Selected Photos |
 |
How
the Other Half Lived: A People's Guide to American Historic Sites
From Mount Vernon to the Alamo, from Plimoth Plantation to the
Little Bighorn, telling American history is a big business. Many
Americans, in fact, get their only historical information at public
parks, homes, and monuments across the country. And while they may
learn about George Washington or George Armstrong Custer along the
way, the millions of slaves, servants, native people, and immigrant
laborers who built much of America have become almost invisible in
the public eye.
How the Other Half Lived evaluates how over 30 historic
sites represent the contributions of women, Native Americans, African
Americans, Chinese Americans, and others. In doing so, it details
the lives of the great unwashed who cooked and farmed, labored
and fought, endured and survived. Philip Burnham recounts his travels
to sites across the country, reading official histories with a
critical and humorous eye. We see how the darker side of the California
missions has long been suppressed; how visitors re-imagine the
roles of master and slave at Somerset Place plantation in North
Carolina; how women fared in the "utopian" community
of New Harmony, Indiana.
How has the statue of an English soldier created controversy in
a small New England town? How have restored plantations sought to
gentrify the memory of slavery? How will a preserved battlefield
on the Rio Grande revive memories of a bitter war with Mexico? How
the Other Half Lived reveals that, in spite of its enormous
influence on history, a significant part of the population remains
almost invisible at some of the most visited monuments in the country,
and what many sites are doing to remedy this. |
