History on television

Abstract

The days are certainly over when in education or scholarship the whole emphasis in the study of History could be placed on mere catalogues of rulers and dates of events. The term "History" is therefore to be understood here in its broadest connotations. Now not only is the stress laid on the con catenation and causes of momentous happenings rather than on isolated facts andfigures, but it is also recognized that the everyday life of people in particular epochs is no less epoch-making than are the doings and goings-on of particular historical personages. History includes people's ways of thinking as well as of acting, and how they expressed themselves in all kinds of literary and artistic achievements, both in higher forms of art produced by individual classical artists and authors and in folkloristic manifestations fostered by large groups. The presentation of history is quite rightly regarded as faulty if it does not give a good picture of the whole social and cultural background of people and peoples in a period under discussion.