Why are we burying history?

[grumpyduck]

About a year ago I discovered Atlas Obscura, a web site that features articles, written by users, about interesting places around the world. Sometimes, after plowing through several news sites, I find it to be a breath of fresh air. This morning they had a piece (which they moved out of the front page) about the Little Prairie books and how inaccurate the food descriptions were.

It also pointed out that the author's name had been removed from the American Library Association's awards list because some people considered the books racist.

So here we go.

First, the article was informative about the food the pioneers ate. No arguments there. But I have to wonder why some people feel it's a public service to point out that children's storybooks (over 150 years old in this case) are often not historically accurate. What's next, bash the cartoons? "The old Roadrunner cartoons weren't accurate. No way Wiley could have ordered stuff in the middle of the desert because cell phones and drones hadn't been invented yet."

But what really got to me was the bit about the awards. It brought back stories about books being removed from shelves because some people feel they're "insensitive" or something similar. Burying literature and history does not make it go away. And heaven forbid someone should get the quaint old-fashioned arrogantly naive (and probably divisive) idea that we can learn something from it.

Makes me wonder if the real reason some people want books removed from shelves is because they have no clue how to talk to their kids about them.

[exboyfil]

1. Wilder writes an entire book about how near they came

to death by starvation, and it isn't enough? She is expected to have a broad understanding of ecology that we are still fighting 40% of the population to appreciate.

I agree with you that Wilder is held to a ridiculously high standard. Her books have been appreciated by generations of children including myself and my wife.

I thought the award should have been hyphenated to include a more modern author with a more inclusive body of work. Wilder's books stand as wonderful literature for children. My daughters never really got into them, but I plan to reread at least some before I shake off this mortal coil.

[msongs]

2. meanwhile bibles are available to kids all over the place nt

[appalachiablue]

3. At it's worst, altering or erasing people's history and culture

has often been used as a slow or sudden means to marginalize, dominate or eliminate ideas or peoples, esp. 'others.' Well known examples include the horrific genocide of Native Americans in the US and Americas; systemic enslavement and oppression of black people in America during slavery and Jim Crow; the extermination of Armenians by Ottomans c. 1915; and persecution of Jews in Europe with pogroms in the Middle Ages and into the 20th c. Holocaust.

Years ago while working at the National Archives, I was stunned when a supervisor in charge of the main research room once said the staff there were inundated with 'researchers' requesting original primary records, documents and books all in order to produce contradicting, revisionist publications to alter and 're-write' history. Main topics targeted were US slavery and the Civil War, the Nazi Holocaust and Second World War, and historical accounts, evidence and ideas of other eras, all for ideological and political purposes.

Other instances of eliminating history and culture especially through banning books, religion and language include the British with Irish Catholics, and Europeans who condemned and criminalized populations during the Spanish Inquisition, the religious wars of the 16th century, and in the 1930s and 40s by fascist regimes in Spain, Italy and Germany that opposed and suppressed pro republican and democratic peoples, books, ideas, principles and institutions.

In the US from the 1860s until the 1950s, Native American children were removed from their families and educated at special schools where they could not speak their own language or follow native customs. They were forced to speak only English, wear westernized clothing and cut their long hair short to delete their heritage and become Americanized. If the students resisted or disobeyed, harsh punishments were inflicted on them.

Banning valuable historical books, artifacts and evidence, and eliminating ideas and customs even if considered objectionable is always a serious and sensitive matter to be be handled cautiously with integrity and genuine regard for preserving accuracy and truth.

[RealityChik]

4. Sadly, the average college student...

Still can't name the 3 branches of the US Government and have no clue when the US Civil War was. Most cannot name their representatives in Congress or their state governor. Nor the name of their own state capitol. Few adults know that Hawaii is a state in the US, and still ask residents if the hotels have hot and cold running water!!! I can only imagine how many adults don't know there are 50 states, much less name them!

Thing of it is, if we don't know our own history, we are doomed to repeat our most devastating mistakes, over and over and over.

Civics as a formal course was already gone in the late 1950s. All we got were a few daily articles during a 20 minute homeroom period first thing in the morning. By the time my kids were in high school in the 1990s, American Government was no longer a requirement, only an elective, often for the Advanced/Gifted program or not offered at all.

Even in my day, American History textbooks were so thick with frivolous innuendo, (or in my case Catholic propaganda) students were lucky to get to the 19th century much less the 2 world wars, Korean War and Vietnam. And forget about current events!

Nowadays, degrees in History have almost zero value to graduates in search of a productive career, but that's where abstract thinking and global perspective come from.