I know it may seem like we have rehashed much of the first half of US History, but stick with me! There is method to my madness... =) Please take a look at this writing assignment. All of the instr

I decided to use this quote to start off this paper for two reasons. Number one I think it perfectly

pertains to what we have been learning over these last few assignments. Number two, because this

quote cannot be found in any book or article associated with Mark Twain. Yet this so called Internet

“meme” has been circulating through many social network sites for some time now, with no

confirmation that t he quote is actually from Mark Twain. I think that it just goes to show how easily we

are fooled and how easily history can be skewed. While many people take this quote at face value as

coming from Mark Twain, some who actually are great fans of his work q uickly point out that, though

it’s a great quote, it cannot be attributed to Mark Twain because in anything they have ever read, never

have they heard this quote before. I myself spent about a half hour trying to find the source of this

quote to no avail. Then I had to laugh to myself in the realization that I had become the butt of this joke.

I myself was easier fooled than convinced that I had been fooled by it. So I thought that perfectly

pertained to the essence of what we discussed in this class.

While it’s important for us as a society to study and learn from history, it’s even more important to

confirm our sources of information and its accuracy. What I have loved most about what Zinn and

Loewen have done is the way they have presented history how we have learned it, then provided the

other side to it. Whether you call these corrections or contradictions, I appreciated a fresh perspective

and new opposing information. The quotes “History is written by the conquerors” and “Who controls

the present, cont rols the past” are both very relevant and accurate. We should take heed of this saying,

because as I have learned in this class so far, what we learn from history, even from “reputable sources”,

is very often a distortion of the truth if not an outright li e. As Loewen says, “Textbooks are often

muddled by the conflicting desires to promote inquiry and to indoctrinate blind patriotism” (Loewen 6).

If you expect to learn anything from history, or claim yourself to be a lover of history, you must be open

to le arning multiple tellings of these historical stories from multiple perspectives. I believe only then can

you start to uncover the truth that makes sense to you. Like finding pieces of a puzzle that fit together,

once you find two its much easier to find th ree because the bigger picture starts to present itself. You

must take in and process each piece of information and compare and contrast them from what you have

previously understood. Again I refer to Loewen who says, “[History] textbooks also keep student s in the

dark about the nature of history. History is a furious debate informed by evidence and reason ” (Loewen

7). As W.E.B. DuBois suggests, “When we skip over the bad parts, our histories begin to lose their value

as ‘incentive and example’.” Both Loewen and Zinn take an unflinching and unfiltered look at American

History and the birth of our nation. From Columbus to the Revolution, the perspective they provide is a

refreshing look at our nation’s past. The damage done by our current and recent past history textbooks

is immense and colors our outlook so much that at times it is hard to stomach some of what Zinn and

Loewen are saying. At times want to dismiss it, but sources they cite for the most part, cannot not be

argued. As I continued on with o ur reading assignments again and again my jaw dropped; yet everything

made sense in connection to those events and the current state of affairs of the world in which we live. I

cannot express my anger and disgust at the outright lies I have been led to bel ieve as a child and young

adult. I felt in some ways violated and used, having been indoctrinated to feel so much pride in our

country, when in fact there is so much of which we should be ashamed. Even as someone who loves history and considers it one my m ost favorite subjects, I felt that I had been mentally crippled from

thinking critically about our nation’s history.

I can’t think of anyone who can’t recite from memory the story of Columbus and the origin story of the

Pilgrims. However, to learn the hist ory from the other side, from the perspective of the natives of the

Americas, and even to hear some of Columbus’ own quotes about the prostitution of young gir ls, is

really hard to process. It seems that there was little honor in the life of Columbus, and as Howard Zinn

points out, the choice of history textbook authors to “emphasize the heroism of Columbus and his

successors as navigators and discoverers, and to deemphasize their genocide, is not a technical necessity

but an ideological choice” (Zinn 9). T his is entirely inexcusable for those who call themselves educators.

We are misled to believe that English Puritan settlers discovered this land we now call America. It’s a

story filled with nationalistic pride that we learn on our first Thanksgiving and r etell every Thanksgiving

after that, but as I learned through the reading materials in this class, nothing could be farther from the

truth than what we have been told. Loewen points out that “More than any other celebration, more

even that such overly patr iotic holidays as Independence Day and Memorial Day, Thanksgiving

celebrates our ethnocentrism” (Loewen 88). The term ethnocentrism is a new term to me, learned in my

recent reading assignments. But both Loewen and Zinn make a compelling case, chalk full o f irrefutable

evidence, of it especially in the origin myth used to detail the landing of our ancestors on the shores of

this country. The Americas at that time were described to us as untamed wilderness, when the reality is

that these lands were already s ettled and inhabited by tribes of Native Americans and had been so for

centuries if not more than a millennium.

We are taught that the natives were a simplistic primitive people; when in fact, they were just as

developed as Europeans, and the early settler s learned much from them. Even the concept of

democracy came from the Iroquois. Yet our textbooks, our teachers, and even our parents neglect to tell

us these things. Maybe our of ignorance or maybe intentionally. However collectively as a country we

negle ct to give credit where credit is due, instead opting to further our ethnocentrism by insisting that it

was the Europeans who brought with them the ideas and concepts of civilized society. However, as

Loewen points out, “Thoughtless use of the terms civili zed and civilization blocks real inquiry into the

worldview or the social structure of the so called uncivilized person or society.” (Loewen 100) The

misuse of history, or as Loewen says “using history as a weapon,” has incredibly long lasting effects on

our society. What do people do when they hear the truth about our country’s founding? They come to

one of two conclusions: they either dismiss these facts and accuse those who reveal them as unpatriotic

further proving the point that we have been blindly in doctrinated into nationalism, or they make the

choice to accept these new facts, and in some respects feel shame for the atrocities committed by our

ancestors in the name of progress. It’s arguable that by choosing the latter, it makes it hard to enjoy the

freedoms that we as Americans have in being the richest, most powerful country on the planet.

Nevertheless, at some point we must all reflect on these facts regardless of how they make us feel.

I’d like to finish by quoting one of the most profound things I read in Howard Zinn’s book: “My point is that we must not, in telling history, accuse, judge, condemn Columbus in absentia. It is too

late for that; it would be a useless s cholarly exercise in morality. But the easy acceptance of atrocities as

a deplora ble but necessary price to pay for p rogress -that is still with us. One reason these atrocities are

still with us is that we have learned to bury them in a mass of other facts, as radioactive wastes are

buried in containers in the earth.” (Zinn 8)

I think that is a statement that applies not only to Columbus but to all of history. As Loewen writes, “The

antidote to feel -good history is not feel -bad history but honest and inclusive history”(Loewen 92). In

order for us to progress and move forward as a societ y, we must accept these ugly truths of our past.

Only then can we understand what it means to progress and grow as a civilized society. Until we

understand that, we are doomed to a feedback loop of the past forever repeating the mistakes of our

ancestors.