Fun_People Archive
23 Feb
Lies on the Landscape--Examples Sought

Date: Fri, 23 Feb 96 17:34:59 -0800
From: Peter Langston <psl>
To: Fun_People
Subject: Lies on the Landscape--Examples Sought

[It's a challenge... -psl]

Forwarded-by: Sapoznik@aol.com
Forwarded-by: garvey@panix.com (Ellen Garvey)
Forwarded-by: Gretchen Adams-Bond <gabond@OREGON.UOREGON.EDU>
To: Multiple recipients of list H-AMSTDY <H-AMSTDY@MSU.EDU>
From: JIM LOEWEN - SOCIOLOGY <JLOEWEN@polyglot.uvm.edu>

I hereby ask the help of AMSTDY folks.  Following the success of LIES
MY TEACHER TOLD ME:  EVERYTHING YOUR AMERICAN HISTORY TEXTBOOK GOT
WRONG (sixth printing, etc.), I have decided to write a sort of
sequel.  It will be titled LIES ON THE LANDSCAPE:  EVERYTHING OUR
HISTORY MARKERS, MONUMENTS, AND MUSEUMS GET WRONG.

The first "lie" will be "everything," which I may have to remove from
the title.

Can you point me to markers, monuments, etc., that are radically
incomplete?  Or inaccurate?  or one-sided?  I don't mean "The First
Presby. Church was founded in 1881" when the real date was 1883.  I
mean, e.g., this marker in upstate NY:  "Here the settlers were
enduring savage attacks until Gens. Sullivan's campaign in 1779.  As a
result, the frontier was moved over 200 miles west."  Actually, of
course, "the settlers" were Iroquois, and during Sullivan's
savage attack, his men chopped down their orchards, burned their
maize fields, and destroyed their villages.  So the marker needs a
counter-marker, to show how it has turned history upside down.

Also, I'd like nominations for sites that are NOT marked, perhaps
because their event is embarrassing, but SHOULD
be.

And I'd like suggested markers and monuments and exhibits that are
GREAT, that complexly handle complex events, etc.

Thank you for helping!  Should make for an interesting thread?
--Jim Loewen, Sociology, U of VT, Burlington, VT 05405

© 1996 Peter Langston