Inspired by the Smithsonian's controversial exhibit on the Enola Gay, "excellent" essays examining America's attitudes toward her past (Kirkus Reviews).
"Our history has been held hostage by the righteous right—Legionnaires, Congressional Claghorns, and courtier-scholars—ever since Year One. From the winning of the West to Hiroshima, our nation's purity of purpose was never doubted. Along comes a platoon of independent-minded American historians who challenge this holy postulate. This is a stimulating and revelatory work." —Studs Terkel
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, Micahel S. Sherry, Marilyn B. Young, and Mike Wallace.
"A must-read on the culture wars. At a time when amnesia is considered patriotically correct, the essays in this superb volume go a long way toward showing what is at stake when profiles in cowardice loom over the national culture." —Todd Gitlin, author of The Twilight of Common Dreams