In this third installment of a multi-part essay, Hellishly Good Intentions, Patrick Ross examines how academia and scholarly research has been corrupted by political ideology and conspiracy theorists in ivory towers.
It was once said that “the victors write the history books”, inferring that history’s losers – or victims – do not. This may have once been actually true.
No longer. Today, losers can write history books nearly as often as the winners, victims just as often as their oppressors, and on an increasingly-frequent scale. The reason for this is the amount of freedom the free world extends to its academics.
For example, a book like A Peoples’ History of the United States by Howard Zinn could never be written in countries like Libya or Saudi Arabia – orin countries like Cuba, Venezuala, or the Soviet Union (countries with whom the author was said to hold affinity). The book, which sought to re-cast American history through the eyes of black slaves, Indian tribes and other oppressed peoples, was not only published in the United States, but even...More >>
This is a description of an actual course taught at a real university by a living, breathing university professor. It's called "Young people and the global imaginary: History, empire, and identity politics in transnational borderlands".
