eight week period, and for which registration did not begin until well into the semester. The late notification we received of the broadcast schedule made it