How Imperfect is Our Past? A Conversation with Charles Bryan

Time Period
1877 to 1924
1925 to Today
Media Type
Video
Topics
Domestic Life
Education
Politics & Government
Presenter
How Imperfect is Our Past? A Conversation with Charles Bryan

On March 15, 2022, Dr. Charles Bryan and VMHC president and CEO Jamie Bosket had a conversation about some of the topics covered in Dr. Bryan’s latest book, Imperfect Past Volume II: More History in a New Light.

The late southern writer John Egerton observed that there are three kinds of history: what actually happened, what we are told happened, and what we finally came to believe happened. It is that third type that author and former VMHC president and CEO Charles Bryan addresses in many of the essays in Volume 2 of Imperfect Past. Bryan challenges many of the assumptions about the past his generation was taught in schools some sixty years ago. A once simplistic story has become more complex, but at the same time, more compelling and provocative. 

Dr. Charles F. Bryan, Jr., is an American historian who spent most of his career in the museum field, including twenty years as president of the Virginia Historical Society. He is the author of several books, including Imperfect Past: History in a New Light and Imperfect Past Volume II: More History in a New Light.

The content and opinions expressed in these presentations are solely those of the speaker and not necessarily of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.

Want to listen to an audio-only version of this lecture? Listen now on Soundcloud.