I followed most of the links, even the one by Schlafly (who is just a dumbed-down Coulter, in my mind). Interesting, but a couple of links (the Howard Zinn one, for example) didn't let me follow to the detail level.
Being a parent with kids in middle school, I see the difference between how I was taught history and how it is taught today. The 'liberals' lambasted by Coulter and Schlafly actually have a very valid point.
The history I was taught was very Euro-centric. Most of the history I taught dealt with ancient Greece, Rome, Europe, and America. There was very little taught on anything else; a little China and Japan, and some South American history, but no history of Islam, Africa, India, etc.
Even the history we were taught was very American-slanted. We were taught that Indians were the aggressors, with the Little Big Horn as the example. Nothing was taught of Wounded Knee, the Trail of Tears, or the real reservation life. Slavery was evil, but seemingly only around 1850, and was quickly remedied by the Civil War. American expansionism was quaintly hidden under labels of 'Manifest Destiny' and the always catchy 'Monroe Doctrine'. Of course, this lead to our winning both World Wars (the tide turned as soon as the doughboys, and then the GIs, showed up).
My eyes were opened a bit when they pretty much skipped Korea, and then I asked my dad (a Marine in Korea) about it. That led to Toland's "But Not In Shame", which showed the incompetence of the early war in the Pacific, and the how the Japanese basically kicked our asses in one-on-one combat. "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" busted the myths of the cavalry soldiers. "Confessions of Nat Turner" destroyed the myth of the benevolent master/slave relationship still extolled in some Southern circles. "All Quiet" and "Johnny Got His Gun" showed that Grant was indeed correct; war IS hell. After a while, you look back at the old text books, and ask yourself exactly which planet did these authors come from?
The local middle schools here now teach from a much more rounded history book. The kids get significant chapters on the history of China, India, Persia, Islam, and the pre-Columbian Americas. And the lessons are more rounded, showing the good and the bad in much more honest terms.
I don't know what Schlafly and Coulter's real problem with the 'liberal politically correct history' books is. They mostly depend on the Soviet spy infiltrations into the Truman administration (some of which are based on dubious evidence). From that, they come up with a 'Great Liberal Conspiracy' that supposedly shows that history has been manipulated into a leftist view, when in fact it was manipulated into a pro-American, anti-communist view where the Americans were always the good guys and everyone else better stand out of the way. |
