Film is a main focus in the March 2008 issue of Perspectives on History. James Sheehan contributes the third installment of the “Film and History” series with his article on “Jean Renoir’s La Grande Illusion.” Then, read about Secrecy, “a new film by Harvard University professors Peter Galison and Robb Moss about government classification debates,” that was featured at the January 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Also, hear about the Historians Film Committee and their panel, “Wars of the Worlds: Fictions, Documentaries, and Beyond: Science in Film, Television, and History," at the Annual Meeting. And finally, also Annual Meeting-related, take a look back at the 2008 AHA Film Festival.

Oh, sure, our second president was praised 175 years after his death by historian David McCullough in his adoring 2001 biography. And his reputation no doubt will rise again as the HBO miniseries "John Adams" unfolds, beginning Sunday (Reviewed on Page D7).

However, when it comes to more lasting tributes, our second president has been sorely overlooked both inside the Beltway and beyond. Monuments on the Mall and Tidal Basin commemorate George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, but not a single one in the District honors Adams, who pushed for independence in leading the Second Continental Congress and served as the nation's first vice president.

Why the neglect?

"He was difficult and cantankerous and not as charismatic as the Virginians," says Benjamin Adams, a New York investment banker and the fourth great-grandson of the Founding Father. "He was a one-term president, and many of...

... Remember when the epic television miniseries featured earth-shattering romances and big, shiny stallions and riotous town meetings with heroes and villains clearly delineated? The founders of our great nation would fight valiantly and give speeches that moved crowds of attractive blonds to tears, and then they'd get on their horses and ride off to fight the bloodthirsty redcoats.

But these are the days of David Milch's "Deadwood" and Paul Thomas Anderson's "There Will Be Blood" and this is HBO, home of the story that's stubbornly grubby and full of stuttering and awkward moments and buzzing flies. The trend has swung past realism to realism through a dirty window, realism with a bad attitude and a hangover.

Based on the book by David McCullough and directed by Tom Hooper, "John Adams" counterbalances heroism -- this was a man who helped to liberate the colonies from British rule, after all -- with dreary details: Abigail Adams...

NOT far from I-95 in Maryland, halfway between Washington and Baltimore, lives an old, one-story motel that is home to the National Cryptologic Museum, an institution devoted to two contradictory human impulses: keeping secrets and telling stories.

Most museums are built from the urge to broadcast the past loud and clear, but most museums do not receive money from the National Security Agency, the arm of the intelligence network devoted to codemaking and codebreaking. The employees at the N.S.A. still joke that the initials stand for “No Such Agency” or “Never Say Anything.”

The museum opened in 1993 without notifying the news media or otherwise drawing much attention to itself. It was just as well — the motel, which is adjacent to the N.S.A.’s headquarters and had been bought by the agency several years before, was still ringed by a barbed-wire fence, and some insiders were apparently worried that someone might take pictures of the spies attending the openings...

THE old visitor center and museum at the Gettysburg National Military Park was cramped, obsolete and a little too close to history. The brick building, built in the 1920s as a private home, was part of a complex that sat where Union lines had stood for the last two days of the most famous battle in the Civil War.

Nearly 1,000 Union soldiers were killed, wounded or captured on the hallowed ground beneath the complex. Wayne E. Motts, a local historian who has been a licensed battlefield guide for 21 years, was not the only person who was bothered by this fact.

“I’ve said if I could go down there and tear down that building with my bare hands, I would,” said Mr. Motts, the executive director of the Adams County Historical Society, which is in Gettysburg, Pa.

Luckily, he will be saved the trouble. The complex is being razed, and the land will be restored to how it looked in July 1863. Meanwhile, a $103 million visitor center and museum will open April...

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In the first episode of HBO's "epic seven-part miniseries event" "John Adams," one of the most riveting scenes occurs at Boston Harbor, when a customs inspector or informant challenges John Hancock (Justin Theroux) for evading the taxes imposed by the British. "Teach him a lesson, tar the bastard," Hancock commands a mob, which proceeds to do exactly that to the poor accessory of the crown. This being HBO, there's a glimpse of full frontal nudity that is promptly drenched with hot tar. Hancock looks on, as do John Adams (Paul Giamatti) and his cousin Samuel (Danny Huston). "God, Sam, that's barbarism," John cries to his cousin, who stands silent. "Do you approve of this? Answer me, Sam, can you?"

It's a telling scene, because there is no historical evidence that it ever happened. It's not included in the Pulitzer Prize-...

On May 4, 1970, American soldiers shot down American students on American soil. Since then, people have argued over who was to blame; the protesting students at Kent State University or the National Guardsmen brought in to restore order on campus? And now, in a rare interview, one of the indicted National Guardsman speaks to his experience for the first time ever. How it Was: Death at Kent State takes a fresh look at a wealth of raw data from both sides.

The BBC is to screen a new drama about the final week in the life of Jesus Christ which appears to exonerate Judas and Pontius Pilate.

Producers of The Passion have portrayed the men in a sympathetic light because they believe they have been"very harshly judged" by history.

Judas is portrayed as torn between his loyalties to Jesus and Caiaphas, who organised the plot to kill Jesus.

Pilate, played by James Nesbitt, is shown struggling to manage his wife's social aspirations and his career as he tried to"keep a lid" on tensions in Jerusalem.

Traditional Christian groups accused the BBC of rewriting the Gospel, but the makers of the series, which will be broadcast over Easter week, said they were simply trying to understand the motivations of the characters.

Plans to erect a statue of Charles Dickens in Kent, where he lived for many years, have been criticised. Experts say it would be against the dying wishes of the Victorian novelist, who specified in his will that he did not want a memorial erected. Medway Council, who say the idea is in its very early stages, has said it will take guidance from the Dickens family about whether a statue would be appropriate. His great, great grandaughter, Liz Dickens, told BBC South East Today she would be delighted, but others are not so sure. Malcolm Andrews, Professor of English at Kent University, said: "He was clear enough in his will that he did not want that ever to happen. I don't think it is a matter of enough time elapsing. Dickens is a household name - a worldwide name. Why do we need a statue? He is remembered already."