Frederick Burr Opper

I started reading this because I thought it was a history of the US by Bill Nye, the Science Guy. Only to find out that there was a comic writer of some hundred years ago or more also named Bill Nye (not the Science Guy). I kept reading it because it was a populist history of the US and I thought it would be interesting to see if there were many differences I could tell in how historical events (up to 1895 or so) had been perceived then vs. now. Obviously, many differences but what I found the most interesting (in a disturbing way) was to be reminded how ok it was in 1900 to be very overtly racist. The writing was racist enough, but the illustrations were over the top racist. Amazing to see how far we've come (although still a long way to go) - but just staggering what passed for ok in 1900.… (altro)