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PEOPLE & ARTS Saturday 18 May 2019

McCullough’s new book on pioneers’ history draws criticism

By RUSSELL CONTRERAS they say. Detractors have
Associated Press seized on one particular
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — line in which McCullough
David McCullough is one of describes white settlers be-
the country’s most beloved ing surrounded by Native
historians, known for his Pu- Americans during a con-
litzer Prize-winning biogra- flict. “The only hope was
phies of Harry Truman and that the savages would be
John Adams, acclaimed so taken up with plunder of
works on the Brooklyn the camp as not to follow
Bridge and Panama Ca- after,” McCullough writes.
nal, and for narrating such “No preparation could be
famous documentaries as made. Numbers of brave
Ken Burns’ “The Civil War.” men must be left a sacri-
But with his latest book, “The fice, there was no alterna-
Pioneers: The Heroic Story tive.”
of the Settlers Who Brought That passage offended
the American Ideal West,” Brett Chapman, a Tulsa,
McCullough is seeing some Oklahoma, attorney and
of the sharpest criticism of descendant of White Ea-
his career. gle, a Ponca chief.
Days after the book was re- “It’s just sickening. He hits
leased and reached Ama- every single stereotype. He
zon.com’s top 20 best-seller hits the wilderness stereo-
list, a new generation of type — that no one was
historians, scholars and ac- In this May 13, 2011 file photo, historian and author David McCullough poses at the National there. He hits the drunk-
tivists took to social media Portrait Gallery, in Washington. enness stereotype,” said
to accuse McCullough of Associated Press Chapman, who read the
romanticizing white settle- was ‘unsettled.’ No, it had lic. “I like to write about adversities of a kind even book this week and live-
ment and downplaying people in it, as he slightly people who set out to do they couldn’t have antici- tweeted criticisms. “He hits
the pain inflicted on Na- admits in a paragraph on something that is thought pated: epidemic diseases the vanishing race stereo-
tive Americans. Criticism how the Indians ‘consid- to be impossible. And how like smallpox and influenza, type. That’s what the pio-
also has come from many ered’ the land to be theirs.” they run into more com- accidents of all kind, the neers used to justify in steal-
reviewers, including in The McCullough tells the story plicated turns and tests of premature death of chil- ing the land.”
Washington Post and The of a group of New Eng- their fortune than they ever dren.” Simon & Schuster spokes-
New York Times. landers, led by The Rev. imagined or expected, Critics say McCullough is woman Julia Prosser said
“He adopts settlers’ preju- Manasseh Cutler, who in and how they don’t give relying too heavily on the that both the publisher and
diced language about the late 18th century ven- up,” he said. perspective of whites who McCullough were declin-
‘savages’ and ‘wilderness,’ tured into the Northwest McCullough continued saw themselves as tam- ing comment.
words that denied Indians’ Territory — now Ohio — to that the early Ohio settlers ing a primeval wilderness. The criticism comes as new
humanity and active use of create communities. The he writes about “go out The book relies on old ste- voices in history and Ameri-
their land,” Harvard history author told The Associated there and there’s nothing: reotypes about American can Studies are challenging
professor Joyce E. Chaplin Press in a recent interview no highways, no roads, no Indians and overlooks the traditional narratives about
wrote in a review for The that he wanted to write bridges, no hospitals, to say complex and diverse Na- westward expansion as a
Times on Monday. “He also about people not widely the least, and no anesthet- tive American tribes and story of progress and Amer-
states that the Ohio Territory known to the general pub- ic. ... And they put up with cultures already there, ican exceptionalism.q

Valentino-heavy film has Julianne Moore talking fashion

By CRISTINA JALERU told reporters she’s always been inter- “She said it was too sophisticated
Associated Press ested in “the fact that we feel com- for a young girl, so I took my money,
CANNES, France (AP) — One of Juli- pelled as human beings to decorate I took my 80 marks, and I bought a
anne Moore’s first thoughts after sign- our bodies and our surroundings.” black dress,” Moore smiled. “And I
ing on to the Valentino-adorned short And her theory? said to my mom, ‘You can’t say any-
film “The Staggering Girl” was ward- “It’s like this idea that we’ve chosen thing about it because it’s my own
robe. this because it pleases us, or we’re money.’ It was terrible.
She had visions of wearing green, lav- trying to say something consciously or And of course as a mother of a
ender and red haute couture as the unconsciously,” said the 58-year-old 17-year-old now I think like, ‘Oh I can’t
star of the short film produced by the Moore. believe that I did that,’ but it was a re-
French fashion house. Her fascination goes way back, to a ally exhilarating moment for me.”
“And I got there and they’re like, particular purchase when she was a The film’s director, Luca Guadagnino,
‘These are, this is your wardrobe.’ And 17-year-old living with her family on a collaborated on the film with Valen-
I was the only one in the movie with- U.S. Army base in Germany. tino designer Pierpaolo Piccioli. It’s
out any color. Because that was kind She saved up her money for a dress based on a screenplay by Michael
Actress Julianne Moore poses of, that was the story we were telling. to wear to a dance, but her mother Mitnick.q
for photographers at the photo I was like, ‘What? What? I came all told her no black.
call for the film ‘The Staggering this way and I don’t get to wear lav-
Girl’ at the 72nd international
film festival, Cannes, southern ender?’”
France, Friday, May 17, 2019. Moore, who plays Italian American linda.reijnders@cspnv.com
Associated Press writer Francesca in the 37-minute film,