1001 Historic Sites You Must See Before You Die Summary and Reviews

1001 Historic Sites You Must See Before You Die

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Book Summary Information

Editor: Richard Cavendish
Preface: Koichiro Matsuura
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2008-03-01
ISBN: 0764160443
Number of pages: 960
Publisher: Barrons Educational Series

Book Reviews of 1001 Historic Sites You Must See Before You Die

Book Review: Major oversights hamper enjoyment
Summary: 3 Stars

I love this series and normally give it a very wide berth and tend not to take it too seriously but rather regard it as a fun tool that provides a good starting off point. However, and with respect to the U.S. alone, the oversights are so glaring that I felt a need to add my two cents. When we're dealing with a country that in comparison with Europe and Asia that have two or three millennia's worth of history to draw back on, is so young that the TRULY historical places would seem obvious and somewhat limited, such exclusions are really inexcusable. Yes, most of the usual suspects are here, but check out those that were omitted. In no particular order:

Valley Forge
Independence Hall
Old North Church
St. Augustine Colonial Spanish Quarter & Castillo San Marco / Ft. Matanzas
Colonial Williamsburg
Ft. McHenry
French Quarter / Jackson Square & St. Louis Cathedral
Jefferson Memorial
The National Archives
Harvard University
House of the Seven Gables
Biltmore Estate
New York Stock Exchange
Salem Witch Museum
Ground Zero (Site of the World Trade Center)
Bunker Hill
Savannah Historic District
Falling Waters
Cathedral of St. John the Divine
Grant's Tomb

...to name a few. In their place, we get the following...

City Lights Bookstore
Disneyland
Universal Studios
Union Station - Los Angeles
Eastern State Penitentiary
Japanese Internment Camps
Kit Carson's Home
Virginia City
Golden Spike Historic Site
Grumman's Chinese Theatre
Forest Lawn Memorial Parks
Stonewall Inn

I'm not implying that the aforementioned, which were, in fact, included in the book, are not in their own right historic, because they are. But to leave out places such as Independence Hall, where both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution were signed or Ft. McHenry, the place that inspired The Star Spangled Banner or Ground Zero, the site of the most monumental act of terrorism on U.S. soil or the historic center and fortifications of the oldest European settlement in what is the now the United States is just way too much to allow to go by without comment. Again, I take these publications with a grain of salt but when it's no longer a grain but rather a boulder, then heaving it over my shoulder isn't quite as easy.

Mind you, I'm focusing exclusively on the U.S. No doubt glaring omissions are not limited exclusively to said country.

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