¶ … history seems only like a carefully curated set of facts, figures, and events that when taken together promote a specific ideology or worldview. Thus, Americans focus almost exclusively on people, places, and events that uphold the idea of American exceptionalism. Wars and the conquests of men overshadow the lives of women, and Europeans are given precedence. The quote by W.E.B. DuBois underscores the inherent falseness in approaching history, given that on some level there will always be editorializing. Howard Zinn also reassembles American history in a way that subverts the paradigm that had been taught related to the supremacy of capitalism and the white-washing of key turning points. A People's History of the United States gives voice to those who were systematically suppressed or oppressed. Likewise, Loewen's Lies My Teachers Told Me undoes the brainwashing that schoolchildren in the United States endure.
Loewen and Zinn take up W.E.B DuBois on his challenge. These...
Regarding the First Nations or Native Americans, Zinn critiques Columbus's own journals and asks the reader to view the unfolding of colonization from the perspective of the people whose land, livelihood, culture, and way of life would be grossly stolen and raped. When "the past is told from the point-of-view of governments, conquerors, diplomats, leaders," the result is a skewed version of history designed only to support the notion that Europeans somehow brought a civilizing force to the savages they encountered (Zinn, Chapter 1). School children are taught to idolize Columbus, and make heroes out of slave owners like Thomas Jefferson. As DuBois points out, the fact that these claims have for so long remain unchallenged is the essence of what is wrong with history -- and with the country. Indoctrinating children…
