Well said. I commented on Dr Heather Cox Richardson’s letter a day or two ago that Americans are not taught nearly enough about WW2 to understand what is happening around us now. I was fascinated by the Holocaust growing up and I’ve read books about it since.
We weren’t taught that our government refused to let Jews take refuge here. We a…
Well said. I commented on Dr Heather Cox Richardson’s letter a day or two ago that Americans are not taught nearly enough about WW2 to understand what is happening around us now. I was fascinated by the Holocaust growing up and I’ve read books about it since.
We weren’t taught that our government refused to let Jews take refuge here. We are taught we’re the reason we won the war, without teaching people that our government stayed out of most of it because of isolationism. We aren’t taught the US gave refuge to Nazis. I definitely don’t remember being taught about the Zionists working with Great Britain during the war to get land for their homeland (I learned bits thru Dr. Ruth’s autobiography and am learning more bits reading The Light of Days by Judy Batalion). We aren’t taught nearly enough how Hitler and Nazism in order to keep it from happening HERE.
You’re right. Our country needs to really reflect. People are surprised we are facing the threats and challenges we see today, but I’m not and I’m one of the ones trying to sound the alarm.
But that’s because I’ve gone beyond what is taught in school 😔
Across the world, I've noticed that elites take a keen interest in how history is taught. More often than not, school textbooks contain much more mythology than actual history. It really comes down to the individual to take an interest and read, research, analyse to separate fact from fiction. Unfortunately not many do. Those trained as doctors, accountants, engineers, scientists and so on and so forth by and large do not get exposed to anymore history (or even the social sciences in general) beyond whatever they learn in formative education settings. Moreover, I would argue that any real interest in history is "killed off" for most people early on because it's more an exercise of memorising dates and regurgitating events rather than connecting the dots, analysing patterns and recognising it's implications.
And speaking of connecting dots, if you're interested, here's a brilliant lecture by Naomi Klein where she argues that European fascism was a "homecoming" of sorts for European colonialism (see: https://youtu.be/qCd75DFs5J4?si=7wpKtSG_O04ehPqP).
Well said. I commented on Dr Heather Cox Richardson’s letter a day or two ago that Americans are not taught nearly enough about WW2 to understand what is happening around us now. I was fascinated by the Holocaust growing up and I’ve read books about it since.
We weren’t taught that our government refused to let Jews take refuge here. We are taught we’re the reason we won the war, without teaching people that our government stayed out of most of it because of isolationism. We aren’t taught the US gave refuge to Nazis. I definitely don’t remember being taught about the Zionists working with Great Britain during the war to get land for their homeland (I learned bits thru Dr. Ruth’s autobiography and am learning more bits reading The Light of Days by Judy Batalion). We aren’t taught nearly enough how Hitler and Nazism in order to keep it from happening HERE.
You’re right. Our country needs to really reflect. People are surprised we are facing the threats and challenges we see today, but I’m not and I’m one of the ones trying to sound the alarm.
But that’s because I’ve gone beyond what is taught in school 😔
Across the world, I've noticed that elites take a keen interest in how history is taught. More often than not, school textbooks contain much more mythology than actual history. It really comes down to the individual to take an interest and read, research, analyse to separate fact from fiction. Unfortunately not many do. Those trained as doctors, accountants, engineers, scientists and so on and so forth by and large do not get exposed to anymore history (or even the social sciences in general) beyond whatever they learn in formative education settings. Moreover, I would argue that any real interest in history is "killed off" for most people early on because it's more an exercise of memorising dates and regurgitating events rather than connecting the dots, analysing patterns and recognising it's implications.
And speaking of connecting dots, if you're interested, here's a brilliant lecture by Naomi Klein where she argues that European fascism was a "homecoming" of sorts for European colonialism (see: https://youtu.be/qCd75DFs5J4?si=7wpKtSG_O04ehPqP).