There’s a reason, I think, that American history lessons end with World War II. We are too afraid to teach children what comes after that. The glowing portrait of the USA as cowboys of the world who saved the West from Nazis was exploded by the atomic bombs we dropped on a broken island empire. Our heroic self-image would be absolutely decimated by the horrors committed in Vietnam, by our silent alliance with authoritarian regimes, our machinations in the Middle East for no greater purpose but jockeying for pride of place with the Soviets, and our consistent oppression of Black Americans in our own country: the rise of prisons as a system needing to be filled with the bodies of men we don’t want to care for in our cities.
history after hitler
history after hitler
history after hitler
There’s a reason, I think, that American history lessons end with World War II. We are too afraid to teach children what comes after that. The glowing portrait of the USA as cowboys of the world who saved the West from Nazis was exploded by the atomic bombs we dropped on a broken island empire. Our heroic self-image would be absolutely decimated by the horrors committed in Vietnam, by our silent alliance with authoritarian regimes, our machinations in the Middle East for no greater purpose but jockeying for pride of place with the Soviets, and our consistent oppression of Black Americans in our own country: the rise of prisons as a system needing to be filled with the bodies of men we don’t want to care for in our cities.