Comments on: Shaping Memory—Review: These Honored Dead by Thomas A. Desjardin

By: hamish M

hamish M — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 04:00:01 +0000

Yes Russ, the Keneally book is very interesting. I think that I will look out for the Desjardins book. The way that stories evolve is very interesting.
I started looking around for things about why Meade did not pursue Lee immediately after Gettysburg and that was interesting to see the changes in the way it was perceived through the years. Until I looked around about it, I would have said it was over cautious but now I think that, realistically, he did not have much choice.

By: CWMackowski

CWMackowski — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 06:16:23 +0000

I think you’re right, Russ, since so much of what we know of WWII is more John Wayne than Saving Private Ryan (although the latter did wonders for opening up a lot of eyes to what it was really like). The fact that members of The Greatest Generation are passing away at such an alarming rate also seems to put an emphasis on the “greatness” aspect of what they did rather than the horrible tragedy that war inevitably is, and that really has an impact on how we are, as a society, making sense of that war.

The Sickles book is indeed juicy. With Sickles as a subject, how could it not be!

By: Russ Wellen

Russ Wellen — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 04:48:12 +0000

â€œHistory has a way of coming out the way we hoped it would rather than the way things really happened,â€ Desjardin says.

You mention 9/11 and Iraq (along with Gettysburg and presumably the entire Civil War). But nowhere is that more true than the national mythology surrounding World War II. It seems like we're only just figuring out both the Civil War and World War II. We're making much better time with Vietnam and already many have uncovered the truths about Iraq. Absorbing them into our national consciousness is another matter. For more about General Sickles, this book by the well-known writer Thomas Keneally is both illuminating and juicy: American Scoundrel: The Life of the Notorious Civil War General Dan Sickles.

By: Jeff Watson

Jeff Watson — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 22:55:50 +0000

Ann Ivins,

Genesis 3,4 is subject to much interpretation and debate. Although I have made a diligent effort to read passages every day for the past 40 years, I bow before your supreme understanding, humbled at your grasp.

Perhaps you ought to revisit
Romans 15:4

Num. 11:28,29
Isa. 65:5
Mark 9:38-40
Luke 9:49,50
2 Cor. 10:12

Jeff

By: Dr. Denny

Dr. Denny — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 20:27:08 +0000

Chris,

One of my favorite books similarly explores political myth-making. Michael Schudson’s “Watergate in American Memory” looks at how we know what we think we know about Nixon and events preceding Watergate.

I read it first in my doc program 20 years after covering some of those events in the early ’70s. It’s interesting how reading books by the various participants has colored my own first-hand experience of those events.

Today, the old saw about “Journalism is the first rough draft of history” takes on a new meaning in the Age of Spin.

A terrific review, Chis. Thanks.

By: Ann Ivins

Ann Ivins — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 15:28:51 +0000

Oops, sorry: that should read “never called out the serpent until Adam passed the buck.” Got a two-year-old hanging off my neck…

By: Ann Ivins

Ann Ivins — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 15:05:52 +0000

Haven’t read the Old Testament in a while, have you, Jeff? Adam was the craven whiner who blamed someone else for his own actions. Eve never even called out the serpent. She ate the fruit and took her punishment… like a man.

Or not.

By: Lex

Lex — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 14:25:38 +0000

Excellent review, and while i’m no Civil War buff by any stretch of the imagination i’m going to put this one on my winter reading list.

By: JS OBrien

JS OBrien — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 13:06:59 +0000

Chris,

This is an example of why I love reading S&R. I’m going to buy this book, and I thought I’d never bother to buy another on that battle. The mythmaking aspect of history I learned in cultural antrhopology courses has always fascinated me, and I can’t wait to read this take on it.

Thanks!

By: Jeff Watson

Jeff Watson — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 06:32:03 +0000

Chris,

Great synopsis and analysis. It seems to me that spin has been going on a long time, perhaps Eve was the first spin meister.

Jeff