I have always enjoyed history but as I grew older I found that all the history we had been given in school was not really history but was often part of someone’s agenda. Researching history is fascinating and you often find things that will never appear in the “history” books.
I grew up in the North and so was taught a Northern version of what the War Between the States was all about. As I started researching on my own I found that the Northern version had many problems, but, as they say, “the winners get to write the history books.” Research has convinced me that the South was more right in that war than the North was–and it wasn’t about slavery.
In the process of researching for the book Donnie Kennedy and I wrote Lincoln’s Marxists I found many things about the Republican Party that they will never tell us or admit to, such as socialists in its ranks in the very early days of the party. By the same token, I attended public schools in the North and never found out about the foundation of public education until I grew older and learned of the Unitarian/socialist foundations of that institution. All I seek to do is to pass along some of what I have learned to others.
Like you I grew up thinking Lincoln was a great president. Now I see the conflict between the North and South as a bad marriage where the North was abusing the South and the South wanted a divorce.
One of the things I was surprised to learn about slavery is we are the only country in the western hemisphere that got rid of slavery by killing off over 1% of the population. Every other country in North and South America was able to get rid of slavery peacefully.
Although I, too, am originally from the North (Sault Ste. Marie, MI, right on the Canadian border, in fact), I grew up a military brat. By the time I graduated high school, I’d spent half of that time in schools in the US (grades 1-4 in Biloxi, MS; grades 5 & 12 in Oxon Hill, MD) and the remainder of the time either in military dependent schools (Kindergarten in Okinawa, Japan; grades 9-11 in Oxfordshire, England) or in international schools whose format and content followed the US system (grades 6-8 at the International School of Bangkok, Bangsue Campus, Thailand). In all of those contexts, when any mention was made of the Civil War, the Northern version prevailed.
Thanks to the “history” weve been taught the Northern version is what usually prevails. My wife and I both grew up in New England and all we ever got was the Northern version. Many Southern folks have been taught to be ashamed of their side in the War. It is almost ironic that I continue to run across Southerners who have been mis-educated so much that they will argue the Northern perspective on the War as I argue the Southern one.
Interesting thing about the two parties. The GOP started out on the left. In the 20th century, the dems worked their way over beyond the GOP. Conservative ended up in the GOP by the 70s. Now the GOP is heading back to the left. Pretty soon we won’t have a party, its debatable whether we do now..
We don’t really have two parties now except in name only. Both are controlled by the CFR/Trilateral clique.
Makes me question whether we have freedom of political speech or even representation.
There is a verse in the Bible talking about people that “have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof.” I think that describes somewhat what we now have–the form without the substance. But that’s enough to fool most people.