"The insanity with which historians have charged John Brown was never psychological. It was ideological." – Loewen
"Ideas are more important than battles."
– Charles Sumner, 1865, abolitionist senator
In chapter six, Loewen continues his analysis of history in school textbooks. This chapter specifically looks at the typical historical treatment of John Brown and Abraham Lincoln. John Brown is generally portrayed as a fanatic, "deranged," "gaunt," "grim," and "terrible." Loewen purports that historians charge of his "insanity" is not psychological, but ideological. (Loewen, 177) To the degree that John Brown is controversial, Abraham Lincoln is unchallengeable. Lincoln's words and actions are portrayed as sound and pure.
Let's reconsider some of the words used to describe John Brown the "extremist" and run them through what Loewen calls the "Walt Disney interpretation" to describe "Honest Abe". If people say that Brown was a fanatic, they might say that Lincoln was passionate. He would not be deranged, but single-minded for his cause. Lincoln was very thin, perhaps gaunt, but let's call him bony. If Brown was grim, Lincoln was steely. Not terrible, but shocking. What are they really describing here, these mens emotional constitution or their ideology? The author argues it is their ideology.
My biggest take-away from this chapter is that ideas are more important than actions. Yet, typically, history has been stripped down to actions not ideas. What happened in 1492? Columbus set sail, but why? What was his ideological motivation? I applied this line of thinking to Loewen's argument that a majority of textbooks do not include the text of the Gettysburg address, or they do ever so briefly. One of the most important speeches in American history and students cannot read it. If they do read parts of it, the ideology of the one who spoke it is not discussed. Here we are, stranded, looking "at the battle" and not the idea. The battle here is the what. The idea is the why. Once again we see it is much cleaner to share bland, non-arguable facts rather than to pollute the stream of content with messy ideologies and questionable convictions!
Big Question: How has historical content been influenced by: political correctness, racism, and bias? As a secondary teacher, how can we make anti-racism visible in our classrooms?
Source: http://knowgoodwhitepeople.wordpress.com/2008/08/16/calling-a-few-adventurous-anti-racists/#comments
This interactive site is about the topic of race. My intention in visiting this site is that students would better comprehend racism and anti racism to gain a greater understanding of the ideological motivations in race relations.
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