We Need to Re-Think Some Key Historical Legends.

Gary North

History textbook accounts are woefully slanted. We need to re-think them. But we have not had the troops to do this.

Ever since the end of World War II, the historical profession has favored the New Deal. Historians have interpreted American history as if it were little more than a prelude to the New Deal. Arthur Schlessinger, Jr. is the classic example. He wrote a three-volume press release with footnotes on the New Deal. Then he reinterpreted Andrew Jackson as a forerunner of Franklin Roosevelt. He got away with it. He ended his days wringing his hands about "the imperial presidency," as if Emperor Franklin had not consolidated what King Woodrow had begun.

But it is not just American history that needs revisions. So does European history. Here, historians have viewed the past as the prelude to the French Revolution, nationalism, and the welfare state.

How did this happen in academia? Accreditation is part of the story.

We must keep looking for "the story behind the story." (The phrase was Marvin Miller's. He had a daily 15-minute radio show in the early 1950's on historical events. He is most famous as the voice of Robbie the robot in Forbidden Planet [1956].)

The first five articles are introductions to the problems of interpreting history. Then come the most recent articles.