Created History

I have been thinking a lot lately about “created history.” That is to say, that Americans, as well as other countries, have created their histories by focusing and emphasizing specific things that will cast a specific light upon the country’s past. I will point out a few American examples because this is what I know of. I have not taken history courses in other countries but I am sure that there are many examples from all over the world.

                In America we glorify and de-politicize many of our previous leaders, while vilifying or ignoring others. George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy are all praised as great American Presidents. While Presidents like Nixon are looked on as horrible presidents and a whole string of presidents in the early 1800s are simply forgotten. I admit, I don’t know many of them. We are not taught about them in school. I also admit to not knowing the whole story of Nixon and the Watergate scandal. But I think that is my point here.

                We are taught many specific things and about specific people in school and that is all we know. We have this image of George Washington and the cherry tree… then later the crossing of the Delaware. We have this image of Abraham Lincoln in his log cabin and later freeing the slaves. We have these in an attempt to instill specific thoughts and values into the country as a whole.

                In many schools today, things like The Bay of Pigs invasion or the Watergate scandal, both dark chapter sof American cold war history, are glossed over and often not taught at all. The same goes for many other Cold War era policies in regards to the Central and South American countries. Many places are still in turmoil due to the power struggles that the American government had its hand in. But this is also not taught in schools. I did not know about any of this until my classes in College.

                How do we justify that massive amounts of American history are being left out of the education of our youth? How can we expect them to grow up with the knowledge that they will need to deal with a world that is so closely interconnected nowadays? This is what leads to that question I hear so much “Why do they hate us?”

                Though, as I admitted before, Americans are not the only ones that take great strides to create their histories by emphasizing some things and ignoring others. The Japanese still are not fully acknowledging their involvement in using Korean Women as Comfort Women during the Second World War, for example.

                As a Historian this is something that I think about. The validity of history that has been written. It’s a question that I think about. What has been left out? What has been emphasized? What is the truth in the history