MORE ON DISNEY'S AMERICA THEME PARK --sorry it's a little old.  The National
Trust for Historic Preservation ran a full-page ad in the May 2 Washington
Post asking Disney not to site the park in the Haymarket, VA area.
--Carolyn Brady ([log in to unmask])
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
 
Wasn't Mickey serving on General Lee's staff.
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From: owner-h-civwar
To: Multiple recipients of list H-CIVWAR
Subject: NEWS: Historians vs. Disney?
Date: Tuesday, May 17, 1994 11:03AM
 
From: H-Civwar Co-moderator Peter Knupfer:
 
"Historians Declare War on Disney Theme Park," by Mike Feinsilber, AP
correspondent, adapted from _Topeka Capital-Journal_, Thursday May 12, 1994:
 
David McCullough, president of the Society of American Historians, has begun
a campaign to prevent the Walt Disney Co. from building a Civil War theme
park near Manassas Battlefield in Virginia.  At a press conference,
McCullough charged Disney with mounting a "blitzkrieg," a "sacrilege" that
would create "synthetic history by destroying real history."  According to
Feinsilber, McCullough claimed that no historian supports Disney's plans who
"is not on the payroll of the Disney company in one way or another."  The
article indicates that Eric Foner and James Oliver Horton have been hired by
Disney as consultants.
 
McCullough announced the creation of Project Historic America, a group of 30
historians and writers (including Shelby Foote, James McPherson, C. Vann
Woodward, and Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.) that would try to persuade Disney to
go elsewhere.  The park would be constructed on farmland 35 miles west of
Washington, a few miles from the battlefield.  According to Feinsilber:
"McCullough said Disney's park would generate urban sprawl, ruining the
countryside that George Washington surveyed and endangering 16 Civil War
battlefields within an hour's drive.  'Would we allow the construction of an
amusement park at Normandy Beach?' he asked.  'In the name of jobs, would we
make splinters of Mount Vernon?'"
 
Virginia Gov. George Allen defended Disney's plans, arguing that history is
one of the best ways to attract tourists.  The state legislature has
appropriated $160 million toward the project.  The article contains no
comments from the Disney organization.
 
Any comments from H-CivWarriors on this?