Jump to content

Menu

Documentaries/Movies and Biographies for 20th Cent World History


Recommended Posts

So dd12 (nearly 13) is doing 20th century world history this year.  History is not her favorite subject, and I'm trying to find a way to make it more interesting and hopefully stick enough that it doesn't just fall right back out of her head.

 

Older two dds read a lot of historical fiction, biographies and other non-fiction beyond the textbook.  This dd is not an eager reader.  The problem is not reading level, it's interest.  She hates historical fiction. 

 

She said if she had to read something extra, she'd most like to read biographies - she loved the Who Was? Series - is there anything like that for middle school kids?  I think she liked the humor in that series.

 

She also isn't a huge documentary fan - I will be using them, but I thought it might be good to mix that up with some movies, as long as they are not grossly inaccurate.  For example, when we recently studied  Napoleon and Russia, we watched War & Peace.  When we get to WWI, I'm pondering War Horse and/or Lawrence of Arabia.  For the Russian Revolution, I've found Reds, Dr. Zhivago, and Nicholas and Alexandra (any recommendations as to which of those would be best?)

 

Any other great recommendations for interesting biographies, compelling documentaries, or good historical fiction movies for 20th Century history, appropriate for an almost 13yo girl?

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was going to post my thread from a few months back but see Lori D did so already.  She and some others helped me come up with a fantastic list! So definitely check out that thread.  We have a nice mix of biographies, nonfiction, and movies to go along with texts and historical fiction.  We've just finished our first two topics and we're about to  start on Inventions & Exploration.  This is shaping up to be an amazing history year, it's a giant step forward for dd in terms of reading level and written output that I'm asking of her, but she is really rising to the occaision.  I've always fantasized about using the history/lit content areas to teach the skills of writing, notetaking, outlinging, paraphrasing, as well as general organizational, time management skills, etc. and it's really working out well that way with this outside-the-textbook plan.  I highly recommend it! Plus, I'm getting to watch a bunch of great movies I haven't seen before!  ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

These are the nonfiction books dd read:

 

The War to End All Wars by Russell Freedman

 

Years of Dust: The Story of the Dust Bowl by Albert Marrin

 

Remember Pearl Harbor: Japanese and American Survivors Tell Their Stories by Thomas Allen

 

Bomb: The Race to Build and Steal the World's Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin

 

Hitler Youth: Growing up in Hitler's Shadow by Susan Campbell Bartoletti (highly recommend)

 

Beyond Courage: The Untold Story of Jewish Resistance During the Holocaust by Doreen Rappaport (highly recommend---we paired this and the Hitler Youth book, reading the coordinating chapters together)

 

Dear Miss Breed by Joanna Oppenheim (Japanese-American internment; more interesting, imo, than Farewell to Manzanar)

 

Remember D-Day by Ronald Druz

 

10,000 Days of Thunder by Philip Caputo (Vietnam)

 

When the Wall Came Down by Serge Schmemann

 

Team Moon: How 400,000 People Landed Apollo 11 on the Moon by Catherine Thinmesh (reading this led to a two week long rabbit train into space exploration)

 

Dd didn't watch that many documentaries last year as most of her video time was devoted to geography. There were two female-centric documentaries she especially enjoyed:

 

Fly Girls (American Experience)

Top Secret Rosies: The Female Computers of World War II (also American Experience)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was going to post my thread from a few months back but see Lori D did so already.  She and some others helped me come up with a fantastic list! So definitely check out that thread.  We have a nice mix of biographies, nonfiction, and movies to go along with texts and historical fiction.  We've just finished our first two topics and we're about to  start on Inventions & Exploration.  This is shaping up to be an amazing history year, it's a giant step forward for dd in terms of reading level and written output that I'm asking of her, but she is really rising to the occaision.  I've always fantasized about using the history/lit content areas to teach the skills of writing, notetaking, outlinging, paraphrasing, as well as general organizational, time management skills, etc. and it's really working out well that way with this outside-the-textbook plan.  I highly recommend it! Plus, I'm getting to watch a bunch of great movies I haven't seen before!  ;)

 

What kind of output are you having your dd do exactly?  I was going to have my dd outline the text, but after a few chapters she asked to return to having me read it to her, and honestly for us that sparks much more discussion, as she'll ask something or I'll stop and comment on something, than when she reads it on her own.  I was thinking of having her write one or two research-type papers about a history topic this year, but I'm not sure what other output to have her do that would be productive and not become a big fight.  Did you have her take notes on the movies?

 

(For outlining, I'm still thinking of having her outline her Biology text this year...)

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh, lord no! i don't ask her to write about movies.  Those are just for fun/enrichment.

 

After ditching WWS, I'm going back to the basics (i.e. SWB's middle grade writing lecture and 8filltheheart's great "Incremental Writing Instruction" approach.  So she's doing two kinds of written output:  "daily" assignments covering that day's assigned reading, which might consist of a written sumamry or a 2-level outline.  I decide which based on the reading - some are easier to summarize, and some are outline-able.  She has one of these two things assigned pretty much every day (though not on documentary/movie days)

 

Then, she has longer reports or literary analysis assignments, one or two per topic.  (We divided history studies into 12 topics).  So for each topic, she has to write a short, page-ish long literary analysis assignment for one of the fiction books.  She also has to write one or two longer reports per topic.  I also assign one essay question per topic that she has to answer in writing at th end.  So, for the first topic, immigration & women's suffrage, she wrote one literary essay, one biographical sketch (Elizabeth Cady Stanton) and answered one essay question.  

 

We're finishing up our second topic now, art & culture before WW1, and she has chosen to write a biographical report on the life & work of Mary Cassat.  This is the only written assignment she's doing for this topic, because she'll next be doing a report on one of the planets (or some other topic in astronomy) and I don't want to overload her.

 

So, the basic pattern is daily short summary or outlining assignments, then week-long (or longer, depending on how involved they are) reports on people, events or ideas in history, science or lit.

 

I hear you about feeling that you get so much from reading aloud & discussion.  I was torn about that all year last year.  I wanted to ramp up the written output, but I felt like we got so much from discussion.  This year, I was kind of forced to make this choice because I'm teaching dd7 now too, so I needed some things dd10 could do independently.  And you know what? I'm glad we made the move, it has really really ramped up her depth of reading and her writing skills.  I still meet with her to discuss history or to discuss her writing assignments at least every other day, but she comes to the discussion having read or outlined/taken notes on her own, so she can actually contribute more now than when I was reading aloud and pausing for discussion.

 

She wouldn't have been ready for this last year, but she is now, so I'm glad I"m giving her the chance to rise to the occasion.  It was a good kick in the butt for us both!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hmm, it looks like the Mary Cassatt assignment is morphing into a real live essay: instead of a report/bio sketch, she is going to write about how Mary Cassatt differs from the other Impressionists, and why.  An actual thesis!  This should be interesting!

 

It does sound interesting!  I'd like to know what she writes if she is willing to have it shared!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here are some resources my teen used when studying that time period in 9th grade.

Books:

Mao Tse-Tung and His China (Albert Marrin)
The Depression and New Deal (Robert McElvaine)
Surviving Hitler (Andrea Warren)
North to Freedom (Anne Holm)
Maus I, II
Vietnam War (Marilyn Young et al.)
Fax from Sarajevo
A Little History of the World by E. H. Gombrich
All Quiet on the Western Front
Pygmalion
Diary of Anne Frank
Animal Farm (Orwell)
The Mouse that Roared
W;t (Edson)
Material World
Persepolis

Videos:

Battleship Potemkin (1904)
The Sinking of the Lusitania (Winsor McCay)
Influenza 1918
The Best Arbuckle Keaton Collection
Inherit the Wind
All Quiet on the Western Front
Cabaret
Rabbit Proof Fence (1930s)
1940's house
Shane
Atomic Cafe
Ed Sullivan
Evita
All the President's Men
Forrest Gump
Hair
Good Morning, Vietnam
The Mouse that Roared
Wit

Poetry:

"In Flander's Field" by John McCrae (WWI)

Speech:

"I Have a Dream" by Martin Luther King, Jr. (1963)

Musicals:

Evita
Miss Saigon

 

Be aware that we are quite liberal, so some of these may not be appropriate for your family.

Regards,
Kareni

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It does sound interesting!  I'd like to know what she writes if she is willing to have it shared!

 

I'll ask her.  This is my first foray into totally winging it teaching writing, and so far it's going really well.  I'm definitely walking her through all the steps, as it's her first time doing an assignment that involves doing research from multiple sources.  If it all goes according to plan, maybe I'll start a thread describing our process and the final result . . . wish us luck!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks everyone for the great suggestions!  Thought I'd share what I've come up with so far, as it includes a bunch of stuff not on any of the other lists... I'm trying to line this up with the topics in K12 HO vol. 3.  Any suggestions where things are sparse, or where I may have overlooked a gem, or chosen something boring or inappropriate are very welcome (I'll probably have to weed these down, as some places there are probably too many to fit in).  This is just documentaries and movies, haven't gotten to books yet.  Not sure how much extra reading I'm going to end up getting her to do...

 

I'm trying as much as possible to view things from other than the American viewpoint, as we're doing US History next year, and we can focus on that then. 

 

Unit 1

Chapter 2 (Revolutions)

- Rebels & Redcoats: How Britain Lost America

- maybe a version of Tale of Two Cities

 

Chapter 3 (Marx/Labor Unions)

- The Internationale

 

Chapter 4 (Germany rising)

- ?

 

Chapter 5 (Meiji Japan/Perry)

- Japan: Memoirs of a Secret Empire

 

Chapter 6 (Imperialism in Asia)

- 1911 (Chinese revolution/Sun Yat-Sen)

- Lagaan

 

Part 2

Chapter 1 (Start WWI)

- First World War (BBC doc. - multi-disc, probably use a bit before and after this too)

 

Chapter 2 (WWI)

- War Horse

- Lawrence of Arabia

- Gallipoli (preview)

- Sinking of the Lusitania

 

Chapter 3 (Revolution in Russia / Lenin)

- Dr. Zhivago

- Nicholas and Alexandra

- Reds

 

Chapter 4 (WWI Ends/Treaty of Versailles)

- Paris 1919

 

Chapter 5 (Dalí, Stravinsky, Alexander Fleming)

- ?

 

Chapter 6 (Middle East, Ibn Saud, Ataturk, Zionism)

- ?

 

Chapter 7 (Depression/Dictators)

- Stalin

- Hindenburg's Fiery Secret

- Last Emperor

 

Chapter 8 (Vichy France, Blitz, Churchill, Asian War)

- WWII: When Lions Roared

- Churchill (PBS)

- Dresden (preview)

- The Blitz (PBS)

 

Chapter 9 (D-Day, Holocaust, Manhattan Project)

- Day One (Manhattan Project)

- Irena Sendler (PBS)

 

Chapter 10 (Post WWII, Nuremberg, UN, Israel)

- Judgement at Nuremberg

- A Woman Called Golda

 

Unit 3

Chapter 1 (Cold War, NATO, Mao, Korean War, Berlin Wall)

- China: A Century of Revolution (PBS/BBC)

- The Wall: A World Divided (PBS)

 

Chapter 2 (More Cold War, Mao, Missile Crisis)

- The Missiles of October

- Dr. Strangelove

- The Russians are Coming!

 

Chapter 3 (Technology, Moon/Space, Polio vaccine, Beatles)

- The Right Stuff

- Apollo 13

- Space Race (BBC)

 

Chapter 4 (End of Colonialism, Gandhi, Mandela)

- Gandhi

- Cry Freedom

- Serafina

 

Chapter 5 (Middle East, Palestinians, PLO)

- Six Days in June

 

Chapter 6 (Vietnam War, Prague Spring, Allende)

- Good Morning Vietnam

- Inside the Vietnam War (Nat'l Geo)

- Salvador Allende

 

Chapter 7 (End of Cold War, Gorbachev/Thatcher/Reagan)

- Goodbye, Lenin

- Under Fire (Nicaragua)

 

Chapter 8 (Terrorism, Iran, Gulf Wars)

- Argo

- Perseopolis (preview)

 

Chapter 9 (Apple, PC, Internet, Cell phones)

- Triumph of the Nerds

 

Chapter 10 (Women - Friedan, R. Carson, Sally Ride, Indira Gandhi, Aung San Suu Kyi)

- Rachel Carson's Silent Spring (Am Experience)

 

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is for middle school ages? Some of these movies are pretty intense, violent, or mature. I recommend previewing the films below to make sure they are workable for your family. BEST of luck! Warmly, Lori D.

 

- War Horse

intense violence (esp. when an animal is involved, can be very disturbing to pre-teens/young teens)

 

- Dr. Zhivago

mostly about an adulterous love affair, with a backdrop of the Russian revolution

 

- Reds

break-up of a marriage in favor of communism, feminism, and another man, with a backdrop of the Russian revolution

 

- Last Emperor

beautiful film but very adult -- includes a steamy scene of both wives in bed with the emperor, opium addiction, suicide, and other mature topics

 

- Serafina

beautiful film, but pre-teens/young teens will likely find it "slow", and miss the point of the process of creating art, and the artist's struggle with mental instability

 

- Good Morning Vietnam

a lot of language, some of it involving crudities about women and sex; some violence and sexuality

 

- Salvador Allende

documentary topic that may not be of interest to pre-teens/young teens

 

- Under Fire (Nicaragua) -- more about a love triangle of journalists, set in the backdrop of Nicaragua

 

- Argo

rated R; a lot of intense and violent scenes

 

- Perseopolis

while the main character is a teen, this is really not a young person's film

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is for middle school ages? Some of these movies are pretty intense, violent, or mature. I recommend previewing the films below to make sure they are workable for your family. BEST of luck! Warmly, Lori D.

 

- War Horse

intense violence (esp. when an animal is involved, can be very disturbing to pre-teens/young teens)

 

- Dr. Zhivago

mostly about an adulterous love affair, with a backdrop of the Russian revolution

 

- Reds

break-up of a marriage in favor of communism, feminism, and another man, with a backdrop of the Russian revolution

 

- Last Emperor

beautiful film but very adult -- includes a steamy scene of both wives in bed with the emperor, opium addiction, suicide, and other mature topics

 

- Serafina

beautiful film, but pre-teens/young teens will likely find it "slow", and miss the point of the process of creating art, and the artist's struggle with mental instability

 

- Good Morning Vietnam

a lot of language, some of it involving crudities about women and sex; some violence and sexuality

 

- Salvador Allende

documentary topic that may not be of interest to pre-teens/young teens

 

- Under Fire (Nicaragua) -- more about a love triangle of journalists, set in the backdrop of Nicaragua

 

- Argo

rated R; a lot of intense and violent scenes

 

- Perseopolis

while the main character is a teen, this is really not a young person's film

 

Yes, I'm going to have to preview some of these.  War Horse I've seen with my older kids - I think she'll be okay with that one.  The Last Emperor I do love, but you're right it might be a bit over her head.  I was thinking I might be able to fast-forward through steamy parts - they aren't central to the film. 

 

Many of the others I haven't seen or definitely wasn't sure about.  I'm not even sure Good Morning Vietnam shows much about Vietnam vs. being a Robin Wiiliams vehicle - there really aren't any teen-friendly Vietnam movies, are there?  And maybe I should stick w/ Nicholas and Alexandra for the Russian revolution... Perseopolis was rated PG-13, so I thought that might be better than Argo, which you're right is R. :(  I was thinking Serafina, with music and more female characters might be more engaging than Cry, Freedom, but if it isn't, then I'll stick to the latter (which is only PG - is it a good movie?)  As for the Allende, I find that story very interesting - you're right it might bore her to tears, though.  Thought I might give it a try...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lawrence of Arabia has a scene where there is both violence and a suggestion that he is desired by a man for sex-and possibly groped on screen, though I do not think sex on screen, I cannot recall for sure since I have not seen it for a while.

 

I might have suggested Schindler's List but for concerns about age suitability, but I think it may be more history and less sex/romance oriented than some of the other possibilities.

 

I'm not sure if it is the Am Experience thing you are planning on for Rachel Carson, but I saw an excellent one woman show of her live, that was then made into a movie and is available on Netflix,  I think it may be called A Sense of Wonder.   My ds at 11 was bored by it though.

 

Oliver Stone may have some movies that would make sense, as well as, hmmm, cannot recall name.  I'll post if I do.

 

Galipoli by, I think, Peter Weir, maybe?  Again, it seemed violent to mention it for a 13 year old, but it is certainly well done and history relevant.  Also deals more with non-American aspects of history.

 

The one I absolutely would not miss is Gandhi though!  It is both fantastic for history and also a superb movie.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think I mentioned The Young Indiana Jones in a thread that Lori D linked, but if not, let me add here that it is good as historical fictional for the time before, during, and after WW1, in a way that was meant for people probably around the age of your dd, and with good bonus documentary materials.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...