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Comon Sense Clairvoyance and Some Lessons of History

By Paul Street at Aug 16, 2005

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Scrambling to prepare some formal reflections on my original academic field, United States History, I recently found my notes from a 20th Century US History class I taught in the Fall of 1998. Here are my exact notes --- talking points really --- from the first class meeting, for what became my standard bit on Why Study History, a topic that receives amazing neglect from professional historians: "1. Reason #1: to learn from and not repeat past mistakes (yes, old Santyana), like: A. Quick wars myth....amazingly recurrent: policymakers tell populace and themselves that this current projected or ongoing war will be over rapidly. Rarely the case. Examples. B. Myth of permanent economic boom without busts. Rising tide to life all boats indefinitely. Sorry, but capitalism does not behave like that. Mention business cycle theory and recurrent necessity of capitlaist crises. Give examples (1920s). C. Assumption that overall economic growth and "good" stock market indicates a healthy economy. May actually reflect savage wealth inequality and related imbalances likely/certain to undo boom. Over-valued stocks come back to earth and speculative bubbles are burst, at no small cost (essentially a repeat of point 1B). D. Trying to impose your imperial will on other people and nations breeds bitterness and violence, inviting ugly attack. Pearl Harbor is just one example. Explain. E. Severe inequality of wealth undermines democracy. Say how. Quote Jefferson and Aristotle. Give examples past and present." I guess these seemed like unduly dark reflections at the pinnacle of the grand Clintonian "bell epoque," when supposed permanent peace and prosperity permitted great intellectuals to gaze in self-satisfied wonder at the glorious, globalization-induced End of History: the past's supposed culmination in the universal spread of liberal-capitalist "freedom," peace, and abundance. Empire and war were ancient and otherwise distant concerns and nobody imagined how Osama bin Laden and a messianically militarist "Project for a New American Century" would dominate the first decade (and perhaps more) of the next millennium, joined at their shared barbarian, petro-fundamentalist, and arch-authoritarian hip. Six other big reasons followed in my oddly dark (for 1998) lecture, making a case for History done right as (among other things) a weapon of anti-authoritarian ideological self-defense. Quick review seven years later: 1A: look at US war on/invasion and occupation of Iraq. Anyone remember DUMMY (my affectionate shortening of Donald+Rummy [Rumsfeld]) giving the resistance no more than five weeks or, at the most, five months? Cheap oil was supposed to be flowing from "liberated" Iraqi pipelines (helping pay for the expensive and illegal invasion) by now. The war on Iraq has now been falsely and then somewhat self-fulfillingly conflated with the officially semi-permanent "war on terror" (itself not a new phrase). 1B and 1C were validated, of course, by the overdue implosion of the high-tech stock boom, the related discrediting of global neoliberalism, and the onset of an official recession and subsequent mild recovery at and after the turn of the millennium. 1D (with specific reference to US policies vis a vis the Arab world) is relevant to 9/11 and subsequent escalation of extremist Islamic terror attacks, now fueled also by American occuption of Iraq, widely perceived in the Middle East as the latest example of America's arrogant and imperial ambitions in that region. 1E is an obvious introduction to what plagues what's left of popular governance in "America, the best democracy money can buy," where there is a shocking disconnect between the generally social-democratic policy sentiments of the populace and the regressive corporate-plutocratic and related imperial nature of policy. There's nothing especially brilliant or mysterious in what I had to say on the first night of that 1998 class. My notes reflect merely some half-intelligent common sense reflections from someone (me at the peak of the Clinton "boom") who tried to keep current on historical literature and sought to connect his sense of the past to current events. For anyone who bothered to study the historical record in a reasonably honest and careful way, they weren't much more complicated than the realization that 2 + 2 = 4. They seem practically clairvoyant in retrospect only because of the mind-deadening mass amnesia imposed by dominant ideological authorities proto-totalitarian American System whose masters know that, to quote Nineteen Eighty Four, "those who control the present, control the past. Those who control the past, control the future." For dominant authorities, common-sense historical knowledge and lessons are unacceptable. Two plus two equals five if they need it to. And they do, in practically every era of interest and concern....not just history. What's troubling in my old field is the willingness of so many comfortably entrenched professionals to let the "powers that be" own the lessons of the past. Never bothering to explain the vital contemporary relevance of history --- why study history --- is part of that surrender. Meanwhile the Orwellian ship of state is headed by a former History major (at Yale) who seems intent on dramatically escalating the pace at which the United States repeats the mistakes of past hegemonic states that also sapped their remaining power with a destructive militarism that reflected and exacerbated their economic decline. Appendix: “The past is never dead, it's not even past” (William Faulkner) “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past” (George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty Four) A. Introductory comments/warnings B. Why Study History? 1.Santyana: “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” (learning from past mistakes). Examples: (a) “quick wars”; (b) imperial subjugation and all-too mysterious attacks; (c)boom and bust. 2.Positive lessons: what's right with the past. Frederich Douglass: “If there is no struggle, there is no progress...power enver convedes without a demand.” Many examples from American Revolution through the present. 3.Where Contemporary Issues and Problems Come From: Getting to the Root of Current Day Difficulties. Examples: (a) contemporary racial disparity, race-based slavery (1619-1865) and the origins of the U.S.; (b) contemporary class inequality and economic insecurity and the history of capitalism; (c)the contemporary disconnect beween policy and opinion and the U.S. Constitution 4.De-Coding Propaganda. Examples: (a) the misuse of the Founding Fathers and other great historical persohalities (e.g. , Martin Luther King, Jr. and Jesus): (b) the identification of all official state enemies as Hitler; (c) the myth of supposedly “suicidal” (and alleged al-Qaeda ally) Saddam; (d)“We [the U.S.] are Good...and never did anything to provoke anyone's hatred;” (e) the U.S. as homeland, headquarters, agent, and epitome of the principle of “FREEDOM” (liberty); (f) the conflation of capitalism with democracy; (g) history as progress; (h) history as pure chaos (“shit happens”... “the wheel in the sky keeps on turning”); (i) nothing changes: “same as it ever was” C.Explaining the United States of Amnesia: generallybad high school (and K-12) history (especially textbooks) as part of why Americans tend to be so indifferent to and ignorant of the past. Conservative Lies Our Teachers Told Us: history as “facts;” the dangerous and boring myth of “objective” and “value-free” history; whitewashed butchers; downplayed slavery; authoritarians as democrats; America as “the land of opportunity;” invisble racism; Uncle Sam as Mr. Good guy; U.S. Government as neutral. One reason so many America hate history: they've got good “bullshit detectors” (Hemingway)

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Re: Comon Sense Clairvoyance and Some Lessons of History

By Blairhead, Calvin at Aug 31, 2005 03:05 AM
The average member of a tribal society was likely to be engaged in formal war on at least four occassions in his life. When was the last time you went to war mammal? Standard tribal MO in war involved routine massacre of children and old people and the rape and enslavement of all nubile females. There was often the added embelishment of ritual cannibalism. The tribal Maori used the smoked hands of their slain rivals for domestic hooks. Moriori maidens were staked alive to the ground until the conquering Maori warriors had the time to dismember and cook them. The only "peacful" tribes were composed of vanquished peoples living in geographically remote areas. The reason they were peaceful was because they had learned that they were crap at fighting. Why don't you people ever try living like primitives before you advocate their wonderful lifestyle? I'd rather expire in front of my x-box than spend my life wiping my ass with banana leaves.

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Person

Re: Comon Sense Clairvoyance and Some Lessons of History

By Mlipko, Mammal1003 at Aug 23, 2005 00:21 AM
Haven't been near a computer to continue this discussion. Paul -what I meant a few pages ago about human history is that we aren't teaching kids how humans interacted before civilization. Our culture (east and west) has dismissed everything that came before the bible and civilization as worthless and savage. Yet these people had cradle to grave security and support from their tribe, and still do where they exist without interference from the modern world. The division of labor occurred with the advance of civilization. I believe that we should study how these peoples interract, after all, they're still here after a hundred millenia, and we're destroying ourselves. Can we learn from them? Is an oral tradition worthless because it isn't written down? I'm not the first to suggest this, Daniel Quinn has written a few books on the subject.

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Person

Re: Comon Sense Clairvoyance and Some Lessons of History

By Syniel, Syniel at Aug 22, 2005 19:10 PM
I think Yakov is simply being a troll.. (qoute) Bottom line, the implication of your words are those of a bigot. And I thought you lefties liked to fight for the oppressed. Silly me.(unqoute) He's sporting all the signs right there. If he were serious he wouldn't use inflammatory rhetoric the way he does.

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Person

Re: Comon Sense Clairvoyance and Some Lessons of History

By Otto, Steve at Aug 22, 2005 18:40 PM
I can't believe anyone who visits this site could be as pro-Israel as Yakov Bok. Who ever said Israel was responsible for the entire Arab world. No Leftists would say that, because that would give the assumption that ALL the Arab problems can be blamed on one small country when all the worlds' great powers have tried to subjugate and then steal the oil in the Middle-east. Israel is just one issue. The history of the PLO is that it has been a secular organization headed mostly by the Islamic group Fatah. The other factions have been Marxist and quite small. Hamas is a new group and not part of the PLO. NO leftists, I have ever known, supports the rise of Islamic fundamentalist in the Middle-east. As with fascism in the 1930s, it is a movement born of the frustration for other ideologies and systems that have failed to fix the many serious problems the Arabs face. Fascism came from the same kinds of frustration. Something was wrong and many people sought a bad idea as a solution. The PLO never has said they have a “hatred of Jews.” That is pure right-wing bullshit. The Palestinians had their land taken from them by Europeans as a way of easy their conscious over Adolf Hitler and as a way to remove the Jews from Europe in a kinder gentler way. Nelson Mandela, who fought for the rights of his own people, would never get the kind of scorn as Yasser Arafat gets from the biased right-wing US media. Arafat had spent his entire life trying to end the suffering of his people.

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Re: Comon Sense Clairvoyance and Some Lessons of History

By Bok, Yakov at Aug 22, 2005 16:35 PM
Thanks for showing me the errors of my way Graeme. OF COURSE Israel is responsible for the rise of Islamic militancy in Morroco, Libya, the Arabian pennisula, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Iran, the former Russian states, and S.E. Asia. It all stems from Israel's arrogant presence of 6 million Jews in the sea of 200 some-odd million Arabs. As far as the fractured Palestinian opposition, you truely don't know the history of the PLO. Arafat united the various factions under the common flag of hatred of Jews and Israel. It was only after decades of corruption and inept leadership that the factions you now support came back to light. Bottom line, the implication of your words are those of a bigot. And I thought you lefties liked to fight for the oppressed. Silly me.

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Person

By Bok, Yakov at Aug 21, 2005 20:14 PM
Israel has nothing to do with it and you know it. Stop being a bigot.

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Re: Comon Sense Clairvoyance and Some Lessons of History

By Otto, Steve at Aug 20, 2005 22:19 PM
No matter what the source, my information is true. Try the Encyclopedia Britannia if you want. I have seen shows on the History Channel where they bragged about that CIA operation. They were quite proud of what they did. When the Shah fell, many Iranians (and I knew of several of them personally myself) wanted a return to democracy. When the Ayatollah Khomeini took full control, he killed off many of those who wanted democracy or ran them out of the country. Many people continue to support Khomeini because they know how easy a democracy can be overthrown or manipulated by this country.They also have run out of things to believe in. There are still Iranians who hope for and are struggling for something better, no thanks to the US of course. They know better than to trust this country to help them.

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Person

Re: Comon Sense Clairvoyance and Some Lessons of History

By Bok, Yakov at Aug 20, 2005 19:13 PM
Having read Hellbender's link, I have to say, Chomsky would be proud with all the rhetoric that was used. Way to reference an "unbiased" source. With that said, am I supposed to believe that thanks to the U.S., there has been an anti-democracy movement in Iran for the last 50 years and with muslim fundementalists for more?

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Person

Re: Comon Sense Clairvoyance and Some Lessons of History

By Otto, Steve at Aug 20, 2005 07:33 AM
We did nothing to stop democracy in Iran? This is where history is very important. Apparently Yakov Bok never heard of the 1953 Coup, considered, by some, one of the first successful CIA “regime changes” in the Middle-east. A democratically elected government headed by Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq, was overthrown and the hated Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, a deposed monarch and tyrant, was returned to power with a special CIA operation, code-named TP-AJAX. If that's not squashing democracy, then what is? See: http://www.iranchamber.com/history/coup53/coup53p1.php Or about a dozen other history sites that tell the same story. In case you don't know, the same CIA action was taken against a democracy, with another successful coup in Guatemala in 1954.

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Occupy_iowa_city_rally

Re: Comon Sense Clairvoyance and Some Lessons of History

By Street, Paul at Aug 20, 2005 06:24 AM
No rd420 I'm a big fan of "hack history" and I want to give license to Orwellian distortion. But seriously then let's put it this way: state your world view, not necessarily your bias, up front. Let people control for that world view to look for bias and distortion if they can find it (and let them be up front about their world view in their process of looking). Of course all arguments (left, right, center ot whatever) must be evaluated in accordance with basic principles of thesis, evidence, and conclusion. There is only one past, not as many pasts as people want to make up in accordance with their world view. Some people (independent of ideology) climb much further up the mountain of what that past actually was than others. I remember from graduate school thinking that one of the best books an Alexander Hamilton's state capitalist theory and practice was by a reactionary who understood what Hamilton was about better than the liberals and leftists writing about the early Republic. The conservative historian in question loved the Hell out of Hamilton (who most leftists would see as a fairly complete regressive asshole) and his love motivated him to study the Hell out of his hero in a very careful way. It turns out one of the best sources on the rise of American "Open Door" imperialism in the late 19th century was written by a very sharp Social Darwinian shithead --- a contemporary investment expert named Charles Conant, who wrote a fascinating 1898 essay titled "The Economic Basis of Imperialism," which basically gave a sophisiticated presentation of the imperialism-generating origins and role of surplus capital independent of standard left analyses of the matter. Marx learned more about how the vicious bourgeois political economy worked from capitalist sons of bitches like David Ricardo than he did from many of the contemporaries who agreed with him on "from each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs"...a slogan that yakov bok loves.

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Re: Comon Sense Clairvoyance and Some Lessons of History

By Syniel, Syniel at Aug 20, 2005 05:27 AM
Responding to Yakov; "Where did that sense of history come from" isn't an argument. It's a dig. So, if your tryign to have a polite conversation you might want to watch that. ..and if you would like to know why someone could think the US ruined Iranian democracy.. it's funny you should mention that because I just happened on the following the other day. http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2005/08/tpajax_turns_52.html#more But, I have been aware that the US has been fond of games like this for years. Both the UK and the US are well known for their "playing" around in the middle east according to however their interests pulled them. Maybe you were simply missing some facts? There. read on that for a bit and let your own sense of history "re-steep" like so much intellectual tea, mm? ;)

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Re: Comon Sense Clairvoyance and Some Lessons of History

By Bok, Yakov at Aug 20, 2005 03:57 AM
I also like how Iran would be a democracy if it weren't for the U.S. Where did that sense of history come from? Sure, we supported the Shah, but that in know way means had the U.S. not supported the Shah, that the country would have been free, that is, a democracy. Someone is showing a great ignorance of that part of the world. Remember, the Shah was moving his country towards Democratic reforms when a totalitarian government took over. Remember, those is charge in Iran, as with all muslim fundamentalists, Sunni, Shia, Arab or non-Muslim, is anti-democracy and freedom. Is anyone willing to comment on the attack in Jordan on the U.S. naval ship? Is that further evidence of the evil "U.S. Empire?"

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Re: Comon Sense Clairvoyance and Some Lessons of History

By Tolsen1, R4d20 at Aug 20, 2005 03:46 AM
As for the whole Japan thing.... I notice how no one has yet brought up the actual opinion of China. For all the exploitation that was done to China, the chinese hold a SPECIAL hatred for the Japanese above and beyond any resentment towards the other colonial powers. This does not "excuse" our actions, intentions, or whatever. It does undermine the idea (being pushed here, now) that the Japanese were "just another" exploiter of China and the associated implication that the Chinese didn't prefer one to another.

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Re: Comon Sense Clairvoyance and Some Lessons of History

By Tolsen1, R4d20 at Aug 20, 2005 03:01 AM
"The way for the historian to handle this with students and readers is (1) to state their world view/"biases" up front (so they can be controlled for if necessary) IF necessary? When should they not be controlled? When they are "good" biases? Just because we can't eliminate bias does not me that we should not TRY to eliminate bias. The discipline to try and be as objective as possible brings rewards and does make for more accurate history. I hope you don't take this "impossibility" of removing bias to be a license to start selectivly editing the history you give. History is easy to manipulate by selectivly telling the truth. That is why hack historians can often stay "credible" even when they are total hacks - because they never need "lie" as long as they can just tell 1/2 of the truth. The sign of a good historian is one who brings up and addresses counter examples. The sign of a hack is one who simply presents evidence for his thesis and omits reference to examples which would challenge it.

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Occupy_iowa_city_rally

Re: Comon Sense Clairvoyance and Some Lessons of History

By Street, Paul at Aug 19, 2005 19:09 PM
Hellbender I agree. And then there's the deletion of the radicalism/leftism of people who make it into the history books as icons. Classic examples are Hellen Keller, Albert Einstein (who wrote an article in support of socialism in an early [maybe the first] issue of the Marxist journal Monthly, and Martin Luther King, Jr...anyone who reads David Garrow's magisterial biography of King (Bearing the Cross)learns that he was anti-capitalist and fairly early on (though perhaps not opnly until mid-late 60s). Might also mention, well, Jesus, assuming he existed. See John Dominic Crossan: Jesus: a Revolutionary Biography, which uses an anthropological approach combined with interesting scriptural analysis to portrary historical jesus as basically an intinerant left anarchist from the radical peasantry/artisanry of his time. Evan when I was an undergraduate a great history teacher told me that most of the academic publications he read were "long love letters from one academic to a few others." Howard Zinn catches Hell from "real historians" because he breaks that rule. The incestuousness of the field discourse (in which I have engaged myself) can be pretty overpowering and guaranteed to exclude non-specialists. History ought to be written for more people than just historians and history graduate students.

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Re: Comon Sense Clairvoyance and Some Lessons of History

By Zildus, Evan at Aug 19, 2005 16:21 PM
paul, "bit on Why Study History, a topic that receives amazing neglect from professional historians" the end of that sentence put into words the exact reason--which has been kind of floating wordlessly in my subconscious--that i'm finding it so difficult to keep pushing toward an academic career in philosophy. thanks for putting it to words:), it almost never happens that other people do that for me. great post otherwise as well.

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Re: Comon Sense Clairvoyance and Some Lessons of History

By Otto, Steve at Aug 19, 2005 09:20 AM
There is a lot we don't teach in schools. We teach Aristotle but not Epicurus, Marcus Aurelius but not Lucretius. We teach the Federalists papers but not much of the writings of Thomas Jefferson. We study kings and queens, but not John Ball who lead a peasant rebellion in the 1300s. I'm a teacher myself. Yes we are selective about what we teach. No bad ideas in our children's heads. Here in Kansas, we don't even need evolution.

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Re: Comon Sense Clairvoyance and Some Lessons of History

By Espinosa_baca, Tenoch at Aug 19, 2005 06:46 AM
bwong,I agree with you, perspectives and experiences that are "outside" the U.S. are helpful for rethinking triumphant nation-building narratives (the stories that count as "U.S. History"). It's nice that a couple thousand history professors are officially against military occupation in Iraq. But I remain worried about the immense majority of U.S. educators who evidently are not.

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Re: Comon Sense Clairvoyance and Some Lessons of History

By Gammon101, Bwong at Aug 18, 2005 22:38 PM
"Perhaps the embargo on Japan was a non-violent way to try and stop Imperialist Japan from raping Asia?" yakov I don't know where you get that from, "perhaps" Santa exists. In fact, right after the rape of Nanking the U.S assured the Japanese that all was fine provided America interests in Asia were respected. Funny how delusional some people can be. It is strange that so many supposedly "independent thinking" Americans unquestioningly subscribe to this ludicrous idea that the U.S is a shining knight always busily doing good around the world.It almost as if these people get their historical and political education out of superman comic books. People from other countries are not nearly as naive about their governments.

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Occupy_iowa_city_rally

Re: Comon Sense Clairvoyance and Some Lessons of History

By Street, Paul at Aug 18, 2005 20:23 PM
I do not get mammal1003's positing of a dichotomy between "human history" and what I said. Anyway, value-free history or social science is not possible. Here's a line from maybe the great living historian Eric Hobsbawm (from his autobiography): "most historians, including all good ones, know that in investigating the past, even the remote past, they are also thinking and expressing opinions in terms of and about the present and its concerns." Those concerns and where one stands in the present will always shape what lessons or other conclusion one "historian" draws. It shapes even and especially what facts are deemed relevant to rescue from "the condescension of posterity" (Thompson) in the first place (see E.H. Carr, What is History?..chapter titled [I think] "The Historian and His Facts"). Thus for example, labor history and the social and political history of the American working class emerged as a serious field of rigorous investigation in the U.S. only after significant numbers of working-class people began to get doctorates in history (in the late 1950s and 1960s). The way for the historian to handle this with students and readers is (1) to state their world view/"biases" up front (so they can be controlled for if necessary) and (2) always remind audience (as Chomsky does): "don't take it from me....check it out yourself." I'm sure other subject matters are taught badly in high school but history is probably the worst...they give the history classes to the FOOTBALL COACH (ok, I got the hockey coach) it's such a joke. There are exceptions, of course: when I taught around Chicago some high schools (in St. Charles, IL and Homewood, IL) used to produce highs school graduates who loved and knew some history. I didn't say U.S. itself caused Pearl Harbor. Of course Japan was controlled by a savagely imperialist and racist regime that certainly had deep domestic roots. But military-strategic December 7, 1941 surprises aside, a Japanese attack on American forces was a little less than surprising to many informed contemporaries given very real and significant US efforts to strangle Japanese economic power. Those efforts had little to do with principled democratic or humanitarian opposition to Japanese fascism-imperialism, which "we" were all-too-fine with until the threat to American-global-imperial economic interests became clear. Check it out yourself yakov.

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Re: Comon Sense Clairvoyance and Some Lessons of History

By Syniel, Syniel at Aug 18, 2005 03:37 AM
For Yakov; America has a long history of meddling in foreign affairs for it's own gain and with little regard for others outside itself. For example.. Iran would be a democracy today if it weren't for our meddling. So.. perhaps America is to blame to Pearl and perhaps it's not, but lamenting that the US is blamed for everything is not proof that it wasn't at fault in Pearl Harbor. Paul has an opinion. Further, he tries to back it up with facts and he tries to tie those facts together. I'd be more interested in hearing why his version of the facts don't hold up. You don't seem to be presenting a different view.. just telling us that he should study more. How does his argument fall apart? From my point of view it seems solid to me.

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Re: Comon Sense Clairvoyance and Some Lessons of History

By Protocol4, Nemo at Aug 18, 2005 03:27 AM
yakov, your history is again somewhat, lets say, defective. the u.s. did not embargo japan to stop it from "raping" the rest of asia (which japan was no doubt doing). in fact part of u.s.'s problem was that japan wanted china all to itself, rather than sharing "it" with britain, russia etc. in fact if you read the history of china after ww1 you will see that wilson was quite content with an "open door policy" towards china. in other words as long as britain, russia (and yes, germany too) were willing to "share" china with the u.s. that bloody racist woodrow wilson was fine with it. as soon as japan became more greedy, it became a problem. maybe you should try reading some pre-ww2 history.

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Re: Comon Sense Clairvoyance and Some Lessons of History

By Bok, Yakov at Aug 18, 2005 02:40 AM
So now the U.S. is to blame for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor? My G-d Paul, is America always to blame? Perhaps the embargo on Japan was a non-violent way to try and stop Imperialist Japan from raping Asia? Of course it didn't work, thus, war was necessary. For all those people calling America an imperialist country, perhaps you should study pre-WWII Japan. Also, I have to laugh when ever anyone mentions the U.S. policies in the Middle East that piss the Arabs off. Other than supporting Israel, name one policy. Simply supporting the government? The world's economic interests lay in supporting whomever is in charge. So Paul, as you attempt to rewrite history, or ignore Arab bitory towards Jews, your "who controls the past controls the future" once again tells me that you are not concerned about truth, but power. You are as guilty as those you condemn.

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Re: Comon Sense Clairvoyance and Some Lessons of History

By Gammon101, Bwong at Aug 18, 2005 01:16 AM
I am in agreement with mammal and r4d20. History is a fascinating subject in its own right. It should not be treated as the hand maiden of politics and activism, as valuable as those goals may be. I am not saying conventional history is an "objective" subject. Clearly there are a lot of biases we need to be aware of. There are outstanding historians who also have strong political views such as E. P. Thompson. But as Thompson argued a historian must approach history on its own term, rather than trying to force his data into some "theortical" mold based on political fads. Paul, history is not the only badly taught subject in schools. I don't know how it is in the States but here highschool cirricula are created by "educators" who are generalists and know little about any specific subject. Experts who do know are supposed to be "consulted" but according to someone who had been "consulted" it was a joke. I have had lengthly debate with some "educators" who actually argued that subject knowledge was not necessary for a good teacher. An argument put forth,--I am not kidding,-- was that a teacher who struggles and stumbles along with the students may actually be a better teacher than his competent collegaues because he has better insight into the learning process. God helps us.

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Re: Comon Sense Clairvoyance and Some Lessons of History

By Tolsen1, R4d20 at Aug 18, 2005 00:26 AM
"Yes, but studying history goes beyond (and much further in the past) economies and governments" Totally. Studying history with an eye towards "social change" usually traps a person into looking only at places and periods of history that share superficial similarities with our own and into missing lessons that come from other places and periods.

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Re: Comon Sense Clairvoyance and Some Lessons of History

By Mlipko, Mammal1003 at Aug 18, 2005 00:08 AM
Yes, but studying history goes beyond (and much further in the past) economies and governments. What about HUMAN history? Read ISHMAEL.

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Re: Comon Sense Clairvoyance and Some Lessons of History

By Street, Paul at Aug 17, 2005 20:53 PM
superstring I agree that LAmerica especially shows that History in the sense that Fukyama meant it (as class/social conflict over capitalism)is anything but over. I should be careful about over-generalization as there's a bunch of decent left historians and has been since the New Left came into the Ivory Tower. See http://www.historiansagainstwar.org/bureau.html and you can locate some of the better names in the field. See the great left American labor and political historian (a machinist in his youth) David Montgomery's defense of "Historians Against the War" at http://hnn.us/articles/1577.html. I've been too removed from the field in recent years to say whether its really neglecting American imperialism (I got a good education in US imperialism at an atypically left history department back in the day). Raghav one of the things about the "Why Study History" lecture is that yes the reasons (I'll try to put up my other reasons later)are compelling and it then leads right into the next good/thought-provoking discussion question for students, which is "well then why do (really, have I been trained) to hate it so much?" It's a good "teaching moment." I'm running out of space but must of course mention left sociologist James Loewen's very popular, astute, and readable critique of high school history/history texts: LIES MY TEACHER TOLD ME: EVERYTHING YOUR HIGH SCHOOL HISTORY TEXTBOOK GOT WRONG, which notes (along with much else of interest and quite accurately by my experience) that college history professors are unique among academics in widely reporting that they have NOTHING and often less than nothing to build upon from high school history (often taught by the football coach) in presenting their subject matter. Progressive historians will even talk about having to un-teach high school history in the first two weeks of survey classes. I knew some left historians who were actually assigning Loewen's book in the US survey...making it the reading for the first month. They swore by the results. Besides Zinn's best-selling Peoples History of the United States (which evokes bitter criticism from certain types of lefty historians) and Loewen's book, I recommend (for counter-narratives) the American Social History Project's grand synthesis: WHO BUILT AMERICA? WORKING PEOPLE AND THE NATION'S ECONOMY, POLICY, CULTURE & SOCIETY (two volumes). And an old New Left historian --Eric Foner --- has now produced the best survey text going: Give me Liberty! (two volumes).

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Re: Comon Sense Clairvoyance and Some Lessons of History

By Alp2k2, Superstring at Aug 17, 2005 04:37 AM
Through Hugo Chavez's rhetoric I feel it's the start of Socialist history. I think his vision is very refreshing and hopeful. Maybe the neocon Fukiyama meant it is the end of capitalist fascist history, I'm kidding but with the downing of the trade centers it feels that way. I never bought that end of history line anyway, it was a childlike proclamation that humans would always feel happy to be ruled by a 1% elite of paternal fat cats, how ridiculous and ingnorant of Fukiyama. This is a man who does not understand human nature and the need for economic justice and a true equality of all races. History is sadly not taught in a way that will expose the tyranny of capitalism honestly and socialism continues to be demonized terribly unfairly. How can Americans ever rise above their ignorance and stop being bred as consumer sheep without a proper understanding of the corrupt ways of capitalism?

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Re: Comon Sense Clairvoyance and Some Lessons of History

By Organum, Baby at Aug 17, 2005 01:54 AM
I do not know the foci taken in american history studies, but believe the special role as catalyst for world revolution ( institutional where not warfare involved ) plays a major part. Just as it has in US selfimagery, nationbuilding, and propaganda. This has been a great tool and a beacon for downtrodden worldwide , but as a model for analysis might be obsolete. It lets our leaders use a rethoric, ( And rethoric hanges perception and approach ) Isnt it interesting when DaChum speaks of the official story of 911 ? Doesent he argue that its better for a further analysis being the simplest solution. I would suggest that the rule of the simplest solution fades away into humaniora and that the direct application of strategy takes over. Still ! i think he is right for the practical purposes of argument, analysis and aproach. BUT Then I do not see the end of history.

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Re: Comon Sense Clairvoyance and Some Lessons of History

By Espinosa_baca, Tenoch at Aug 17, 2005 01:13 AM
Paul, Great post. My exprience tells me that far too many U.S. Historians and even American Studies professors have been systematically unattentive to imperialism and its close relative, colonialism. The expression "postcolonial U.S. history" doesn't seem to exist. If it does, it becomes carefully and perhaps systematically ghettoized into "Native American History" or the even more denigrated and ignored "Chicano History." That U.S. History scholars would be either silent about or just plain blind to imperialism isn't surprising. America's imperialist War against Mexico is often quickly covered over or completely forgotten to make room for all those romanticized Civil War letters from soldiers. This "domestic struggle" works well for nation-building, whereas the occupation other people's land (like the entire northern half of Mexico) does not. Failure to seriously examine U.S. imperialism and colonialism may also contribute to why U.S. communities of Color have often not allied themselves with "white" left-intellectuals...

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Re: Comon Sense Clairvoyance and Some Lessons of History

By Syniel, Syniel at Aug 16, 2005 22:30 PM
Great post! I often take bits of info gathered in my wandering across the net and make the best of them into PDF files. This one made the "Canon of The Files," if i can be allowed a little grandiosity. This really touched home and succinctly summarized what i had felt was happening. Ironically, I was taking a history class in 1998 that covered the decline of British industrialization. It's remarkable that the pattern matches very closely to what is happening to us now as our interests and investments begin to be exported and we produce fewer substantial goods and move more into services.

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