Dad With Teeth

History with an attitude

I thought I would add some more media to this site. Just random odds and ends that revolve around history.

Seattle was founded in 1851, which is not a long time ago geologically speaking, but is older than other communities with many more designated landmarks than we have. Seattle has a significant history, important to the country, and a sizable heritage community who knows and cares about it. This first video is from a documentary I worked on about icons that are no longer here in Seattle. Subjects included Fredrick and Nelson department store, the Kalakala ferry, Bobo the gorilla and this story about the streetcars and cable cars that used to motor along the neighborhood streets. It ran on KCTS about 8 years ago. Unfortunately there is a typo in my artwork so I have to fix that tonight. Typing too fast for my own good.

Myth America was a series produced for Discovery/TLC. The premise of the entire series was a review of the history that we were not taught in school. This particular episode focused on one topic you never heard about in history class -- I'll let you guess. In this rather irreverrent series, historian Rick Shenkman explains why Americans are fond of myths and he clarifies who's behind the falsehoods. His research shows that many of the myths are the product of a concerted campaign in the 19th century to turn Americans into patriotic nationalists. Today the myths are perpetuated by government bureaucracies afraid of letting Americans in on the big secret. Schools are frightened of creating controversy. Tourist boards are scared of driving away visitors who come to see the shrines they learned to revere as children. Politicians quail before the powerful super patriotic groups that are determined to use history to advance their own biased agenda.

Thoreau said that we remember only what is important. But Americans seem to remember from their history all that's mythical. With time the facts fade. But the myths go on and on.


Links are here:

Myth America
Seattle Trollies

posted by Drew Keller @ Tuesday, January 24, 2006