WHEN FICTION IS HISTORY

Some excellent historical fiction that was dead on

May 09, 2026

Most of you are familiar with the Civil War movie by Ronald Maxwell, “Gettysburg.” it was produced in part by Ted Turner, and was actually a follow up to a movie only released later, “Gods and Generals” by Michael Shaara. Long, but great. The movie lionizes Gen. James Longstreet as the voice of sanity vs. a committed Robert E. Lee who insists on fighting at Gettysburg under extremely unfavorable conditions.

But here are a couple of other novels you may or may not know have deep historical roots.

*The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Published in 1900 by Frank Baum, it was a commentary on the “free silver” movement of the late 1800s. It begins with Dorothy in KS (the hotbed of populism and the free silver movement). She and her dog are swept up in their house in a tornado—-the tornado of the populist movement sweeping through the country. Toto, her dog, is a reference to the teatotaler movement. Her house is dropped on the Wicked Witch of the East (those nasty eastern capitalists and bankers). the Good Witch of the North (as in populist north, MN, WI, the Dakotas) and is told to get home she must visit the Wizard in the city of Oz (oz as in ounce of gold). The good witch gives her silver slippers (vs. red in the movie), meaning when you “monetize” silver by denominating things not only in gold but in silver, you expand the money supply. Dorothy puts her silver slippers on the “Yellow Brick Road” (gold) to increase the money supply on her way to Oz. Along the way she meets the Scarecrow (western farmers, who don’t have any brains but have all the power), the Tin Man (a lumberjack who cut off his own arms and legs accidentally but worked much faster, symbolic of factory laborers “turned into robots”), and the “Cowardly Lion,” who is likely William Jennings Bryan, cowardly because he wouldn’t oppose the Spanish American War.

The interesting thing is that the Scarecrow actually made all the plans for the group, the Tin Man was the only character to cry, and the Lion actually was brave.

They all get to Oz or the “Emerald City” (money, as in D.C. where everything runs on money) and each meets with the Wiz and sees a totally different “person.” One sees a big head, another an eyeball, and so on. In other words, the Wiz is a politician who appears differently to each voter bloc. He shows the other three that they already had what they wanted, but he tells Dorothy, “can’t help you.” She then meets Glenda, the Good Witch of the South (like the “north” the “south” is good) who tells Dorothy to click her (silver) heels together and say there’s no place like home, i.e, add to the money supply.

Baum was the originator of the “show window” for big retail stores like Wanamaker’s and Macy’s. He even published a monthly magazine called the “Store Window.” But he married and moved to Aberdeen, SD, with his wife, to run a general store, which failed in the panic of 1893, whereupon he started writing books.

About 30 years ago, I was in a Las Vegas mall and outside a book store was Frank Baum III with a table selling his own childrens’ books. We talked. He emphatically denied that the book was a parable on populism, but the imagery seems overwhelming.

*In the Camp of the Saints, a 1973 book by Jean Raspail, a good two decades before the Islamic invasion of Europe, he wrote of a flotilla of African and Indian “migrants” where were going to come ashore in France. The compassionate French simply would not stop them and they took over the country, and immediately the living standards collapsed. The book was banned in many Euro countries because it engendered “hostility” to migrants. And it was 100% accurate in how all of this invasion would occur.

*Oh, and did you know that “Gilligan’s Island’ was symbolic of the “seven deadly sins?”
*The Skipper was gluttony

*The Professor was vanity, always thinking he could solve the problem

*The Millionaire was greed.

*His wive, “Lovey,” was sloth—-she never did a damned thing

The movie star was obviously lust, while “Mary Ann” was envy, always wanting to be her.

*And Gilligan? Anger—-because he was always making everyone angry when he screwed up their attempts to get off the island. Bob Denver wore a red shirt the entire first season!

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Larry Schweikart (@CyberneticsLS on Truth, @LarrySchweikart on X)

Rock drummer, Film maker,NYTimes #1 bestselling author

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