Saturday, May 21, 2011

Debunking hero status?

I have always been suspicious of revisionist historians - not to mention writers 'out to make a buck' - especially where a hero has his/her reputation trashed - (or rebuilt.)
Now it is the turn of Wyatt Earp (He of OK Corral fame.) There has been at least one TV documentary on the topic followed by two recent books.
It seems to me to be in the same mode as turning Billy the Kid into a paragon of virtue; Douglas Bader into a toerag; Florence Nightingale into a total incompetent - inter multos.