History can be a great teacher, if only we put the right questions to it. At a moment when the documentary form continues to diversify, driven equally by changes in technological possibility, user expectation and media infrastructure, history might seem to provide a strange ally. After all, the challenges posed by such new developments as interactivity, live documentary and virtual reality, to name but three, seem to have few precedents. And yet, or so this chapter will argue, we might benefit by taking a closer look at the past and seeing what lessons can be learned. Continuities can reveal long-term…