Are all the things that we have been fed since our grade school about

[CoffeeAnnan]

our history just so much bullshit and the true history is well hidden from us? Including our history in the past 45 years?

[getmeouttahere]

1. Especially the last 45-50 years...

to be specfic...

[CoffeeAnnan]

7. The Kennedy Assassination, the assassination of Martin Luthr King,

the assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem,the assassination of Salvador Allende, the Gulf of Tonkin "incident",the 9/11 "event" should I go on?

[knowbody0]

2. history is recorded by the victors

[LSdemocrat]

3. In my history classes we rarely got to the last 45-50 years

Even in my advanced US history classes in 12th grade the farthest we got was the origins of the Cold War.

[CoffeeAnnan]

10. In that case, you may want to reread our involvement in the Phillippines

after reading Mark Twain.

[elehhhhna]

4. Coffee- in a word: hellyes

[Darwins Finch]

5. History

History is a fence continually whitewashed, until at last the veneer stands on its own, long after the wood beneath has rotted away.

[grumpy old fart]

9. Well said. Very well said. Is that yours, or a quote?.........n/t

[Darwins Finch]

24. It's one of mine

Thanks!

[XemaSab]

22. Good quote

Welcome to DU!!!!

[Darwins Finch]

25. Thanks to both comments!

Been lurking a long time, finally got around to opening my mouth. :)

[justinsb]

6. It's not even that well hidden

You just have to be willing to look for it. The last 45 years have been especially bad, but very little of it is the way it's taught in school.

[Zen Democrat]

8. Have you read Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States"

Because if you haven't, I strongly recommend it. I think it should be required reading to disabuse every American of the fairytales we've been told about our history -- (and, the short answer to your question is .... yes, of course.)

[CoffeeAnnan]

13. I have not read Howard Zinn's People's History and plan to do that before

summer is over.Thanks for your suggestion.

The continual elevation of puny men to a pedestal and ascribing to them qualities they don't have appears to be an occupational disease of American historians and certainly our "journalists".

[Sapphire Blue]

11. 'A People's History of the United States' by Howard Zinn is an excellent

... account of our history. Another is 'A Problem from Hell - America and the Age of Genocide' by Samantha Power.

If you haven't yet read them, please do. If you have children and/or grandchildren, give them copies.

[in_cog_ni_to]

12. John Perkins book "Confessions Of An Economic Hit Man"

tells our history and lays out our foreign policies and IT AIN'T PRETTY! My g-d, it's no wonder we're so hated. You should read the book if you haven't already. Our government is corrupt from the top to the bottom.

[CoffeeAnnan]

15. Thanks.I now have two really good books that interest me. Howard

Zinn's and John Perkins.You know I went looking for John Perkins' book one day at B&N and couldn't find it there.Is there any specific reason that is not available there?

[in_cog_ni_to]

16. I don't think so, but they can order any book you want if you ask them to.

I ordered mine from their web site.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

20. Any bookstore can order any book that is in print

They should have a copy of Books in Print, and that gives them enough information to order anything.

[AtTheEndOfTheDay]

23. Try Harvey Wasserman's History of the U.S.

I forget the title exactly but in the '70s this book was used in my history class (not public school) and definitely opened my eyes. Chiefly he addresses the Robber Barons of the late 19th and early 20th century I believe. Or at least that part stands out in my mind.

[LSdemocrat]

14. The main problem is American schools don't teach history in depth

In all but the most advanced classes in 11th and 12th grade, most schools don't teach history in detail. They teach oversimplified themes that everyone can understand. (Civil War was about slavery, Founding Fathers good, Redcoats bad, etc.).

[anarch]

17. yeah, pretty much.

but you can start to puzzle out the real history if you look into things, especially trying to see them from different perspectives rather than simply accepting what they told you in school.

[Liberalynn]

18. Grade School and Highschool history

in my opinion do "hide true" history from us. I only felt I began to learn a portion of the truth when I studied History in college. I don't ever think we will know the full truth about any thing though to be honest, because alas "truth is subjective."

I also use to believe in the quote "those who don't learn from the past are condemned to repeat it," that's why I studied History to begin with.

Now as I grow older all I can do is draw more reluctantly and ever sadder to the conclusion that Nietzche was closer to the truth than I ever wanted to admit: "The only thing we learn from history, is we don't learn from history."

My B.A. was in history and I minored in Political Science.


Sorry to be a pessimist but that's how I feel on days like today. I am not giving up because I know we have to keep speaking out for a better world, it just gets harder and harder to believe that enlightenment is still achievable somehow, someway.

[cssmall]

19. Now, we've broached a subject. ..

that I can easily explain and work with. Let's go even further back into history. Let's go back to antebellum North, when we look there we find a true use of slavery in the North, something that has been all too much forgotten in the US. The reasoning behind it: as a dear friend of mine says, "Because to push the agenda of the victors, and to get into power, one must appear to have nothing to do with it." Note that the early Republican party was up there.

Who does the republican party recieve most of its dogma from? Herbert Spencer, an early anthropologist/sociologist, advocated the idea of social darwinism and while probably appeared in church, there has been a question to his own religious beliefs. Ain't truth grand?

[midnight armadillo]

21. Read "Lies my teacher told me"

It's an excellent review of why history education sucks so hard in US schools, and along the way teaches a lot of history. The sections on Columbus & the Puritans & native Americans is esp. fascinating.

It's not a left-sort-of viewpoint like Zinn's wonderful book, it's got a different axe to grind. I can't recall the author.