Think Olio Presents: Dementia Americana – The Persistence of Forgetting

While history cable series and infotainment documentaries make up a great deal of entertainment content, Americans don’t really have a good grasp of their own history.

Historical memory is a tricky thing. Slight alterations of facts or context can greatly effect the perspective from which events are understood. The process of nation building requires the construction of national myths, but that also means a rewriting of history to fit contemporary needs.

As the world seems to veer to the political right and is awash in Fake News, Orwell’s dictum about control over history is terrifyingly prophetic. This Olio examines the process of the creation, annihilation, and resurrection of different elements of American history.

Teacher: Ward Regan

$12 general admission

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Ward Regan has a Ph.D. in Labor and Cultural History from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He teaches history and philosophy at New York University Liberal Studies and Global Liberal Studies Program. He wrote and widely performed his own show, A Paranoid’s Guide to History.