The musical Hamilton draws directly from the historical record, but it clearly is not a documentary, which many historians have noted. Writers and artists such as Shakespeare, Dan Brown, and Anne Rice dramatize historic settings, characters, and famous events in their works. Sometimes they bring history to life and sometime they perpetuate historical myths. What does it mean to be “true” to the historical record? How do artists get it right? How can they get it wrong? What do they owe to the record? A panel of history and literature faculty will come together to explore these questions.
Fact, Fiction, or Something Else: What Does the Artist Owe to History?
The audio of this discussion is available below: