Write Lightning is a blog from writer Deb Thompson.
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Wed, Dec 21 2005
Rum (and other) Revisionist History
I've been hearing a lot of remarks lately about people revising the recent history of events in Iraq and other areas of the Middle East. I find it rather amusing, since most of the history we study today is revisionist history in one way or another. The passage of time itself seems to change the way we view past acts.
There was a documentary on TV last night that chronicled the production of refined sugar and molasses in the Caribbean, Hawaii and other places with optimum climates. What stood out (other than the fact that sugar takes some real work to make) for me was a brief segment of the show which pointed out that our modern fixation on the Boston Tea Party is a recent phenomenon, and that the American Revolution was as much about molasses and run as anything else on the minds of the patriots.
Neither my elementary nor my high school history textbooks had much to say about rum's role in our nation's formation. I find it interesting that more is being said about it now in 2005. It makes me wonder if history writing, like fiction writing, is a lot more about the times in which we live than about the incidents themselves.
posted at: 07:13 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
I've been hearing a lot of remarks lately about people revising the recent history of events in Iraq and other areas of the Middle East. I find it rather amusing, since most of the history we study today is revisionist history in one way or another. The passage of time itself seems to change the way we view past acts.
There was a documentary on TV last night that chronicled the production of refined sugar and molasses in the Caribbean, Hawaii and other places with optimum climates. What stood out (other than the fact that sugar takes some real work to make) for me was a brief segment of the show which pointed out that our modern fixation on the Boston Tea Party is a recent phenomenon, and that the American Revolution was as much about molasses and run as anything else on the minds of the patriots.
Neither my elementary nor my high school history textbooks had much to say about rum's role in our nation's formation. I find it interesting that more is being said about it now in 2005. It makes me wonder if history writing, like fiction writing, is a lot more about the times in which we live than about the incidents themselves.
posted at: 07:13 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
