"The real hero is always a hero by mistake; he dreams of being an honest coward like everybody else" Umberto Eco explains just how the heroification process works. Heroification is "a degenerative process that makes people over into heroes." (p.19) The heroification process greatly changes the real truth about historic figures, changing how people see them. James w. Loewen knew this and saw the effect heroification had on various historic figures. He also knew that historians who left certain things out did not do it on purpose either. The historians figured that if people did not know the whole truth it would be okay, as long as they were not lying. The omissions and errors left out in history books and encyclopedias hide the affect of the social archetype, the beliefs, and the actions of historic figures.
             The power of the social archetype affects the heroification process very much. It can change a normal person to someone admired by the whole world overnight. Betsy Ross is an example of someone who became famous for not really doing anything. She is remembered as "the creator of the first flag" when this is not even true. It was her family that started this myth and it has been carried on as a social archetype throughout history. With Woodrow Wilson, the fact that textbooks help in creating his social archetype shows just how much the heroification process is affected by social archetype. The textbooks portray Wilson as "good", "for "self-determination, not colonial intervention", "ahead of his time". These mythical things said about historic figures are what is "potentially crippling to students" because the students do not understand the fact that no one is perfect. The students see that these historic figures have no flaws and get the idea that all famous people are like that.
             Historians worry that the opinions and beliefs of historic figures would ...