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Title: History Wars : The Enola Gay and Other Battles for the American Past by Tom Engelhardt, Edward T. Linethal ISBN: 0-8050-4387-X Publisher: Henry Holt & Company, Inc. Pub. Date: 15 August, 1996 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.33 (3 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: History is less about the past but more about the present.
Comment: History Wars: The Enola gay and other Battles for the American Past is an extremely thought provoking book. Contained herein are eight essays that explore various issues concerning the fiasco that surrounded the attempt by the Smithsonian to reflect on the dropping of the bomb. History Wars brings up concerns not just about how World War II ended but more importantly how we as liberal and democratic societies confront issues with political implications.
Here are the facts of the matter: The National Air and Space Museum (NASM), in the early nineties, decided to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the conclusion of World War II by working the exhibit around the Enola Gay, the now infamous B-29 used to drop the bomb on Hiroshima. The NASM (which is really part of the Smithsonian Institutions) suddenly finds itself in the middle of a firestorm of controversy. Reading the essays in History Wars one gets the impression that the real battle was one fought by historians and concerned citizens who feared that nothing less than the American past was at stake. With an exhibit title like: The Crossroads: The end of World War II, the Atomic Bomb, and the Origins of the Cold War, the exhibit was ripe for controversy. Asking some rather pointed questions about the bomb and whether or not it really did save lives and if it was the only solution to ending the war (as in Did the Truman Administration have any other options, etc.?) is starting to come a little bit too close to home. One really needs to ask, was the exhibit a commemoration or a celebration? A commemoration is really something or somewhat reflective and includes others. Conversely, a celebration is a process of self-aggrandizement, which really means "I."
Air Force Association (AFA) together with the House of Representatives effectively called for a suspension of what was seen as 'revisionism." No doubt that World War II was "the greatest military victory in U.S. history" (2-3). However, what is key to point out is that information comes to light after years of being in the dark and it is our responsibility as good citizens to bring the truth to the surface. In effect, we are all "revisionists." Linenthal writes: "For Representative Sam Johnson, a Republican from Texas and air force veteran who was appointed to the Smithsonian board of Regents by new Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, the outpouring of anger at the Smithsonian indicated that "people" were taking history from elites (as code word for the Intelligentsia - addition mine). "We've got to get patriotism back into the Smithsonian," he declared. "We want the Smithsonian to reflect real America and not something that a historian dreamed up"" (59). It needs to be made clear that being self reflective and holding the U.S. accountable for actions in the war does not detract from the bravery of the soldiers that fought the war. However, in an effort to prevent wars in the future, to seek different alternatives, we need to be self-reflective of the past - which is what I think Linenthal and Engelhardt are trying to do in this book. We really need to be reflective of the narratives that inform our actions, our nationalism. In History Wars, Linenthal, et al. do nothing short of re-examining our master narratives.
In History Wars we read that criticism was direct towards the NASM focused on them making the exhibit too sympathetic to the Japanese victims of the bomb. Doing so problematizes the narrative that World War II was a "good war." The exhibit as well as the script that went along with it was making the U.S. look like the aggressors and Japan and the Japanese the victims. The War, as 'common-sense' understanding has it, point to America entering the war to protect itself against Japanese aggression. In an interchange of narratives, both governments (mind you all Nationalistic governments do this) posture themselves as victim and the "Other" as villain. Historians, quite fittingly argue, that what they observed was a successful movement by powerful sections of American society to stifle problematizing of "cherished national narratives" (5). As Michael Kammen, president of the Organization of American Historians and member of the Smithsonian Council posits: "...Historians become controversial when they do not perpetuate myths, when they do not transmit the received and conventional wisdom, when they challenge the comforting presence of a stabilized past" (60). The reality of what went on in the air and on the ground is the same - no argument there. Moreover, as good or bad as any war can be the truth on the ground is revealed in pictures and the archive that has spawned around Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The argument about perception is proof positive that "history" is less about the past but more about the present and the future. In the end, all eight writers saw the "mini" version of the exhibit was lost opportunity to be self-reflective of a passing of one age and the dawning of another.
Miguel Llora
Rating: 1
Summary: An excellent example of Politically Correct gibberish.
Comment: This book is an excellent example of Politically Correct elitist nonsense. From the PC arrogance such as not just displaying the Enola Gay because the "public did not have an adequate understanding with which to view it" to the ludicrous "connection" of American "homophobia" due the word "Gay" in Enola Gay (!!) to the tie-in with "Rambo" movies and our Vietnam experinces, this book trots out every morally bankrupt Leftist cliche that ever existed, and then some. However, it is an EXCELLENT book as typical of the arrogant PC/leftist mind set and ability to ignore reality.
Rating: 4
Summary: Excellent analysis of the Atomic bomb and modern society
Comment: A revealing analysis of the political and historical conflicts revolving around the 1995 Smithsonian Air and Space exhibit on the Enola Gay and Post-War America. Through insightful disection of both sides of the Enola Gay exhibit and of post-war America, Linenthal and Engelhardt make an interesting modern dilemma into a more interesting read. Recommended to anyone who has an interest in the Cold War and of the effects of the atomic bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima on American and Japanese civilizations.
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Title: History on Trial : Culture Wars and the Teaching of the Past by Charlotte Crabtree, Ross Dunn, Gary Nash ISBN: 0679767509 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 18 April, 2000 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: The Presence of the Past by Roy Rosenzweig, David Thelen ISBN: 0231111495 Publisher: Columbia University Press Pub. Date: 15 April, 2000 List Price(USD): $21.50 |
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Title: The New History in an Old Museum: Creating the Past at Colonial Williamsburg by Richard Handler, Eric Gable ISBN: 0822319748 Publisher: Duke Univ Pr (Txt) Pub. Date: September, 1997 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
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Title: Making War, Thinking History: Munich, Vietnam, and Presidential Uses of Force from Korea to Kosovo by Jeffrey Record ISBN: 1557500096 Publisher: Naval Institute Press Pub. Date: 21 January, 2002 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Domesticating History: The Political Origins of America's House Museums by Patricia West ISBN: 1560988363 Publisher: Smithsonian Institution Press Pub. Date: May, 1999 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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