[Ansteorra] Re: Historical Gerrymandering

[Fitzmorgan at cs.com]

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In a message dated 3/1/02 10:46:02 PM Pacific Standard Time,
marccarlson20 at hotmail.com writes:
>
> An example, BTW, of bias in history is how we were taught about the history
> of the American Revolution.  When "The Patriot" came out I heard a lot of
> confusion at the suggestion that so much of the war was fought in the
> South.
>   Several people even told me that they were under the impression that the
> Battle of Yorktown was fought in the North (Yorktown is in Virginia, only a
> few miles from both Jamestown and Williamsburg).  This view that the
> Revolution was fought entirely in New England began to be promulgated after
> the Civil War, seemingly to diminish any influence the South might have had
> -- along with the whole "the Pilgrims/the Plymouth Colony" were the first
> real British colonists in the New World mythology.

       I remember I once took a course in early American history that was
taught by a teacher from England.  It was interesting how differently he
presented the reasons leading up to that war from what I had been taught in
High School.  The reasons he presented made a lot of sense too.
       I think people often overlook the fact that what they learned in Grade
School and High School was what the government wanted them to know.  The
government has it's own priorities.  Scientific, historical and intellectual i
ntegrity aren't all that high on the list.  A much higher priority seems to
be not to say anything that might upset or offend anyone.
       I suspect that many, perhaps most people in America today learned all
they know of history from the government and Hollywood.  That's not going to
give them a very accurate picture of the past, and our education system
doesn't even try to teach children how to separate Truth from B. S.   A very
necessary skill that many people never develop.

Robert