"Take an example from my own experience. Several years ago I was
delighted to uncover proof in the British Public Record Office that an
accused male "witch" in 1692 Salem, Mass., had been trading with enemy
French and Indians, just as a young accuser had charged. That document
confirmed my developing conviction that the Salem witch trials were
linked to New England's hostile relationships with the French and
Indians. But to many other scholars who previously had encountered
that document, it meant no such thing."

Interesting, I once met the youngest woman dean of a college in the
United States, of Hobart- William Smith College, and her thesis was on
the markets of Salem, that is if I recall, set prices were not being
obeyed, and practically given away based on need, that lead to the
trials she researched, this is an interesting additional
"construction" based on "facts". Beats the rye grain ergot poisoning
model, though maybe its part of the proscription.

It seems odd to legislate history, though arguably curriculum is sort
of, though one might argue the school book printers, mostly in Texas,
have the upper hand, except where the books haven't been upgraded
since President Nixon. I worked on the archaeology of an EPA site, it
contained a former school book warehouse, that had been contaminated
by cadmium and nickel and wondered what they would do with all those
pallets of books. The warehouse is gone, like it flew away. Maybe they
were washed off sufficiently, or the outside ones only disposed of, or
just tested and redistributed. The "cold war" NIKE missile's electric
batteries had once been made there.

George Myers