By: Sarah K. Mergel, Ph.D.
In my experience, history fascinates people, especially their own history, and yet they know so little about it. Often times, what they take as fact while not fiction probably should not be taken as fact. Myths pervade history—for better or worse. Margaret MacMillan, in her book Dangerous Games, explores the story of Prince Lazar and the Battle of Kosovo. She also examines how it became a national symbol for Serbians well into the 1990s when under Slobodan Milosevic the Serbians led an ethnic cleansing campaign against Albanians then living in Kosovo. However, she notes “the only problem with the story is that not only is it much too simple but parts of it are not supported by the sketchy records from the time.”[i] Not all myths have such tragic consequences. Nevertheless, all myths deserve further scrutiny.
This blog features projects by students enrolled in The Study of History at Dalton State College. They take on some of the myths in American history and seek to explore them in more detail. Where do these myths come from? Why have they continued to pervade American belief? What parts of the myth, if any, have grounding in reality? What parts of the myth have no grounding in the historical record? Through the use of primary and secondary sources related to their topics the students have composed the “Myth Buster” essays posted here.
[i] Margaret MacMillan, Dangerous Games: The Uses and Abuses of History (New York: The Modern Library, 2009), 86-88.
In my experience, history fascinates people, especially their own history, and yet they know so little about it. Often times, what they take as fact while not fiction probably should not be taken as fact. Myths pervade history—for better or worse. Margaret MacMillan, in her book Dangerous Games, explores the story of Prince Lazar and the Battle of Kosovo. She also examines how it became a national symbol for Serbians well into the 1990s when under Slobodan Milosevic the Serbians led an ethnic cleansing campaign against Albanians then living in Kosovo. However, she notes “the only problem with the story is that not only is it much too simple but parts of it are not supported by the sketchy records from the time.”[i] Not all myths have such tragic consequences. Nevertheless, all myths deserve further scrutiny.
This blog features projects by students enrolled in The Study of History at Dalton State College. They take on some of the myths in American history and seek to explore them in more detail. Where do these myths come from? Why have they continued to pervade American belief? What parts of the myth, if any, have grounding in reality? What parts of the myth have no grounding in the historical record? Through the use of primary and secondary sources related to their topics the students have composed the “Myth Buster” essays posted here.
[i] Margaret MacMillan, Dangerous Games: The Uses and Abuses of History (New York: The Modern Library, 2009), 86-88.