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Originally Posted by katezbox
...PS - I wonder if anyone is concerned that I got bad side effects from other books I have found addictive over the years -
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I remember the first series to which I became addicted in the mid-50's, as well as the Hardy Boys, of course. These were the Landmark Books, much more popular among boys than girls. The were American histories and biographies dating back to Columbus. There were several great WWII and other war battle books. But the aspect I found most rewarding was that these were 1950's books. Warts on the heroes and situations were almost all ignored. Yeah, there was a book on George Washington Carver, but race was not a major issue. We were 3rd grade kids who watched Crusader Rabbit and the Mickey Mouse Club. We didn't need to know the unvarnished truth as much as we needed heroes like Carver, Columbus, Edison, Lewis & Clark, and Black Jack Pershing. We had plenty of time later to learn about the inhumanity of slavery, the treatment of the Indians (they weren't Native Americans yet), and how blacks and women were treated. Maybe we were better able to face the facts later, because we knew our heroes and events were also story book fodder, more reliable than Golden Books, but still . . .
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