On the other hand, those on the left point to the systemic propagandization of history in the United States that ignores or minimizes its racist and imperialist past (see James Loewen’s Lies My Teacher Told Me and Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States). Back to the triumphalist “kings and battles” (or presidents and battles) mode, they argue, and we would be just fine. Conservatives in the US - having bet all their chips on white nationalism as well as Christian chauvinism, now - love to point at historians (and teachers in general) who they claim have introduced too much “negative”, anti-patriotic (or whatever, I can’t be bothered) history. But also - history is too often taught in a boring way, and too often the wrong history is taught. The number of history majors at universities in the United States has declined by a third since 2011 - mostly, perhaps, because of anxious students (and parents), rightly or wrongly, worried about jobs in the post-2008 economy. Surely every thinking person agrees on this. I don’t want to resort to a ponderous screed about how important a knowledge of history is to our society. Review: Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019, edited by Ibram X.
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