excellent book Jan 15, 2009
This book was far more than I expected. Although I already knew a little of what the author wrote about, I was engrossed with all the further information he gave me. The book is written, moreover, in a style that makes it very easy to read, and illustrated well to me the tragedy of not giving young people in high school a more complete view of history. As I recall, even in the 1950's when I took history, we students could sense that the view presented was unrealistic. After all that's been made public knowledge since the 1960's and with information so widely spread because of the media and films, today's young people must see immediately that their history books are ridiculously false representations of history. Many will feel contempt for the writers, their teachers, and the adult society in general, not a good thing. I hope this book encourages the situation to change. Note: I would be very careful, though, about how to teach history to pre-pubertal children. They too are aware that the world iscontains both bad and good, but for most of them, the face of the world they see is mostly supportive. I feel they should be allowed to continue with that as their dominant reaction, because at that point they need a sense of security to develop their personalities. They still may be informed that people, even people who once lived in their country, have not always cared about others as they should. Of course, now, with all the murders and crime that even young children see on television, that will not come as as great a surprise to them as it did to more protected children of previous generations. In any case, I hope school history books at all levels show both the amazing things that humans have accomplised as well as their ethical failures.