Study of History is largely (though not entirely) useless in ensuring we don't repeat the mistakes of the past. If that's our primary concern, we need to figure out means to ensure children grow up in more loving, nurturing, supportive environments. If they grow up broken but well read, they'll use History like Buddy in The Incredibles used his toys--to cloud future progress as much as possible, to make all you fuckers pay!

Those interested in knowing how increasing love of children is responsible for any good we can dig up out of History, check out Lloyd deMause's Psychohistory web site (link at signature). But if you end up agreeing with his account of History (it's been getting better, owing to slow, very uneven, evolution of childrearing over time), consider sending him an e-mail asking him why he still hasn't discouraged people from immersing themselves (even if in an effort to nail them down right) in eras, even worse than the one we're in now.

Hi,

Just go and read Zinn's "People's History of the United States". It's another reason to have schools.

When teaching a class on science, history, and cooking the first thing that a teacher does is to pick those topics that will be presented. Many times the teachers are even handed the books they will use with many of the topics preselected. From the very beginning of the teaching process will be skewed by many points of view. It's hard for be to believe that these simple observations could provoke much disagreement.

Currently we will progress along an interesting part of the "Iraq path". The Bush administration principals will be working on their autobiographies when they will try to inject their point of view into the "historical process". It will be fun to watch the rewriting of history.

This is why everyone tries to control our corporate media.

That is so ironic since Zinn's book is the most agendized polemic on history commonly used in the US

Everything they teach you is a lie with an agenda that has someone else's interests to serve.

Just like the MSM or either political party.

I guess that Cynthia McKinney's stay with Israel as a POW wil not rate mention in the history books since it already has been disapproved by the MSM, including Salon.

Give us more MJ, BJ, MS, SP, STAT!

Everything they teach you is a lie with an agenda that has someone else's interests to serve.

Just like the MSM or either political party.

Like the lie of saying everything we're taught is a lie but singling out just two deserving of special mention? Or the lie that there are only two political parties?

Lies like that? An agenda like that?

when the man who was reputed to have written 'all men are created equal' was in fact a slave holder, you can make an educated guess at how deep his conviction was, and even surmise he was lying for personal advantage.

when the framers of the constitution, in their private correspondence, relate the measures they are taking to keep 'the mob' from power in the new nation, you can reasonably guess at their opinion of democracy, which they openly denigrate as likely to discommode the wealthy.

the whole history of the usa since replacing spain as hegemon of america has been naked imperialism in reality, very thinly clothed in charming phrases. the truth is there, not deeply hidden. but americans don't look, for the history they are taught has an underlying purpose of curing them of curiousity. for them, this is the best of all possible worlds. best of all, it needs no effort on their part- their humble servants are assiduous in doing all for them.

reality will intrude, with ever larger intrusions, as the wealth of america is bled off by the elite, and with it the industrial and military power that has insulated the local version of the emperor's clothes.

@NP NP

Zinn's book makes an effort to present an alternative narrative of what we otherwise believed to be true. One would not normally label an attempt to provide the other side of the argument as having an agenda ie a one-side dogmatic, unipolar view.

MacMillan's point, if I understood Laura, is that reading history requires "humility" without the reductive tarnish of "relativism"--history without an absolute singular narrative.

What's agendize?

We're living in a sea of lies and distortions, from the history taught in school to current news. What ever happened to the Native Americans? That's barely covered in school history classes. Talk about a blatent coverup.

And this hero worship of war leaders? What a joke. Alexander the Great? It should be Alexander the Mass Murderer. And how about rulers and generals such as Churchill, Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhauer, Lincoln, etc? These men were some of the biggest killers in history. They may have been on the side of a righteous cause, but that doesn't mean there weren't dozens of other reasons involved in what they were doing that were pure evil. Yet we are told these men are veritable saints.

It shows you how stupid most people are when they believe rulers that killed millions of people, including untold innocents, woman and children, are among the greatest, most nobel, most righteous men that ever lived. They were all murders. They just had some righteious cause they could use as political propaganda to justify their killings. Virtually every ruler of a country is a murderer.

Hey Laura Miller:

Excellent topic

some Definitions of bunk:

noun: unacceptable behavior (especially ludicrously false statements)

noun: a message that seems to convey no meaning

I'd like to start my comments with a non-controversial observation. When you say:"After all, George W. Bush reportedly spent most of his presidency reading one historical work after another without gaining much in the way of political wisdom. Instead, he scoured the books in search of validation for his own preset ideas. Reading an account of France's battle against Algerian insurgents, he concluded that it failed not because oppressive French tactics alienated Algeria's population but because "their bureaucracy was not up to the job." He launched his war on terror while reading about Churchill, but he finished his presidency by harping on Truman, an unpopular president whose reputation recovered after he left office." ,

most people know instantly that "W" never read a book in his life.

Several books have been written about the Bush Crime Family, & more than one observer has noted that he stole both elections.

It's doubtful that any history books used in educational institutions mention this fact.

Another observation: there are many theories about what causes the business cycle, & if it wasn't for the fact that U.S. is under siege by FASCISTS & is beyond bankrupt,the following article in ROLLING

STONE magazine might not have been taken seriously:

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Last updated 4:35 p.m. PT

Goldman Sachs: The great American bubble machine

By SHANNON FEARS

SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF

From Rolling Stone:

Matt Taibbi's piece in Rolling Stone magazine's latest issue is creating a fair amount of buzz across the Internet. It's hard not to be sucked into an article that begins this way:

"The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs is that it's everywhere. The world's most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money."

Anyone who gets his or her information from the few truth telling websites like Salon.com & also from authors courageous

enough to get the truth published, knows that this article by

Matt Taibbi is true. In fact, living truth, as these FASCIST

miscreants continue to devour what's left of America. California is the poster state of FASCISM: it came , corrupted

& conquered. Real living history.

And with FASCIST Obama giving the FED carte blanche, the

denouement can't be far .