tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1920009031690353866.post8224062235360903924..comments2023-11-13T12:37:50.833-05:00Comments on Army of Tennessee: Parks, the Public Sphere, and PreservationLee Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00582934303160302669noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1920009031690353866.post-71549709292930161512009-04-22T12:00:00.000-04:002009-04-22T12:00:00.000-04:00Great blog, Patrick. Many thanks to you and your ...Great blog, Patrick. Many thanks to you and your pards for it. (Hi, Lee.)<br /><br />Just to extend one aspect of this post in one direction a bit: in West Virginia MTR imperils not only scenic resources but also historical resources by impacting Blair Mountain, the largest battlefield of that state’s coal war of 1920-21, and also by threatening roughly half of the sites of its coal war of 1912-13 (along Cabin Creek in a different county). The 1920-21 conflict is often described as the most extensive insurrection in the US since the Civil War, in terms of numbers of armed participants.<br /><br />The necessary precursor to hosting in-park debate and discourse, which I agree is laudable and vital, is the act of preserving landmarks or other historical resources to give us things that inspire debate in the first place. Even the planners and advocates of historical national parks that were established under the consensus view of history or other “older” philosophies of history did a great service for future generations and future needs, including for your vision of contestation and spirited discourse, by simply saving, however unknowingly, the physical catalysts of future debates from the many variations on MTR that have ravaged landscapes in the past, albeit less dramatically and horrifically than in West Virginia today.<br /><br />NoelAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com