Got a big push back when I said the South is still fighting the Civil War. I’m wrong because this person was from the South and never was taught that in school.

I don’t think Republicans in the South even believe in schools.

Ken Burns’ 1990 “The Civil War” documentary ends with commentary from Barbara Fields, a revered scholar of slavery and the Civil War, who said “the Civil War is still going on. It's still to be fought and regrettably it can still be lost.”

That was THIRTY years ago now.

And I’ll watch it in its entirety. It just pulls you into another era. So many of the voice actors/commenters are gone now: Shelby Foote, Jason Robards, Julie Harris, Hoyt Axton, John Hartford, George Plimpton, etc.

Although historian/battlefield tour guide Edwin Bearss is still kicking at age 96!

The USA was formed by stealing land & committing genocide/occupation of Native Americans all in the Name of God. This new country was then built by slaves & poverty waged immigrants.

Will the majority of citizens own these 2 facts? If not...

How can we begin in earnest to rip out the roots of 400 years of multi-generational racism & greed driven low wage impoverishment?

We can’t move forward without facing The Truth: USA Theocratic White Elitism & it’s Sister Greed must be shunned once & forever if..

It’s time America lives up to its purported image of liberty & justice for all!

I agree, we need a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (like South Africa did) and expose the truth, own it, and then bring forward true change. We have to do something like this or we're doomed, IMO.

It is the only way out of this filthy mess. Am I correct it was successful in S. Africa? Speaking of which...Trevor Noah lately is a blessing...

Have you read Zinn's A People's History? I learned so much! Should be required high school reading.

with their T&R Commission - they did it to wipe away the shame of apartheid, one of the ultimate white supremacy constructs. They abolished the entire system, much to their credit. I'm not sure how it is today, but at the time it was much celebrated.

And yes, Howard Zinn's A People's History is a must read for every student.

The complete audio is on YouTube

Chapter 1

Teach your children

the books "lies my teacher told me" and "lies across america"

those are the books i used to teach my homeschoolers history.

... "my country" mantra that I've heard from some racist Southerners in the past.

Spot on in every sense because it's the inconvenient truth.

... I have said that President Lincoln was a white man, and shared the prejudices common to his countrymen towards the colored race. Looking back to his times and to the condition of his country, we are compelled to admit that this unfriendly feeling on his part may be safely set down as one element of his wonderful success in organizing the loyal American people for the tremendous conflict before them, and bringing them safely through that conflict. His great mission was to accomplish two things: first, to save his country from dismemberment and ruin; and, second, to free his country from the great crime of slavery. To do one or the other, or both, he must have the earnest sympathy and the powerful cooperation of his loyal fellow-countrymen. Without this primary and essential condition to success his efforts must have been vain and utterly fruitless. Had he put the abolition of slavery before the salvation of the Union, he would have inevitably driven from him a powerful class of the American people and rendered resistance to rebellion impossible. Viewed from the genuine abolition ground, Mr. Lincoln seemed tardy, cold, dull, and indifferent; but measuring him by the sentiment of his country, a sentiment he was bound as a statesman to consult, he was swift, zealous, radical, and determined ...

https://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/oration-in-memory-of-abraham-lincoln/

had Lincoln just let the south go? I'm not convinced union was a good thing. However, history may prove me wrong. I think of the Balkans. Then I think of Israel and Palestine.

That's my main beef with history. I suppose they teach you to soak up perspective. But ... Lenin was on a SEALED train! ... that's all they tell you. No implications. No reasons. Not who put him there. Not where did he find one. Not who colluded.

I mean what are you teaching? Anything? 20 years and ten books later you finally say, "what was going on there?"

Lincoln should be reexamined. "Six Encounters with Lincoln" - Elizabeth Brown Pryor

Too much has been made of Lincoln. Glad to see historians realizing he was Messiahned if that's the word. Historians prior to 1930 were largely private college trained - monied interests, college towns, wealthy founders for wealthy students in other words. No revisionism. No internet searches. Just more of the same.

After Republican conservative Christians took over state and local school boards, publishers were pressured to whitewash history. Nothing controversial could be taught. To maintain the appearance of balance, short vignettes about famous minorities were included as special features, that is, on single pages, not woven into the history. What children learn is that white people were the leaders and they built the country with minorities in the background or nowhere at all.

I’ve long believed that the way we teach history is totally wrong. To avoid offending anyone, today’s history books are a recitation of major events with very little context for why those events are important in our history. I would prefer a humanities approach, and I think it would be more interesting for students, where more context is given for events, like the mood of the country, the political beliefs at the time, the social issues, the viewpoints of major writers of the day, etc. History should not be a catalog of facts jumping from war to war with very little in between.

What is being said in this excellent thread is what should be taught, but it is not.

We shall see in November.

All that needs to be said about the confederacy is well documented in quotes from Jefferson Davis, President of the confederacy, and Alexander Hamilton Stephens, the first Vice President of confederacy before Pence. All slaves a d negros are not equal human beings, and it is Gods will for their slavery that gave them a better life. Just like the current President and Vice President of today’s confederacy, slathered in bible and God approval of treating people like that. That damn flag represents one thing. That is why right white extremest fly it proudly. Time for it and all memorabilia to be put into a room for the cult to go see as needed, not in public display, especially in and on the people’s property. If ever a flag needed burning, is it is now appropriate. All the hate wrapped up with God and Bible. Same ole same ole.

Thank you for sharing.

How to be brainwashed and the government going along with it. Me, a born and bred New Englander, with roots going back to the 1600's in Maine and Mass, and a great-great grandfather who fought in the Civil War, learned to sing and sang "Dixie" as a kid, without understanding the true meaning behind it.

This was a great documentary which clearly showed how even though the south lost the war militarily, but won the hearts and minds of southerners for decades to come.

Thanks for posting.

I knew a lot of this, but the video brings it into a very sharp focus.

I was born in the relative vicinity of Stone Mountain (image in the video), went to a university whose name includes that of a confederate general (interior campus chapel image in the video), and educated in grammar school/junior high with material very similar to, if not the same, as the textbooks featured in the video.

I've known for a long time that the "Lost Cause" was utter bullshit. Didn't realize precisely how it got started and embedded so deeply.

They have no interest in sharing the responsibility of government. This was always a takeover attempt with the end goal being a permanent, patriarchal white supremacist regime. That is why the talk of "collegiality" and "norms" from certain Democrats has always been a farce.

They are refighting the Civil War by other means.

studying fish without water

with folks who declare that the cause of war was state's rights. My response is always that state's rights was the excuse from former Confederates and sympathizers, long after the war. If you look at the source documents from the time just before the war, you see that the cause, as stated by the seceding states, was slavery.

I found an interesting article on historynet.com titled "Which States Referred to Slavery in Their Cause of Secession?". The consensus - all of them!