Why are we burying history?

[grumpyduck]

About a year ago I discovered Atlas Obscura, a web site that features articles, written by users, about interesting places around the world. Sometimes, after plowing through several news sites, I find it to be a breath of fresh air. This morning they had a piece (which they moved out of the front page) about the Little Prairie books and how inaccurate the food descriptions were.

It also pointed out that the author's name had been removed from the American Library Association's awards list because some people considered the books racist.

So here we go.

First, the article was informative about the food the pioneers ate. No arguments there. But I have to wonder why some people feel it's a public service to point out that children's storybooks (over 150 years old in this case) are often not historically accurate. What's next, bash the cartoons? "The old Roadrunner cartoons weren't accurate. No way Wiley could have ordered stuff in the middle of the desert because cell phones and drones hadn't been invented yet."

But what really got to me was the bit about the awards. It brought back stories about books being removed from shelves because some people feel they're "insensitive" or something similar. Burying literature and history does not make it go away. And heaven forbid someone should get the quaint old-fashioned arrogantly naive (and probably divisive) idea that we can learn something from it.

Makes me wonder if the real reason some people want books removed from shelves is because they have no clue how to talk to their kids about them.