In Richmond, Virginia, this week, a monumental statue of Jefferson Davis was toppled from its perch by a popular uprising. In observance of that, I am proud to publish a section of Here Lies America that has never been seen before: my visit to the White House of the Confederacy. This segment was trimmed for space… Read more »
american history
Richmond’s Robert E. Lee statue shall ride no more: The time has come
Richmond’s colossal statue of Robert E. Lee was erected 25 years after the Civil War, but it was an early volley of a new war—this one, in Lost Cause propaganda, was the war the South would win. After a long period of little monument-building following the 1865 surrender, Southern sympathizers turned the Lost Cause into… Read more »
What Will Become of the Home Where Walt Disney Lived When He Was a Loser?

Dreams do come true, and sometimes wilder than anyone could have imagined them, but sometimes they have to lay dormant—or get left behind, or rot, or even be given to someone else—for a long time before they can.
The Crowd in the Streets of Dallas

Portions of this post were adapted from my book Here Lies America, which is about how the United States has memorialized its past tragedies as tourist attractions. (You can buy Here Lies America here.) In the winter of 1910, Dallas was suffering a crime wave of purse snatchings and assaults. The police didn’t know… Read more »
The Stain Runs Deep: Remembering Indiana and the Klan

There is no route to the present except through the past. Indiana’s recent history is, in a word, sordid. Its past record of “religious freedom” movements should burn in memory.
A soldier who loved his sweetie to the bone

Here’s a delightful anecdote: A Civil War soldier had his leg amputated, and while he recovered in the hospital, he carved this pin for his sweetheart out of his own leg bone. Who’s this lucky gal Lizzie, you ask? Well, we will never know, because he died of infection before he could tell the nurses…. Read more »
The stupid symbolism of the new World Trade Center

The new World Trade Center’s symbolic height is wrongheaded, jingoistic, and ultimately embarrassing.
Lovely luncheon by General Worth’s tomb

Near the northwest corner of Madison Square Park, in an concrete traffic triangle bordered by Broadway, Fifth Avenue, and 25th Street, a squat obelisk is encircled by an iron fence. You’ll never believe what lies inside.
The Modern Minstrels

We don’t need minstrel shows or vaudeville now. We have YouTube. Are Sweet Brown and Antoine Dodson the newest version of the old minstrel show?
Disney Legend Bob Gurr on creating his Disneyland rides

“Since Walt wanted the Matterhorn Bobsleds to open in just over a year later, along with a Submarine Voyage, a larger Autopia, and a Monorail, he asked if it could be built faster. He asked me to design a bobsled and two track layouts. He asked Arrow Development, Walt’s favorite outside manufacturer, to find a way. Arrow said bent up pipe would be the quickest way, thus it turned out to be the world’s first steel pipe coaster. See, Walt would know all about the various manufacturing possibilities and wound up inventing something new, just to get the attraction he wanted.”