Plus ca change.

[serinde]

I'm currently reading Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920s by Frederick Lewis Allen, which I understand to be pretty much The Definitive Work on that topic, and I find myself utterly engrossed. Not only because it's info on a period of which I knew next to nothing, which would be enough by itself, but far more because so much of the same history is repeating itself right now.

Spearheaded by a nutjob attorney-general, the government imprisoned without charge and sometimes deported people who had committed no crime. "Super-patriotism" was on the rise, and everything non-American was denigrated; those who objected to any of the above were labelled seditious [foo]-sympathizers. A politician perceived to have folksy, down-home, regular-guy appeal (who had problems using the English language correctly), and who was very much in favor of big business & particularly friendly with oil magnates, was selected to run against an opponent perceived as cold and over-intellectual. The folksy fellow won, but slowly more and more scandals involving his hand-picked cronies, er, Cabinet and advisors came to light, including a mighty impressive swindle over oil rights that didn't belong to any of 'em. Yet, the people in the government investgating the scandals, and the few papers that covered that investigation, were pilloried as character assassins, lynch-mobs, and unpatriotic swine.
All this, and I'm not even a third of the way through the book.

It does make me feel a bit hopeful. Even if we are failing to learn anything from history, the fact is that our society was demonstrably able to recover from this sort of bullshit once, so we should be able to do it again.

Comments

[naudia.livejournal.com]

Perhaps unable to learn because those who cared were silenced, and the rest of us (the US) either turned a blind eye or didn't know about it. I wonder what would happen to a school that tought this kind of history?

[lillilah]

Oh, they teach it, but no one is interested. Of course, it is the way that it is taught too. I've been reading American history right now (approx. 1800) and am disheartened by how much I don't know, despite the fact that I was a decent student in high school. I would guess that the problem is far more that we are wrapped up in our own time and problems and are generally, I think, not a country that looks to history for example or wisdom.

[naudia.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I don't remember hearing any of this in school. Then again, like you said I was kind of wrapped up in what was going on at the moment. Guess it's never to late to learn.