Paul Grenier — Nikolai Starikov And The Problem Of History

Complains about Nikolai Starikov's abuse of history.

This raises the question of false equivalence., What he doesn't mention about US history is the entire American myth that is also based on a pack of outright lies, as well as misinformation through selection and embellishment. 

The American myth has been explored and exploded by Howard Zinn, in The People's History of the United States, for example. (PDF version,  read online version)

Since its original landmark publication in 1980, A People’s History of the United States has been chronicling American history from the bottom up.

Known for its lively, clear prose as well as its scholarly research, A People’s History is the only volume to tell America’s story from the point of view of—and in the words of—America’s women, factory workers, African-Americans, Native Americans, the working poor, and immigrant laborers. As historian Howard Zinn shows, many of our country’s greatest battles—the fights for a fair wage, an eight-hour workday, child-labor laws, health and safety standards, universal suffrage, women’s rights, racial equality—were carried out at the grassroots level, against bloody resistance. Covering Christopher Columbus’s arrival through President Clinton’s first term, A People’s History of the United States features insightful analysis of the most important events in our history.

Library Journal calls Howard Zinn’s iconic A People’s History of the United States “a brilliant and moving history of the American people from the point of view of those. . . whose plight has been largely omitted from most histories.” Packed with vivid details and telling quotations, Zinn’s award-winning classic continues to revolutionize the way American history is taught and remembered.

Under the aegis of Gov. Mitch Daniels, The People's History was banned from teaching history in Indiana since it brings up inconvenient facts about genocide, slavery and violence playing a key role in the development of the America as "the land of the freed and the home of the brave."

History is written by the victors.

This is not an isolated issue. The Chinese are trying to get Japan stop historical revisionism that excludes atrocities committed against Chinese by Japanese in the Sino-Japanese War and WWII, and Russia and China have also accused the US and NATO of historical revisionism with respect to WWII, minimizing the contribution of Russia in stopping the Nazi advance, which was the game-changer.

Russia is hardly the only country that has used an airbrush, and history is littered with false flags, some which have no doubt not yet been discovered, if they ever will.

After all, we are talking about folks who hold that "perception is reality" (Lee Atwater) and that perception can be shaped.

Irrusianality
Nikolai Starikov And The Problem Of History
Guest post by Paul Grenier

See also

Grasping Reality
Weekend Reading: Charlie Stross: 21st Century: A Complaint [really a satire — funny, but serious]
Brad DeLong | Professor of Economics, UCAL Berkeley