Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

[childers.paula AT epamail.epa.gov]

Somehow, the American public has been convinced that anything that
happened in the world after 1959 is no longer "history," with the
possible exception of the moon walk and the Challenger explosion. Events
in the last four decades have become politically loaded and
government-"managed," thus not "historical," and are usually only
mentioned in college-level classes, and then only if the prof tends
toward a liberal view and isn't afraid of vehement discussion.

Of course, in our inequitable, underfunded, crumbling-infrastructure
public education system, it's probably difficult to even get the Big
Events like WW2, the Civil War, or the American Revolution across to
kids, much less to discuss even Moderately Large events with differing
interpretations like Watergate, Vietnam, Chernobyl, Panama, the
Falklands War, Afghanistan, the CIA-led overthrow of Allende in Chile
(the original 9/11), the Iranian Hostage Crisis, etc.

I once failed a college history class because I knew more about the
topic than the professor teaching it, and refused to regurgitate errors
on his tests. (Incidentally, the topic being studied was American
history from the Civil War to WW2, including railroad & logger barons,
Standard Oil, trust-busting, the IWW, Eugene Debs and Mother Jones)

There are some books I must recommend here:
"A People's History of the United States" by Howard Zinn
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060937319/102-0321008-6441757?v=glance

"Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything your American History Textbook Got
Wrong" by James Loewen
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0684818868/ref=pd_sim_books_1/102-0321008-6441757?v=glance&s=books

"The Twilight of Common Dreams" by Todd Gitlin
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0805040919/102-0321008-6441757?v=glance

"The Best Democracy Money Can Buy" by Greg Palast
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0745318460/ref=pd_sim_books_4/102-0321008-6441757?v=glance&s=books




                                                                              
                                                                
                      Bill Geschwind                                          
                                                                
                      <geschwin AT email.unc.edu>              To:       
thomas AT tbeckett.com, "'Internetworkers:                                 
                      Sent by:                               
http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/'" <internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org> 
   
                      internetworkers-bounces@lists.        cc:               
                                                                
                      ibiblio.org                           Subject:  RE: 
[internetworkers] PART 2: history lesson                            
                                                                              
                                                                
                                                                              
                                                                
                      10/22/03 08:35 AM                                       
                                                                
                      Please respond to                                       
                                                                
                      "Internetworkers:                                       
                                                                
                      http://www.ibiblio.org/interne                          
                                                                
                      tworkers/"                                              
                                                                
                                                                              
                                                                
                                                                              
                                                                




Along similar notes, what will the next generation remember of the armed
conflicts the US was involved in during the last 20 years? I have a few
undergrads working for me, who were born in the early 1980s. I asked one
of them a few months ago what he knows about a bunch of events such as
the US military actions against Grenada, Libya and Panama in the 1980s,
as well as other random world events such as the murder of the Israeli
team at the 1972 Olympics, the chemical plant blowing up in Bhopal,
India, the Exxon Valdez, Chernobyl, and the first Space Shuttle blowing
up. He had sort of heard of Chernobyl, the Exxon Valdez and the Space
Shuttle, but drew a complete blank on the rest of these events.

- Bill


-----Original Message-----
From: internetworkers-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:internetworkers-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Thomas
Beckett
Sent: Tuesday, October 21, 2003 10:23 PM
To: machett AT ibiblio.org; Internetworkers:
http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/
Subject: Re: [internetworkers] PART 2: history lesson

Alan MacHett wrote:
> ...so which is it?  Is this common knowledge and I'm an idiot because
I
> fell asleep that day in class?  Or is this yet another instance of
> "selective history"?

Probably more of the latter, although less insidiously than you might
conclude.  I mean, the little Dominican adventure pales in comparison to

Vietnam.  Which episode are the historians going to hash through for
decades to come, and which will be a footnote?  Good for you for knowing

about it at all.  99% of the American populace will likely remain
ignorant of that minor war.

TaB

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