ence, but why blame Hollywood? Americansrnprefer lies. “John Wayne, plavingrna fictional town marshal, learns ofrnQuantrill’s planned raid at the last moment,rnsends the women and children tornhide in the courthouse, rallies the menfolk,rnhas barricades thrown up, and directsrnthe slaughter of bushwhackers asrnthey ride down the main street. Therntown is burned, but only one or two malernresidents are killed. Wayne chases downrnthe fleeing Quantrill and kills him.”rnIn other words, the movie about thernLawrence massacre denies that the massacrernever happened, and the bad guv isrnkilled by the good guy with an assist fromrnthe bad guy’s mother. This happy endingrnsuggests that America has been anxiousrnto deny truth not for reasons of publicrnrelations, but because the truth is toornterrible to contemplate, for if that truthrnwere confronted squarely, the old conflictsrnand grievances might reassertrnthemselves, and the old lies might bernexposed.rnBut that movie was not enough. Tornadd insult to injury, John Wavne, RovrnRogers, Gabby Hayes, Gene Autr}’, andrnothers paraded in Lawrence at the premiere,rnand a reenactment of the “Burningrnof Lawrence” was mounted to therndelight of thousands. Lawrence had inrneffect cooperated in effacing its own pastrnwhile pretending to recreate it, in arnminiature of our national obsession.rnSuch repression and transference mightrnhave impressed even Sigmund Freud, ifrnhe had not died the year before.rnHollywood did not initiate the whitewashingrn—far from it. Frank James andrnCole Younger, those veterans of violence,rnlived to become charming geezersrnwhose byword was denial. In 1903, theyrngot together to mount a Wild Westrnshow, beating Hollywood to the punch.rnAnd Quantrill’s men continued to haverngenteel reunions until 1929, by whichrntime the Western had been institutionalizedrnas a displaced substitution for thernnational memory of fratricidal strife.rnThe name “Quantrill” still sneaks inrnamong all the chivalrous paladins wearingrnsilk shirts, as though to remind usrnthat violence is iolence, after all. Andrnperhaps the brutality and vanity andrneven fraud of Quantrill may remindrnus as well that our history is replete withrnshame and even horror which nornamount of reverential rhetoric can quiterngloss over. The populist mythology thatrnmade a folk hero of Jesse James in dimernnovels and bad movies had its base inrnsomething real, but the little boys in thernbackyards of 50 years ago did not quiternunderstand what thev plaed with or at:rn”Bangbang, sou’redead.” W.R. Burnettrnwrote the novel on which Dark Commandrnwas based—the same Burnett whornwrote Little Caesar and High Sierra, glorifyingrnurban violence and outlawry in arnstrong tradition that still packs them inrnat the multiplex.rnSo Quantrill is not forgotten, nor is herngoing to be, thanks in part to Schultz andrnLIBERAL ARTSrnSTAY ON THE ISLANDrnAccording to a report cited in the March edition of The Family in America, a publicationrnof The Rockford Institute, Puerto Rican women who come to the United Statesrnare more, not less, likely than those who remain on the island to become pregnant andrnbear a child out of wedlock.rnThe report, written by Nanc S. Landale and Susan M. Hauan and published m Demography,rncalls into question the common assumption that immigrants haxe a strongrnsense of traditional family values. According to the authors, “fully .41 [percent] of ne -rner-married U.S. born women living in the United States had made the transition to intercourse.rnSimilarly, the proportion experiencing intercourse b’ age 17 was high [.35rnpercent] for first-generation migrants to the United States.”rnLeslie, and thanks as well to Quantrillrnhimself, who succeeded in securing notorietyrnif not fame b ‘iolating so manrnprohibitions and transgressing so flagrantlyrnupon the bounds of human decency.rnSchultz sees Quantrill as a sociopath;rnLeslie has a more ironic, evenrnabsurdist view; and both are persuasive.rnSchultz, by the way, makes the error ofrnmistaking General Henry McColloughrn(the Gonfederate general who orderedrnQuantrill’s arrest in 1864) for his brotherrnBenjamin (who was killed at ElkhornrnTavern in 1862). His is a censorious account.rnLeslie’s is expansive and pursuesrnthe story of Quantrill’s remains perhapsrnfurther than it deserves. Even so, bothrnshow the context that allowed Quantrillrnto rise however falsely as a partisan in arnconflict of reckless ferocity. PerhapsrnQuantrill’s name survives simply tornnominate a transgressor, and if that is so,rnthen Quantrill succeeded in his aims.rnBut behind his violence are the shadowsrnof the Abolitionists and the Jayhawkers,rnand the Union yrm and the federal governmentrnas well. In what was truly civilrnvvar, he exposed the truth we do not wantrnto acknowledge, the truth that nornmemorial can hide—the truth about thernbloody-minded Jacobins who insisted onrnviolence, on war, on a blasphemous crusadernwhich is the basis of our law,rnmythology, and government today. Nornwonder Hollywood was nervous aboutrnQuantrill, for his story, telescoping redrnand black and white. North and Southrnand West, is a reproach to our nation andrnto our complacency—to any easy assumptionsrnof Southern honor or Northernrnvirtue. Going beyond good and evilrnis not easy to routinize as digestible entertainment.rnNot many customers wantrnto be reminded in the theater of whatrnthey ignore every day, nor do manyrnAmericans want to face the implicationsrnof the antinomian, millenialist, radicallyrnegalitarian rhetoric most recently displayedrnin Bill Glinton’s second inauguralrnaddress. It is somehow easier to deprecaternthe Gonfederate flag and thenrnwatch somebody getting shot on television.rnNevertheless, to the credit ofrnSchultz and Leslie, individual readersrnwill be powerfully shown some nastyrntruths about American history, and perhapsrnreminded as well of Nietzsche’s insight:rn”He who fights with monstersrnshould be careful lest he thereby becomerna monster. And if thou gaze long intornan abyss, the abyss shall also gaze intornthee.” crn34/CHRONICLESrnrnrn