It’s because history is not a sentient force
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All we can do is impose consequences in our time.
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I think historians are, obviously, important. That we do vital work. That learning and teaching history matters. But it's a contested project rather than an inevitable twirling and twirling towards objective truth.
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The thing about this essay is that Jill LePore wrote a better, but equally speculative, version of this essay for the same outlet. Why is there a second one? What need is it serving other than elite impunity to consequences?https://twitter.com/RDEliason/status/1330865984656257027 …
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And even if you believe as
@RDEliason seems to think that history can judge, what is the vehicle for doing so without intentional work to preserve memory? The Trump Admin has repeatedly been destroying records in the cases we know about, and surely that's a tiny fragment.Show this thread -
You can argue for prosecutions. You can argue for a truth commission. You can argue for both (that's me!) But you can't argue for history without an effort to preserve the truth and make a serious case. But elite impunity has a long long tradition in the old USA so ...
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My eighth grade history teacher was obsessed with Jackson, and the more he taught us about the man the less I wanted to take a class from anyone obsessed with Jackson.
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I live in a town named after him. They don't reckon with either that or the fact that the schools mascot is racist (despite them thinking that it's ok
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The whole thing where making "the working (white cishet Christian) man" feel more powerful causes history to ignore all sorts of bullshit is amazing in the bad way.
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