P.S. I’ll make the post sticky for a while. Scroll down for new posts.
I am gradually improving my knowledge of the American history. Still, there is a number of important events and personalities of which I have a very limited understanding. It’s hard to choose which of the subjects to research first. This is why I’m asking my readers to help in making that choice. Please vote in the poll:
I think it would be useful to start earlier. I suggest Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln, Frederick Douglas for example.
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I’m actually quite familiar with the XIXth century. It’s the events of the XXth century, especially the ones that coincided with the Cold War that we never were taught. I heard the official Soviet propaganda, but obviously that isn’t very reliable.
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Don’t study the Kennedy assassination. There madness lies.
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Yes, I know. Conspiracy theorists, right? They scare me, too.
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Brrr!
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Henry Kissinger would be interesting to study because he’s just so polarizing. To most people, he’s either a hero or a war criminal. =P
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That’s actually the only thing I know about him which proves how right you are. 🙂
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When I was a kid he was just this boring German guy whose voice droned on and on.
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Malcolm X was, when all was said and done, on the fringe of the civil rights movement. In contrast, Thurgood Marshall’s life covers every aspect of the civil rights movement, from being the grandson of a slave, to attending the pioneering Frederick Douglas highschool. He won the first legal challenge to “separate but equal” provision in the 1930’s and he was part of the brain trust behind the selection of Martin Luther King Jr as the public face of the movement and the Rosa Parks as the beginning of a nationwide mobilization campaign. All of this capped by his distinguished service as justice of the supreme court. If you study his life you will touch on many of the key players in American politics for the last century.
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I knew that he was a supreme court justice but absolutely nothing else. I also know nothing about Malcolm X other than that many of my students can be seen around campus with books about him.
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