CHANNELING HISTORY: THE HISTORY CHANNEL AND THE ROLE OF POPULAR HISTORICAL KNOWLEDGE IN UNDERSTANDINGS OF U.S. NATIONAL IDENTITY

Since 1995, the History Channel has been one of the largest producers of popular historical knowledge in the U.S. Combining historical analysis, qualitative content analysis, ideological criticism, and political-economic criticism, this dissertation examines how the History Channel has become an authoritative source for knowledge about the past even as it consistently generates programming that strays into conspiracy narratives and actively centers white men as the ultimate, and often only, historical actors. Dividing the network’s history into three chronological periods that represent major shifts in its content, I highlight how the various economic, political, cultural, and industrial contexts that surround the History Channel have critical implications for the construction of historical knowledge. These contexts also determine whose narratives are deemed relevant to the U.S.’s story as a nation. Additionally, I demonstrate that the History Channel’s significance extends beyond its position as a useful case study for understanding how media producers construct historical knowledge, arguing that the network has played an important role in normalizing the epistemological and ideological frameworks that have led to our contemporary media landscape and its proliferation of “fake news,” mis- and disinformation, and conspiracy theories. Ultimately, this dissertation offers an understanding of how popular historical knowledge functions politically and ideologically to uphold hegemonic, white-male-dominated power structures.