THE NEWS AS HISTORY

There's no better way to learn about the past than by seeing what type of news people were reading and watching back when historical events actually occurred. For a trip back in time, visit the Internet Archive (http://www.archive.org) which provides early web pages from the fledgling days of the Internet to major events such as the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. By browsing through these web pages, you can get a feel for the mood surrounding a particular newsworthy event, as shown in Figure 2-3.

Figure 2-3: Viewing history through web pages from the past.

The Internet Archive also stores old video clips of television reports about historical events, along with a library of old television commercials and U.S. government films distributed since the 1940s. By viewing these old government films, you can see how much (or how little) the American government has really changed.

Some classic government films to view include the infamous Duck and Cover film that teaches children how to survive a nuclear attack by holding a jacket over their head and a short film explaining the hazards of biowarfare, which warns that communist agents could attack the United States by pouring toxins in our water supply or using crop dusters to spray an entire area with germs. Substitute the word "communist" with "terrorist" and you can see how relevant this particular film is today.