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11/24/2019 Originality Report

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SafeAssign Originality Report 2019FA United States History I (10/22 - 12/12) • WRITTEN EXERCISE #1 (CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT)

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WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT # 1

Name: Pranil Dabadi History 1301 Date:11/10/2019

American History

History is basically the past, and people who study the past are called historians. In academia, history is a discipline that analyse a sequence of past events objectively. People use history to understand the present and sometimes, to predict the future. The study of history is as important as any other critical element of society. Understanding the past helps

11/24/2019 Originality Report

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people make sense of the present. Through history, one can understand the current economic, social and cultural patterns and can determine how the near future will be and probably prepare for it. For instance, looking back at the civil rights movement, one can understand why the United States of America tries to enhance equality before the law and equal access to amenities. History is also an avenue for people to practice their critical thinking skills, which is useful in academia, among other disciplines. Teaching hard history is a challenge today, attracting the attention of critics. Research conducted by the Southern Poverty Law Centre in 2017 shows that schools are failing to teach the hard history of African enslavement (Michael, 2002). According to this research results, high school seniors are not comfortable answering even the most basic questions on the enslavement of Africans. The research also revealed that teachers try to teach about slavery but do not deeply cover the topic and textbooks do not also provide comprehensive coverage of the same. Historians Zinn and Loewen are best known for approaching the subjects of slavery, pilgrims and Native Americans from an objective manner, trying to bring out the real history of America. In his book A Peoples History of the United States, Zinn reveals that the reason for enslavement was not racial but economic and that racism was just used to justify the enslavement of the blacks. For almost a century, the US government supported slavery because these slaves provided free labour in industries, which was the main source of income. The government was able to produce good amounts of cotton by investing little money in these industries. Slaves worked in plantations for hours, so the industries will get raw materials. They also worked in the industries under extremely harsh conditions to sustain the economy of the country. While many historians describe history as an isolated evil, Zinn makes it clear that the government of the United States and the northern states collaborated with the Southern states (Which most historians say were the perpetrators of slavery) to enhance enslavement of the blacks. Historians also write the whites started the antislavery movement which is not the case since this movement was practically reinforced by black abolitionists. The slavery acts were so inhuman that so many people died. Slaves were asked to collect a certain amount of gold, and those who did not have their hands cut off. Slaves were freed after the civil war, but none of them was compensated in any way. While it was thought that the government fought to end slavery, the reason behind ending slavery was actually retaining their territory and marketing their resources (Zinn, 2015). Historian Zinn argues that the reason behind ending slavery was not based on moral and humanitarian grounds, but to preserve the union of the United States. James Loewen, in his book titled Lies My Teacher, Told Me:

Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong criticizes 12 high school history textbooks. This book reveals the inadequacies in historical documents and notes that

historians misguided people by abandoning the truth, hiding in the name of being objective. Loewen retells American history with all its complexity and ambiguity. The book is an eye-opening critique of existing American history that has been documented by other historians. According to James Loewen, the classroom textbook's story about Columbus is a lie. Historians describe Columbus as a hero. Media outlets also present him as a very great person and also overpraise the pilgrims while looking down on Indians. He narrates that Christopher Columbus and his men (pilgrims) were not the first men to see the new world as propagated by other historians. He further reveals that people did not submit to the godlike authority that Columbus and his men brought, but the diseases and plagues that they brought from Europe. In most history books, Columbus discovered America, and it was sparsely inhabited by primitive Americans. However, Loewen says that America had been visited by Europeans before and it was inhabited by 14 million inhabitants by 1492. Loewen states that these inhabitants were exposed to technology and Agriculture, and not as primitive as other history courses ascertain (Loewen, 2008). The question of whether history books complicate history is fascinating. There is a saying in society that people should not believe everything they read, and these statements serve its purpose well in the field of history.

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Historical facts are always distorted by historians who either add or subtract some information to the actual events. Zinn and Loewen reveal how much history has been changed by writers of textbooks. While history is supposed to improve the cognitive reasoning of students, it is very hard for students to connect the past and the present since they tell different stories. Today’s history books downplay some issues like slavery, and it is very hard for the student to get a true picture if the past. After reading Zinn and Loewen's books, I have a different perspective on American history. I can now understand the hard truths about American history that I had earlier not known even after attending history classes. While my teacher only mentioned slavery in American history and how the pilgrims first visited America, these two historians portray the real facts about the period of slavery, citing the kind of life slaves underwent, how the government purported slavery, and the role of Indians in the American history. W.E.B Dubois's statement suggests that focusing on only the good sides of history does not tell facts, and it is hard for people to use such history to solve today’s world challenges and plan for the future. The way most students are taught history today has far-reaching consequences. Distorted history has affected cultures, making them more evil and bad. Sometimes, history is presented as a complicated and ambiguous mess, and people end up denying that certain things happened.

References

Loewen, J. W. (2008). Lies, my teacher told me: Everything your American history textbook got wrong. Zinn, H. (2015). A people's history of the United States: 1492-

present. Routledge.The New Press. Derham, Michael (2002) "Undemocratic democracy: Venezuela and the distorting of history." Bulletin of Latin American Research, 270-289.

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11/24/2019 Originality Report

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James Loewen, in his book titled Lies My Teacher, Told Me:

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In James Loewen’s book titled Lies My Teacher Told Me

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Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong criticizes 12 high school history textbooks.

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In his essay, “Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong”, Loewen, criticizes the high school academic system

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Lies, my teacher told me:

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Lies My Teacher Told Me

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Everything your American history textbook got wrong.

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Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong

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A people's history of the United States:

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A People’s History of the United States

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Routledge.The New Press.

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The New Press