History Before The Internet

The United States "Army of the West" at Las Vegas in August of 1846. Today it is called La Plaza Vieja.

Almost impossible not to get brainwashed by the "history" available to the masses before the internet age. The only history books available then were the ones being used as textbooks in school, the ones available at your local library or the ones you found in browsing around some book store in the big city.

The average person could only study what was easily available..... Not now, not in the internet age, not in the age of "Googleing", not in the age of Wikipedia, not in the age of Alibris or Amazon. It is a brand new day for the folks who like their history.

All of the old historians wrote as they saw fit, some paid attention to the truth but the majority was pure propaganda. Now the old historians have been exposed and many have been caught with outright lies. Plain and simple racism. Others wrote pure propaganda thinly disguised as "history". Now when trying to be kind to those "historians" some are kind by saying that they were the product of their times. That they were, putting it mildly, the times were racist, the times were times of propaganda for the ones who had the where with all to put it out there. The masses just absorbed it all.

There are still some good story tellers disguised as historians, but they risk exposure right away. The comment forms at Amazon, other book review places, Wikipedia itself. Easy, very easy to debunk fake historians.

The moral of the post is beware of fake history, if it is worth reading about it, it is worth paying a few dollars to get the story right. There are many places to get the books now, all from the comfort of our houses regardless of where we live.

I have an extensive collection of New Mexico History, the good, the bad and the down right ugly. Most of it bought since I retired and some books that I have had for a long long time.