USA – how the land lies
ICAN’T say I’m a fan of uncertainty. I like to know what’s what. The sky is blue. Grass is green. Jeremy Corbyn is unelectable. That kind of thing. But there’s no avoiding the fact that we live in uncertain times, and so I guess I shouldn’t be terribly surprised by AMERICAN HISTORY’S BIGGEST FIBS WITH LUCY WORSLEY (BBC4, 9pm) and what it’s setting out to tell us over the course of its three eye-opening episodes.
Specifically, what it’s setting out to tell us is that everything we were taught at school about American history – or pretty much everything, it would appear – is a fabrication, a distortion or a downright out-andout porky.
The Boston Tea Party? The symbolism of the Statue of Liberty? The Declaration of Independence? The ringing of the Liberty Bell? The all-round jolly-fine-chapness of George Washington?
Let’s just say that if you were planning to make any of those your specialist subject on Mastermind, Lucy would probably suggest you shred your notes and start again, or ideally switch to something a wee bit more solid and reliable, such as the Top 10 hits of the Spice Girls, 1996-98. I’ll spare you all the details of her US myth-debunking or else we’ll be here all day.
But, to take just a couple of examples from this opening, independence-themed episode, it seems the thing about the Liberty Bell being rung in joyous celebration on July 4, 1776, actually came from a novel published 71 years later (and only then started creeping into official history books), while the Statue of Liberty, which would come to be seen as America’s most powerful symbol, was actually a reworking of a design intended to stand at the entrance to the Suez Canal, rejected by the Egyptians on cost grounds.
Oh, and George Washington? Apparently, he had more than 300 slaves. According to an activist Lucy (right) speaks to, Washington was “notorious for having them running around in rags, having them hungry, having them emaciated”. And she has no trouble finding other experts with equally damning stories to tell, showing key events and prominent historical figures in a whole new, unflattering light.
“America has such a powerful national mythology,” she tells us.
“It makes Americans feel good about their country. And it’s how their country presents itself to the world.
“But if history teaches us anything at all, it’s that we have to ask questions. Who is telling us the story? How are they spinning it? And could they be telling us fibs?”
Lucy is, of course, entirely right. Healthy scepticism is indeed to be actively encouraged. I only hope she’ll forgive me if, with precisely that advice in mind, I choose to apply a little of it to her own account of events. Elsewhere tonight, our modern-day students are about to experience postwar education in BACK IN TIME FOR SCHOOL (BBC2, 8pm). Some are apprehensive. “I’m quite worried,” confesses one lad, “that we’ll get tripe.”