Friday, December 01, 2006
'The 10 Best Books of 2006'
Nantucket writer Nathaniel Philbrick's 'Mayflower' rightly makes the top 10 list. Not sure the book is really a 'model of revisionism.' There comes a point when 'revisionism' is actually mainstream. Historians long ago demolished most of the myths surrounding the Pilgrims. Hell, James Fenimore Cooper was already slashing away at settler-Indian stereotypes as far back as 1826. But I guess it serves the vanity of contemporary reviewers to show they have alleged counterintuitive intellects that the rest of us don't possess, so they trumpet 'revisionism' that really isn't 'revisionism' anymore. ... FYI: Philbrick's book is great because it's so thorough and engrossing. ...
Nantucket writer Nathaniel Philbrick's 'Mayflower' rightly makes the top 10 list. Not sure the book is really a 'model of revisionism.' There comes a point when 'revisionism' is actually mainstream. Historians long ago demolished most of the myths surrounding the Pilgrims. Hell, James Fenimore Cooper was already slashing away at settler-Indian stereotypes as far back as 1826. But I guess it serves the vanity of contemporary reviewers to show they have alleged counterintuitive intellects that the rest of us don't possess, so they trumpet 'revisionism' that really isn't 'revisionism' anymore. ... FYI: Philbrick's book is great because it's so thorough and engrossing. ...
