Prohibition on PBS....

[OakLeaf]

Just watched the first episode. Not that I've studied the period at all, but between what little they taught us in elementary school, what I've read about the history of feminism, and of course representations in popular culture, this was by far the most positive portrayal of the temperance movement I've ever seen. Interesting ... and probably just another example of how history is written by the winners.

[Catrin]

Just watched the first episode. Not that I've studied the period at all, but between what little they taught us in elementary school, what I've read about the history of feminism, and of course representations in popular culture, this was by far the most positive portrayal of the temperance movement I've ever seen. Interesting ... and probably just another example of how history is written by the winners.

Yep, it is interesting and your comment about history being written by the winners is very well put. Regardless of how much a scholar or historian strives to be "impartial" and present things just as they happened, we are all a product of our times and culture and we have filters related to that. I think many of us don't realize how deep those filters go in our psyche.

All of that being said, Ken Burns always does a great job! I missed the chance to watch the first episode the other night, perhaps I can catch the next episodes.

A unrelated example of filters. I was really struck by this last winter when I had a chance to watch a Charlie Chan mystery on some late night show when I couldn't sleep and still had cable. As a child I loved those shows, I was under 10 years old and hadn't seen one since. Watching one of those as a 51 year old woman was quite a shock, I couldn't finish watching it - it was just full of racial and gender slurs. I certainly didn't remember any of THAT!