With the growing emphasis on media literacy, academics routinely choose feature films and documentaries to supplement their courses. But with the myriad of available media, how to choose? More importantly, how does one select a film that reflects and critiques rather than distorts or attempts to rewrite American history? Expanding coverage in his History in the Media: Film and Television (ABC-CLIO, 2006) from 350 films and film series to 500, author Niemi (professor of English and American Studies at St. Michael’s College) narrows his criterion for inclusion to films that deal with an actual, documented historical incident rather than a treatment of the generic history film. The arrangement is chronological pertaining to the events the films depict and the entries range from roughly half a page to two pages in length with occasional illustrations. An extensive index is provided that includes film titles, actors, historical figures, and related events. When appropriate, Neimi offers a brief treatment of the discrepancies between the historical reality and the film’s portrayal along with his assessment of the film’s overall quality. This selective survey includes primarily American productions dealing with military history, sports, music and art history, politics, race relations, and crime, with the bulk of the entries covering military history. The coverage is more expansive than the seventy-nine essays in the excellent The Columbia Companion to American History on Film (Columbia, 2006) but the depth of the historical analyses and film scholarship in the Columbia Companion make it the stronger contender for the standard work in the field.

A further reading option at the end of each entry would have been easier to navigate than the general bibliography, so this may frustrate users looking for Niemi’s source material on a particular film. Instructors, however, who are searching for films to fit the themes of their classes will find this work helpful for quickly determining a film’s quality and validity. For general academic collections and public libraries with an emphasis on film studies.