2/1/05
History has an impact on what is happening today
by Joe Nathan
A huge international response to the Dec. 26, 2004 Tsunami shows how compassionate and caring people can be.
But on the other hand, last week the world noted - celebrated clearly is not the right word - the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. I truly hope that schools, and youngsters are carefully studying the murder of millions of people in Auschwitz and places like it.
William Fitzhugh, a marvelous former teacher, has spent much of the last decade urging, pleading for the in-depth study of history. Fitzhugh produces the Concord Review, the only national publication devoted entirely to printing outstanding history research papers that high school students have written.
Does/do the high school, or high schools in your community subscribe to The Concord Review? (www.TCR.org) Do your students regularly read the marvelous papers in TCR? Do your teachers assign the kinds of thoughtful papers to most students that are published in the Review?
Here is an offer. For the first 10 schools that contact me at jnathan@hhh.umn.edu, I will pay half of a one-year subscription ($40) to The Concord Review.
History is not just something that happened days, decades, or centuries ago. It has an impact on what is happening today, this minute. The controversies over casino gambling, the war in Iraq, and on and on, come out of huge historical conflicts, still somewhat unresolved.
Normally this column tries to focus on the upbeat, encouraging, successes and solutions. There are plenty of problems in the world.
But the mass hatred and murder Auschwitz represents, has happened again, in our time. In Africa, Europe and Asia, whole groups of people were singled out as the problem. Efforts were made to eliminate them from the earth.
Moreover, while this nation did not murder Japanese-American citizens in World War II, we did take away their property on the West Coast. These people, who had committed no crime other than to be Japanese-American, were then forced into horrible camps in desolate areas.
Yes, Americans were furious with Japan for the attack on Pearl Harbor. But Germany attacked other parts of Europe. Yet the U.S. did not take away German-American property, or put thousands of German American families in camps. Why were Japanese and German Americans treated so differently during World War II?
What role did national hero, and Minnesotan, Charles Lindberg play in all this? By the late 1930s, he had become an outspoken admirer of much that the Nazis were doing. Why?
And the movement of whites across this continent, including Minnesota, is in part the story of one group defeating, and in some cases trying to eliminate another group, sometimes called Native Americans. Why?
Students urgently NEED to consider questions like those raised above. Helping teachers use The Concord Review is a small step. We should do everything possible to encourage the real, thoughtful study of history in high schools.
Joe Nathan directs the Center for School Change at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. He can be reached at jnathan@hhh.umn.edu.
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