Monday, May 17, 2010

Book Review

Recently the other DrC bought a book entitled America: A Visual History from Then to Now published by Time Inc. The title page and cover also carried white letters on a red background that said LIFE. Her hope was that the book would do U.S. History via Life magazine's excellent pictures. It does, sort of.

The book is divided into three sections: People, Places, and Things, in that order. I started at the beginning and by the time I finished the People section I was so turned off the rest of the book had little chance.

The People and Places sections of this book would have you believe white men had very little to do with the history of the United States. It is only when you get to the Things section that, by reading carefully, you discover that most of these were created by...wait for it...white men.

I'm used to political correctness in the mainstream media. I didn't expect to see it in a work of history. I see I was naive.

If your understanding, like mine, is that white men played most of the key roles in the history of this nation, the book is not for you. It is revisionist history written to make the underrepresented feel better.