History Wars

From the “taming of the West” to the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, the portrayal of the past has become a battleground at the heart of American politics. What kind of history Americans should read, see, or fund is no longer merely a matter of professional interest to teachers, historians, and museum curators. Everywhere now, history is increasingly being held hostage, but to what end and why? In History Wars, eight prominent historians consider the angry swirl of emotions that now surrounds public memory. Included are trenchant essays by Paul Boyer, John W. Dower, Tom Engelhardt, Richard H. Kohn, Edward Linenthal, Michael S. Sherry, Marilyn B. Young, and Mike Wallace.

Praise

"This informative and compelling volume offers an object lesson in why the past remains so controversial and why censorship—by Congress, pressure groups, or museum officials—is the worst possible response to honest differences of opinion about the public presentation of history."—Eric Foner, Columbia University

“A stimulating and revelatory work.”—Studs Terkel

About the Author(s)

By Edward T. Linethal and Tom Engelhardt

Edward T. Linenthal is Edward M. Penson Professor of Religion and American Culture at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh. He is the author of Sacred Ground: Americans and Their Battlefields and Preserving Memory: The Struggle to Create America's Holocaust Museum.

Excerpt

History Wars
1ANATOMY OF A CONTROVERSYEDWARD T. LINENTHAL 
 
 
 
 
When, in the fall of 1993, Martin Harwit, director of the National Air and Space Museum (NASM), asked me to serve on an advisory committee for that museum's upcoming Enola Gay exhibit, I was excited. After all, for many years I had studied battles over battlefield memorialization, clashes over "sacred ground.

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