From: MaryHaas@AOL.COM
Date: Sat Sep 08 2001 - 06:38:29 PDT
Tracy, I read with interest the call for chapter authors and the description of the book that you intend to edit on children and W. W. II. There are some good ideas here and some very questionable ones. I will address the questionable ones only in an attempt to be of help in your thinking about the book. As someone who has published research on how W. W. II is taught in the secondary schools and read the research by others on this topic, I would like to point out to you that your letter puts an emphasis on selected, dramatic events and that you are sensationalizing history rather like the movies have done. Unfortunately, instead of learning what live was life during the war day after day for many years only a few events are being presented to our youth and that is what is being taught in the schools in the US and other nations as well. Unfortunately, these events are coloring their understanding of the war and making it into something that it was not. By adding a few more events to the list usually presented you are widening the study, but I question if you are still teaching sensationalism. It sounds as if your knowledge of W.W.II is politically correct because it sounds like the various interest groups have been hear and that the truth of the times which is what historians are about is being manipulated by the choice of your examples. That is your problem to solve not mine. By the way there is a fine history already written on the children of WW II in the US and I suggest that you read it as the conclusions are very different from what you might expect and what the author originally thought would be the result of a very extensive set of data. Your question on how did these events impact your life is a rather weak one. It is a leading one. You need to ask the question of individuals void of any reference to WW II and prior to asking about the war. Only then will you get those replies that are what the individualimportant to the individual. Having interviewed a number of people who were children and also adults of the period and read the books what can be the conclusions I don't find personal events of W. W. II as standing out even though W. W. II and its changes on the people and nation still impacts our lives and the policies of our government. Yes, there are unique individuals who respond to an event of childhood for the remainder of their lives, but this is not true of most people. Most are greatly impacted by other events as they happen and the combination of events may or may not related to some event in their childhood. Memories are one thing and history is quite another. Editors and books tend to lead readers to conclusions by the selection of the content and also by its presentation. What will you do to see that your book does not encourage the readers to draw incomplete and inaccurate conclusions, and misperceptions concerning W. W. II? You can and should do somethings to encourage critical thinking and not acceptance of your conclusions. Next, I wish you would read your comments concerning Elizabeth Dole. I have watched her career and campaigning for many years and what you have put here is hollow and does not do her justice even though it is a statement of three true roles she has performed. What makes her qualified to be an editor of this book. Lastly, what are your credentials for being and editor for the book? Mary E. Haas ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> FREE COLLEGE MONEY CLICK HERE to search 600,000 scholarships! http://us.click.yahoo.com/47cccB/4m7CAA/ySSFAA/r1FolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: timewitnesses-unsubscribe@egroups.com Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/