documentaries I actually assign vs the ones they beg for

Accurate teaching tool or just good TV. Sorting out the difference across a decade of the same unit.

The Civil War (Ken Burns, 1990)

primary sources galore. the letters read aloud still get them quiet. assign this every year

Eyes on the Prize

The Vietnam War (Burns & Novick, 2017)

Long. Very long. But the best corrective to the movie version of that war.

Apocalypse: The Second World War (2009)

French series, colorized footage start to finish. Students beg for this one because it looks like a video game, and it earns the attention

The Fog of War (Errol Morris, 2003)

McNamara interviewed straight, no narrator softening it. same instinct as anything set c. 1200: make students argue about it

13th (Ava DuVernay, 2016)

assign the first 40 minutes. the back half runs long for a single class period

Hearts and Minds (1974)

the one they've never heard of, rough to watch, and nothing sanitizes Vietnam like this doesn't exist

Restrepo (2010)

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