Erasing History

A Recipe for War

4 years ago

To suppress the truth and support their convoluted and outright false version of history, the Nazis organized massive rallies where books with “un-German” influences were burned, as shown in this 1933 photograph.

Book Burning | Holocaust Encyclopedia — To suppress the truth and support their convoluted and outright false version of history, the Nazis organized massive rallies where books with “un-German” influences were burned, as shown in this 1933 photograph.

Categories:

A Recipe for War, Analysis of History, Current Events, Disinformation, Banning of Books

Tags:

Connections to the Past, Understanding the Past, Weaponizing History, Repercussions of Events, Propaganda, Current Views, #A Recipe for War, #Ukraine, #War

May 26, 2022

One of the most controversial issues in schools across the United States of America is the banning of certain books. According to the Guardian and the Washington Post, more than 1,500 book bans have been instituted in US school districts in less than one year! From Mark Twain’s classic “Huckleberry Finn” to, ironically enough, Ray Bradbury’s dystopian masterpiece “Fahrenheit 451,” books are being banned in American schools at an increasing rate. The reasons for this trend vary. Some books, such as “The Catcher in the Rye,” are banned because of the presence of explicit themes. Others are banned due to the use of inappropriate language, as is the case in “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Still others have been banned due to the views of the authors, such as “Animal Farm,” which was banned or considered for banning in some school districts because its author, George Orwell, “was a communist.” Some books have been banned for absolutely ridiculous reasons, such as a 1987 edition of “Little Red Riding Hood,” banned solely because the cover page shows the title character carrying, along with various foods, a bottle of wine in her basket. Hundreds of other books have been banned for all sorts of other reasons. Ultimately, though, these book bannings seem to have one thing in common. The books that are banned have something in them that could foreseeably make some students uncomfortable, or teach them to do something that could harm them or get them in trouble. Yet by doing this, the officials that hope to prevent children from getting “bad influences” from the books instead end up making the crisis of historical education in US schools worse.

When protesters of book banning discuss the problems with it, they often use a few very specific examples to illustrate their point. “Maus,” by Art Spiegelman is one such example. Its graphic and very detailed depiction of the Holocaust has been widely acclaimed, and it has become almost a textbook for many teachers educating their students about the Holocaust. Yet it’s found its way onto numerous banned book lists. In one school district, it was banned because of the occasional use of “coarse language” and certain graphic illustrations, and not because of its overall message. It’s hard to convey the horrors and the evil of the Holocaust without works like “Maus” or Elie Wiesel’s classic account “Night” (also banned or at least considered for banning in other school districts). The effects of inadequate Holocaust education are detrimental. Members of Congress have actually compared the Holocaust to mask mandates because they simply don’t understand what the Holocaust actually was. They just know that it was bad, and use it for political gain, without knowing what it truly was. This is actually a very widespread phenomenon. These days, it is quite common to see someone shoot down a person’s argument simply by accusing that person or the person’s argument of fascism or nazism. There’s actually a phrase (reductio ad hitlerum) that describes this action. The declining quality of Holocaust education, in no small part due to the banning of books about it, is definitely an important reason why so many people are ignorant of the Holocaust (about 45% can’t name the number of victims), and instead, use it as something for their own gain, rather than respect those who experienced it. All this is an excellent example of how banning books can have a detrimental effect on historical education. If people don’t read books that discuss all aspects of history, from the most significant successes to the evilest villains in its annals, then they’ll never understand it. If they don’t, it’s only inevitable that they’ll misconstrue it, sometimes to their own advantage as others have before. The results speak for themselves.

History is anything but straightforward. It is complex. It is brutal. It is confusing. However, it cannot be ignored. The books themselves that teach us their lessons should not be banned. They should instead be distributed to schools across the country to fight the decline in the quality of our historical education. If we are to indeed save the historical education of American students, we must start this process soon. I sincerely hope that the book banning wave in schools across the United States will come to an end and that the quality of historical education will, as a result, improve.