quote Originally posted by Cooter: I try to make sure the 6th grade US history that I teach does not suck. The book I have mentions the Bataan Death March in one sentence, Doolittle's Raid got a few sentences, the bombing of Japan got a couple of paragraphs, the Holocaust had a page and the Cold War got a section. I could not stand it, so we did research projects instead of using the book, we did a book study on the Holocaust and I brought in relics from the cold war and we designed our own modern day bomb shelters, researched what supplies we needed to equip them and determined the cost involved in being prepared. A lot of ideas for what I taught came from this forum! The collective knowledge this place has is amazing.

My Masters is in American History, and I normally teach math. Due to budget shortages, I'll be teaching one class of basically cultural, socio-economic geography of the Africa and Asia next year. I'm semi-comfortable with Asia, the Middle East and Northern Africa(and South Africa), but the rest of the continent will be a learning experience for me. Oh well, I guess I'll see how that goes.

quote Originally posted by blackrams: Clint Eastwood did a movie, I can't remember the name but, it was a story told of a battle between American and Japanese during WW2 as seen from the Japanese side. Watching it was a good experience both for myself and my dad who fought in that war. He didn't agree with some of it but, he did recognize the difference in perspectives.

Letters from Iwo Jima

quote Originally posted by partfiero: I have to question when someone's history begins with "What REALLY happened though is that" which after you expect an indisputable fact, not an opinion. Are their actual documents that show his greed or only someones perception. Could we convict him in our courts if greed was a crime, is there enough hard evidence?

If you read Howard Zinn's leftist look at history, he states that Columbus actually made the locals come up with a certain amount of gold within a time period. Failing to have done that, the locals often had fingers cut off. Out of the 30 books on my reading list (I only read about 15 of them) for my Comp Exam, Zinn's was my favorite. But, you are correct, there are many different interpretations of history.

quote Originally posted by carnut122: If you read Howard Zinn's leftist look at history, he states that Columbus actually made the locals come up with a certain amount of gold within a time period. Failing to have done that, the locals often had fingers cut off. Out of the 30 books on my reading list (I only read about 15 of them) for my Comp Exam, Zinn's was my favorite. But, you are correct, there are many different interpretations of history.

Unfortunately, you're correct about interpretations of history. I contend that history leans neither left or right but the writers themselves interpret it so. The old saying that the victors write the history is correct.

OTOH, The French account of Agincourt is surprisingly fair--especially Froissart's treatise. The English say they were on a mission to claim what was rightfully theirs through marriage and inheritance. They fought a 100 year war with the French and while the English won their share of the battles, in the end they accomplished little else but established themselves as a major European power.