IS THAT IN YOUR AMERICAN HISTORY BOOK?

A review of Thomas Ayres’s That’s not in my American History Book: A compilation of little known events and forgotten heroes (2000)

(Rating 4 of 5)

Historical revisionism is an often misunderstood term.  There are two versions of it one positive, one negative.  The positive version of historical revisionism is when we come across new information that forces historians to adjust our model on the past to compensate for the new information.  A good example would be if an ancient city, like Pompeii, was found and excavated our understanding of  life in that ancient culture to which that city belong would not only increase but it might be radically altered.  Historians would have to update what we knew of said culture.  

The negative version is intense political motivated ‘research’ created by either the far left or the far right to make history coincided with their political views.  A modern example of this would be ‘tea’ party members of Texas Board of Education trying to write Thomas Jefferson out of history books and declare that the Founders tried to establish a religious state.

Ayres reminds us that there can be a third version of  revision called humor, and it is remarkably effective.  Throughout the book he takes time to explain myths about figures such as Washington, Paul Revere, and Betsy Ross.  After talking about the myth he then explains why the myth became popular in the first place.  This is a great book that I highly recommend.   

FAMOUS CASES

A review of Great American Trials: 201 Compelling Courtroom Dramas edited by Edward W. Knappman (1994)

(Rating 4 of 5)

My parents got me this book as a present one Christmas in the late 1990s.  At the time I was thinking about what I might want to do with my life and it crossed my mind I might want to be a prosecutor—that didn’t happen.  Nevertheless, my parents bought me this book which is a fascinating piece of American history.  Great American Trials spans the trials of Anne Hutchinson and O.J. Simpson.  In this book several prominent Americans are featured here as defendants such as Aaron Burr, John Brown, Andrew Johnson, and Al Capone.  The famed lawyer Clarence Darrow makes several appearances in the book.  The book is full of criminals, victims, the guilty who were brought to justice, the guilty who escaped justice, the wrongly accused who were exonerated, and the wrongly accused who were condemned.

Clarence Darrow, almost the star

Each case is divided into three sections.  They begin with a historical summery about the defendant and the world that they lived.  The second section goes into the case itself, describing how the court, prosecutors and defense attorneys’ actions all affected the outcome of the trial.  The final section of the case talks about the aftermath.  What happened to the defendant and how that case affected the nation’s culture and judicial system are discussed when needed.

The two most hated young men in the early 20th century

In the end, Great American Trails presents over 360 years of history and 200 trials into a book just over 900 pages long.  It nevertheless is a quick read, because you are presented with one fascinating case after another.

HARD DECADE

A review of Life’s 2000-2009: The Decade that Changed the World (2009)

(Rating 4 of 5)

At the end of 2009, Life released their decade issue capturing the major moments of the first decade of the 20^th century.  This decade led off with the most controversial presidential election since 1876, it would end with the inauguration and first year of America’s first African-American president.  It was a time where the peace that was result of the end of the Cold War, gave way to the horrors of September 11 and the ‘War on Terror’ that would consume the decade.  This decade saw both the Red and White Sox end their long championship drought; same-sex marriage became a legal possibility, and longstanding regimes came to an end.

This review was originally longer however I started to go into a long rant about how my life sucked in this decade, I guess my cognitive dissonance is too severe to discuss this decade.

The quality of the structure of the project is high nevertheless.   There are a lot of bad memories here but the work itself is well done.