Showing posts with label US History. Show all posts
Showing posts with label US History. Show all posts
Monday, October 10, 2011
Auntie's Bookshelf: American History 101 - Readings On The Advent Of 'Indigenous Annihilation Day', Howard Zinn
by Howard Zinn
Presented by History Is A Weapon.
A Note and Disclaimer are below.
1. Columbus, The Indians, and Human Progress
3. Persons of Mean and Vile Condition
7. As Long As Grass Grows Or Water Runs
8. We Take Nothing by Conquest, Thank God
9. Slavery Without Submission, Emancipation Without Freedom
14. War Is the Health of the State
16. A People's War?
18. The Impossible Victory: Vietnam
19. Surprises
20. The Seventies: Under Control?
21. Carter-Reagan-Bush: The Bipartisan Consensus
23. The Clinton Presidency and the Crisis of Democracy
24. The Coming Revolt of the Guards
25. The 2000 Election and the "War on Terrorism"
A Note and a disclaimer.
The Note: This great book should really be read by everyone. It is difficult to describe why it so great because it both teaches and inspires. You really just have to read it. We think it is so good that it demands to be as accessible as possible. Once you've finished it, we're sure you'll agree. In fact, years ago, we would offer people twenty dollars if they read the book and didn't think it was completely worth their time. Of all the people who took us up on it, no one collected.
The disclaimer: This version is made from OCR. That is a fancy way of saying that we scanned in and coded over six hundred fifty pages. There will be a few small occasional errors: spelling mistakes, odd punctuation, and the like. If you see any, please contact us. We have posted it in spite of these mistakes for two simple reasons. First, the book is worth a mistake or two because it really deserves the widest audience possible. Second, we are sure that once you new people begin reading it, you'll go out and get a physical copy. You should go and get it (and ones for your friends and family). At this point, A People's History Of The United States is available in regular form, read aloud on audio, on posters, in a teaching edition, and as just the twentieth century chapters (we have all but the posters). And now here. Please Enjoy!
"Stop Thinking Like An "American" (more on that here)
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Lookit ALL Those "Injuns"! - The Comanche and the Taliban... What The Indian Wars Tell Us About The Taliban, Stephen M. Walt
"...it is a sobering fact to realize that despite its clear interest in victory and its clear advantages in numbers, wealth, and technology, it took the United States nearly four decades to finally defeat the Comanche. If you are seeking a similarly decisive victory in Central Asia, therefore, you'd better be prepared to stay there in strength for a long, long time."(Stephen M. Walt is the Robert and Renée Belfer professor of international relations at Harvard University and co-wrote The Israel lobby and U.S. foreign policy (2007) with John J. Mearsheimer)
(The Comanche courtesy of Wikipedia)
The Comanche and the TalibanBy Stephen M. Walt
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
One of the most enjoyable books I've read in the past year was S. C. Gwynne's Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches. It's a terrific, gripping story, and I learned a great deal about aspects of U.S. history of which I was only partly aware.
In brief, the book tells the story of the U.S. effort to subdue the Comanche, the most powerful Native American tribe on the Great Plains. It was a bloody and fascinating struggle, in part because the Comanche proved so hard for the far more numerous and technologically superior Anglos to defeat. If you grew up with a John Ford/John Wayne/Randolph Scott view of the Old West, this book will be something of a revelation. And the saga of Quanah Parker himself, a Comanche war chief whose mother was a white woman kidnapped in 1836 at the age of nine, and "rescued" many years later (when her son Quanah was twelve years old), is itself a heart-rending tale of cultural conflict and personal tragedy.
As much as I enjoyed the book, I couldn't help but read it with the current war in Afghanistan in mind. In both cases, a numerically superior, wealthier, and more technologically advanced United States confronts a tribal adversary fighting on its home ground. And in both cases, the U.S. government faces an adversary that is cunning, ruthless, and by our standards even backward or barbaric.But as my late colleague Ernest May used to warn, when you make a historical analogy, it is a good idea to make a list of the ways the two situations differ, instead of just invoking the similarities.
So lest you think that the ultimate victory of the U.S. government over the Comanche heralds a similar victory over the Taliban, consider the following differences between the two situations...
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Three Tax Time Tips For "Tea Baggers"
Here are some tips for the attendees to these events,, most never having committed an illegal act more serious than a traffic violation in their lives:
Something else the 'teabaggers' might want to know, because they live in fear of the word, no less the potential for it's enactment in American society (fat chance in the current mileau):
Nine Myths About Socialism in the US
Monday 12 April 2010
by: Bill Quigley, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed
Glenn Beck and other far right multi-millionaires are claiming that the US is hot on the path toward socialism. Part of their claim is that the US is much more generous and supportive of our working and poor people than other countries. People may wish it was so, but it is not.
As Sen. Patrick Moynihan used to say "Everyone is entitled to their own opinions. But everyone is not entitled to their own facts."
The fact is that the US is not really all that generous to our working and poor people compared to other countries.
Consider the US in comparison to the rest of the 30 countries that join the US in making up the OECD - the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. These 30 countries include Canada and most comparable European countries, but also include some struggling countries like Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Korea, Mexico, Poland, Slovak Republic and Turkey.
When you look at how the US compares to these 30 countries, the hot air myths about the US government going all out toward socialism sort of disappear into thin air. Here are some examples of myths that do not hold up.
Myth No. 1: The US Government Is Involved in Class Warfare, Attacking the Rich to Lift Up the Poor.
There is a class war going on all right. But it is the rich against the rest of us and the rich are winning. The gap between the rich and everyone else is wider in the US than any of the 30 other countries surveyed. In fact, the top 10 percent in the US have a higher annual income than any other country. And the poorest 10 percent in the US are below the average of the other OECD countries. The rich in the US have been rapidly leaving the middle class and poor behind since the 1980s.
Myth No. 2: The US Already Has the Greatest Health Care System in the World.
Infant mortality in the US is fourth worst among OECD countries - better only than Mexico, Turkey and the Slovak Republic.
Myth No. 3: There Is Less Poverty in the US Than Anywhere.
Child poverty in the US, at over 20 percent or one out of every five kids, is double the average of the 30 OECD countries.
Myth No. 4: The US Is Generous in Its Treatment of Families With Children.
The US ranks in the bottom half of countries in terms of financial benefits for families with children. Over half of the 30 OECD countries pay families with children cash benefits regardless of the income of the family. Some among those countries (e.g. Austria, France and Germany) pay additional benefits if the family is low income or one of the parents is unemployed.
Myth No. 5: The US Is Very Supportive of Its Workers... Read On
One more thing for the mostly middle class Americans who make up the Tea Bag societal cohort to think about... Your days of mindless "Happy Motoring" are just about over:
In Other Words: Say goodbye to a culture based on 'plastic crap' folks!
The last few drops of 'black blood' will be used to power the Pentagon's military machine defending us from a world of enemies we've created for ourselves, NOT to run your car on your last long drive down to the store for a sixxer and some cigs. Did you ever think otherwise?
Even the food we eat is grown in an artificial environment based on petroleum derived fertilizers, and the pills you take to stay calm... petroleum-based production facilities and ingredients... poised to be unavailable as American society collapses. In Full
Also see: "Listen Teabagger!", title loosely adapted from Wilhelm Reich's anti-Fascist pamphlet "Listen, Little Man!"
Labels:
April 15,
Boston Tea Party,
Children,
Class War,
Glenn Beck,
Health Care,
Kool-Aid,
Myths,
Poverty,
Socialism,
Taxes,
Tea Bagger,
Tea Party,
Teabagger,
US History
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