Partnership Products
NARA, with partner TOPICS Entertainment, has developed a range of multi-media products, all based on the rich holdings of the National Archives. Here you will find CD and DVD collections of images, audio, and film footage that document the nation's major military involvements; histories of aviation and space exploration; and other landmark 20th century events.
About TOPICS Entertainment
Founded in 1990, TOPICS Entertainment is the largest, privately-owned multimedia publishing company in the United States. Based in Seattle, WA, TOPICS offers more than 300 consumer language learning, education, and entertainment multimedia products, and is the exclusive software publisher/distributor for National Geographic, Rand McNally, World Book, Kaplan, Scholastic, and several others. An active supporter of the environment and education, TOPICS donates five percent of pre tax profits to a variety of conservation and environmental education organizations. Visit its web site at
www.topics-ent.com.
Products
Available at major retailers nationwide, NARA e-store, and selected NARA Museum Shops unless otherwise noted.
Product: War & Conflict: Selected Images from the National Archives 1765-1970
Release date: September 2005
Description: From the Revolutionary War through the Vietnam conflict, this amazing virtual catalog contains over 1,500 crisp, clear images relating to American wartime history. Roughly 40% of the images - which include copies of prints, paintings, posters, and photographs - depict scenes from World War II. Features a powerful search engine, sectional text introductions, and additional information included with each image. PC Only. Windows 98, 2000, XP. 3-CD boxed set.
Price: $19.95
Available on NARA e-store and selected NARA Museum Shops only
World War II Collection
Totaling nearly 35 hours of archival footage, this collection of five boxed sets represents an invaluable cinematic recounting of American participation in World War II. Each 6-DVD set includes selections from on-the-scene historical newsreel footage to documentary shorts and features, often filmed and narrated by top Hollywood enlistees. These astonishingly varied and emotional images were culled from thousands of hours of documentary and combat film footage that make up the National Archives' most popular collections.
Product: WWII: The War in Europe
Release date: May 2006
Description: A dramatic depiction of the events culminating in a single-minded Nazi ambition for world conquest and the ultimate release of Western Europe from this Axis stranglehold. Includes coverage of D-Day, the Invasion of Poland, the Liberation of Rome, and the Liberation of Nazi Concentration Camps, as well as a controversial documentary from young Hollywood director John Huston. 12 films with more than 8 hours of content. 6-DVD boxed set.
Price: $49.99
Product: WWII: The War in the Pacific
Release date: May 2006
Description: A cinematic chronicle of the island battles and events leading up to ultimate Japanese surrender in 1945. Highlights include film footage of the Fighting Lady aircraft carrier, Surrender in the Pacific, the Battle for the Marianas, the Battle for Midway, and an Oscar-winning documentary from Hollywood director John Ford. 15 films with more than 6 hours of content. 6 DVD boxed set.
Price: $49.99
Product: WWII: Air War
Release date: May 2006
Description: Covers American airborne involvement during WWII through historical newsreel footage, as well as documentary featurettes shot and narrated by top Hollywood enlistees. Includes William Wyler's Memphis Belle, narrations by Carl Sandburg and Clark Gable, and footage featuring new lieutenants Ronald Reagan and Burgess Meredith. 11 films with more than 5 hours of content. 6-DVD boxed set.
Price: $49.99
Product: WWII: Why We Fight
Release date: May 2006
Description: From Russia to Rotterdam, FDR to Chiang Kai-shek, Why We Fight spotlights the ideologies and the aftermath of the Axis aggression that resulted in the global conflict that was World War II. 7 films with more than 7 hours of content. 6-DVD boxed set.
Price: $49.99
Product: WWII: War on the Homefront
Release date: May 2006
Description: A vivid recounting of the stateside war effort waged by civilian men and women, and the war measures - from gas rationing to Victory Gardens - in place back home. Features newsreel footage, training films, and appearances by a galaxy of Hollywood stars such as Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, Margaret O'Brien, Katharine Hepburn, and James Stewart. 29 films with more than 5 hours of content. 6-DVD boxed set.
Price: $49.99
Product: Classic Aviation
Release date: December 2006
Description: Follow the gripping story of aviation from the first flights to the launch into space. Highlights include a 1924 around-the-globe adventure by plane; WWII footage of the famous and tragic raid on the Ploesti oil fields by B-24 Liberators; historic test flights of the XF rocket aircraft, C-130 Hercules, and H-19 helicopter; Neil Armstrong's flights in the XF and X-15 rocket planes; and harrowing tales of action over Vietnam from fighter pilots, bomber pilots, generals, and crews of the KC-135 tanker craft. 6 films with nearly 7 hours of content. 6-DVD set.
Price: $49.99
Product: NASA: A Retrospective
Release date: February 2007
Description: Spectacular film footage, still photographs, and informative commentary guide viewers along the timeline of U.S. space exploration, from Project Mercury to the space shuttle Columbia. Featured titles include "Astronauts," one of the earliest NASA edited films; "The Eagle Has Landed"; "Apollo 13: Houston, We Have a Problem"; and "Who's Out There?" __ films with 5 hours of content. 4-DVD boxed set.
Price: $24.99
Product: Vietnam: A Retrospective
Release date: May 2007
Description: This compelling collection takes viewers on an unforgettable journey to the front lines of a conflict that spanned five presidencies and defined a generation. Find out how U.S. involvement in the war began in Hidden War in Vietnam and Why Vietnam? Experience heroic rescue missions in To Save a Soldier, Report on Marine Activities, and The Faces of Rescue. Get up close and personal with those that fought, with actual footage of daily activities, combat operations, and personal stories in A Nation Builds Under Fire, Another Day of War, and River Patrol. Finally, in Night of the Dragon, Operation Montagnard, and Vietnam, Vietnam learn about Vietnam's history, culture, and economy and the people who call it home. 24 films with more than 12 hours of content. 6-DVD boxed set.
Price: $49.99
Product: WWII: A Filmed History
Release date: November 2007
Description: Features "War in Europe," "War on the Homefront," "War in the Pacific," and "Why We Fight." Totaling more than 25 hours of archival footage, this collection represents an invaluable cinematic recounting of American participation in World War II in one comprehensive package. Included are selections from on-the-scene historical newsreel footage and documentary shorts and features, often filmed and narrated by top Hollywood enlistees. 63 films with 26 hours of content. 24-DVD set.
Price: $149
Available at Costco and other major retailers nationwide.
Product: Aviation: A Filmed History
Release date: November 2007
Description: Combines NARA sets "Classic Aviation" and "WWII: Air War" with three popular aviation titles from Topic's product line - "America's Fighting Jets," "Fighter Pilots," and "Military Air Power." Over 20 hours of footage documents aviation from the first flights to the launch into space. 29 films with 23 hours of content. 24-DVD set.
Price: $149
Available at Costco and other major retailers nationwide.
Product: Audio Archives: War & Conflict
Release date: June 2008
Description: Contains some of the most rare and moving sound recordings from World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and Desert Storm, including Presidential addresses to the nation and combat actuality recordings direct from the battlefield. Approx. 4 hours. 4-CD set.
Price: $9.95
Available at Borders, Barnes & Noble, BJ's Wholesale Club, and other major retailers nationwide.
Product: Audio Archives: Presidential Moments
Release date: June 2008
Description: Through famed "fireside chats," inspirational speeches, and intimate conversations in the Oval Office, Presidential Moments presents the leaders of our country in uncensored recordings of their most triumphant moments and turbulent times. Approx. 4 hours. 4-CD set.
Price: $9.95
Available at Borders, Barnes & Noble, BJ's Wholesale Club, and other major retailers nationwide.
Product: Audio Archives: Events That Changed the World
Release date: June 2008
Description: Brings to life some of the greatest discoveries, as well as the most horrific tragedies, that took place during the last century, from the harnessing of electricity and the space race to eyewitness accounts of the Titanic and Hindenburg disasters. Approx. 4 hours. 4-CD set.
Price: $9.95
Available at Borders, Barnes & Noble, BJ's Wholesale Club, and other major retailers nationwide.
Product: Audio Archives: Civil Rights
Release date: June 2008
Description: Brilliantly captures through speeches, interviews, and firsthand accounts the hardships that so many have faced and the heroic battles that were fought to guarantee equal treatment of every American regardless of race. Approx. 4 hours. 4-CD set.
Price: $9.95
Available at Borders, Barnes & Noble, BJ's Wholesale Club, and other major retailers nationwide.
Product: Audio Archives: Documents of Democracy
Release date: TBD
Price: $19.95
Product: Our Plant Earth: Natural Disasters
Release date: June 2008
Description: Chronicles some of the world's most devastating earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, forest fires, and volcanoes - random acts of nature that have altered the world's economy, threatened and disrupted millions of earth's inhabitants, cost thousands of human lives, and at times changed the course of history. Also recounted are the heroic efforts of relief workers to return cities to normal and the attempts of local governments to better prepare for future events. 24 films with 8-½ hours of content. Slim 6-DVD set.
Price: $39.99
Available at Barnes & Noble, Borders, Costco, Sam's Club, Best Buy, and other major retailers.
Product: WWII: Bloodiest Battles (Single Title)
Release date: June 2008
Description: Features emotional images and historical newsreel footage of some of the most important and destructive conflicts of WWII - D-Day, Surrender in the Pacific, Invasion of Poland in 1939 by the German Army, Fury in the Pacific, and The Battle for the Marianas. 5 films with approximately 105 minutes of content.
Price: $7.99
Available at Best Buy, BJ's Wholesale Club, Netflix, and other major retailers.
Product: WWII in Color (Single Title)
Release date: June 2008
Description: Contains five remarkable color documentary films - The Battle of Midway by director John Ford, Thunderbolt and Memphis Belle by William Wyler, With the Marines at Tarawa, and Challenge for Democracy. 5 films with approximately 140 minutes of content.
Price: $7.99
Available at Best Buy, BJ's Wholesale Club, Netflix, and other major retailers.
Product: WWII: Air War (Single Title)
Release date: June 2008
Description: Highlights the most intense and exciting air battles of WWII through films Memphis Belle, Army Air Force, The Fleet that Came to Stay, Air War in Europe, and Fight for the Sky. 5 films with approximately 120 minutes of content.
Price: $7.99
Available at Best Buy, BJ's Wholesale Club, Netflix, and other major retailers.