“Does a place begin to disappear when its foundational myths are challenged?” This question (originally posed by a music journalist) has been much on Matthew Restall’s mind as he researches and writes a book on the history of Belize. The country is often dismissed as peripheral, but he argues it is in fact central to the development in the Americas of mythologies surrounding slavery and freedom, identity and territory, colonialism and nationalism. And having identified seven aspects of Belize’s origin “mythistory,” he has discovered that imagination and invention underpin every single one—to an astonishing degree. In this talk, he will share the details of the dilemma he consequently faces.