The Carnival of Bad History

Others take up the mantle

2009-12-12T08:03:00.000-08:00

As Ralph Luker notes, there are others systematically taking on bad history. I'll try to chronicle some of them here over time. No, I don't think the carnival is coming back as an event, but I think this blog could become a kind of clearning-house, if people are interested.

Comments?

Summer Hiatus

2007-07-29T17:44:00.000-07:00

The Carnival of Bad History will be on hiatus for the remainder of the summer. Sorry for any inconvenience this causes or ignorance which it perpetuates!

Carnival hosting will resume in September, I think: Volunteers?

Carnival of Bad History #15

2007-06-25T04:03:00.001-07:00

Welcome to my favorite carnival, the collector of bad analogies, the dishonor roll of cultural amnesia, where old bunk comes to die and where bad historians have their day in the court of blogospheric opinion.

First, some good news. As the history blogosphere has gotten larger, new and improved organizational tools have emerged. Somehow, I always seem to end up involved. Last week, Ralph Luker and I reorganized the New Improved History Blogroll with category bookmarks. Also, if you haven't checked it out on the sidebar, here's a word of advice: the only way to keep up with the proliferation of history-related carnivals is the New improved History Carnival Aggregator.

Freaky Stuff!

My favorite news story of the last week, aside from the CIA paper release, is the tale of a 130+ year-old bowhead whale, and we know that date because of the harpoon found embedded in its flesh. The lesson I take from that? If you're impaled with something easily dated, for the sake of history, don't pull it out.

Anyone asked you lately for a tattoo idea? Consider an outdated map of a city on another continent! There are some great maps of Edo on the web, and lots of tattoo artists around here....

Speaking of Japan, for reasons passing understanding, Time Magazine reported on a fairly bizarre local legend from a small town. I can't even begin to summarize it: I'll just quote

"The legend has it that Jesus — or as they call him in Shingo, Daitenku Taro Jurai — came to Japan at the age of 21, during the lost years when he was supposedly carpentering in Nazareth. Like many an eager gaijin student, Jesus became entranced with his adopted land's noble culture, learning the Japanese language and Shinto religion at the feet of a sage. At age 33, he went back home, where he preached about his experiences in Japan, which so annoyed the local authorities that he was promptly sentenced to death. From there, the story gets really weird. Instead of Christ being crucified, somehow his younger brother Isukiri ends up dying on the cross, while Jesus fled to Japan via Vladivostok and Alaska. (Such details as how Jesus had a younger brother and how the Romans got the wrong guy are not addressed in the legend.) Eventually he came to this tiny village, where he took up rice farming, married a local girl named Miyuko and produced three daughters before dying peacefully at the age of 106. In Shingo, Jesus kept a low profile — he didn't multiply any loaves or fish, although when the villagers were dying of starvation he did travel far to find them food."

For the record, the vast majority of Japanese don't even know about this, much less would they consider it reasonable or likely. But there's an anthropology Ph.D. out there for anyone who can figure out how this became local legend.

In the "historical dead-end" category, those oddities which have died away to obscurity, I offer Alex's explanation of Keelhauling and other diverse punishments no longer in general use. Another dead-end can be found in Orac's 1930s X-ray boosterism. Sometimes we forget our history more deliberately, it seems. Rob MacDougal went digging into the history of wargames and simulations and found the first dungeon master (I don't have to explain that to this audience, do I?) and some other unpleasant things.

No carnival of bad history would really be complete without Mark Rayner's Lost powerpoint slides: Waterloo v. 2.0.

Hitler, and friends

First, a report from Chris Bray on the teaching front line:

My longstanding suspicion was confirmed last week: Twenty percent of all known undergraduates complete their written coursework by typing up a summary of whatever text you give them, taking it all as equally weighted fact and never noticing especially much what it says.

I never thought they'd actually do it with Mein Kampf.

Well, Chris could have taken a more creative approach:

"deputy head of a Hungarian church school who appeared in photographs wearing a Nazi SS uniform has been suspended from his duties, the head of the Hungarian Church's school authority said Thursday.

History teacher Akos Peter Kosaras, 36, posted pictures of himself dressed in the uniform on the internet, although the pictures have now been removed.

The teacher at a school in the small settlement of Budakeszi just outside Budapest was supposedly playing the role of a "kind-hearted" SS officer during a historical game, the daily Nepszava said.
...
However, the school's headmistress said that Kosaras was a "well- known preserver of traditions" and that there was nothing objectionable about his hobby.."

Orac may have invented the Hitler Zombie to combat unjustified comparisons, but not all invocations of Hitler are unjustified. He takes a budding rhetorical referee to task for overdoing it.

Maybe you prefer Stalin? So does Russian President Putin

"In a warning that will send a chill through Russia's dwindling ranks of liberal academics, the president indicated that publishing houses that did not print more patriotic textbooks would face state censorship..."

Bad for Historians

Kevin Levin attacks the bias against Civil War Military history at JAH. I'd love to get an update from him, if anything new has come to light, or action been taken. Military history is a hot topic these days, though Mark Grimsley, for one, thinks conservatives are using it as a wedge issue, or misunderstanding the field.

National tests show very, very modest gains in historical understanding by students? Maybe, maybe not.

Last time I highlighted a website which was satire. This time I want to highlight a website which has made a mark talking in the most detailed fashion about structural problems in the History profession: Are historians sexist? Are they nuts for going into this profession? Whoever it is behind the blog PhDinHistory, they've got answers for you.

Historian on Progressive Historian Action!

Two battle royales were waged at Progressive Historians this month. The first was host Nonpartisan's rearguard actions in defense of Woodrow Wilson, against the very senior David Kennedy's tendency to damn Wilson, this time with faint praise and against the up-and-coming Daniel Larison's frontal assault on liberal internationalism as a concept. Nonpartisan also took a break from Wilson-defending to review David Horowitz's Indoctrination U., in which David Horowitz tries to pretend that he's been nice all along, but academics are just mean.

The other target of opportunity at PH was the neo-conservative Kagan brothers (mostly Frederick). Navy Vet Terp was content to attend and deconstruct a talk by Frederick Kagan, but Bastoche went full-bore, releasing a six-part series in which the Kagan argument about Munich, Vietnam and the "ongoing war against totalitarianism" are carefully examined and found.... bad history: part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI. Rumor has it (read Part VI) that he's not actually done, just moving on to a new series title.

Myths, Misquotations, Misapprehensions

I suppose this could have gone in the above category, since it features lame pick-up lines, but I put it here to highlight the ongoing errors of periodization non-specialists often inflict on people who actually study something.

In the "partisan" category, several PH bloggers have been talking about a PBS special on Church/State separation as historically flawed and manipulative. In the military mythology category, I have two entries, the Myth of the Longbow and a nicely detailed photographic analysis titled "I Do Not Bite My Thumb At You, Sir, But I Bite My Thumb, Sir!".

Finally, from a very recent Washington Post, evidence that attention to bad history and sheer snark can get a historian into the very heights of punditry. Andrew Ferguson takes this "Lincoln" quote out of Al Gore's recent book

"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."

And he tracks it back (emphasis added)

Writing in 1999 in the Abraham Lincoln Association's newsletter, the great Lincoln historian Thomas F. Schwartz traced the bogus passage to the 1880s, about 20 years after Lincoln's death. One theory is that it first appeared in a pamphlet advertising patent medicines. Opponents of Gilded Age capitalism -- Gore's forerunners -- found the quote so useful that Lincoln's former White House secretaries felt compelled to launch a campaign "denouncing the forgery," Schwartz said. Robert Todd Lincoln, who was the president's only surviving son and himself a wealthy railroad lawyer, called it "an impudent invention" that ascribed to his father views that the former president would never have held.
"I discovered what I think is the true and only source of this supposed quotation," Robert wrote in an unpublished letter, probably tongue-in-cheek. "It originated, I think, at what is called a Spiritualist Séance in a country town in Iowa, a number of years ago, as being a communication by President Lincoln through what is called a Medium." Even bloggers might think twice about trusting such a source.

On that cautionary note -- it's true, you should think twice before footnoting messages passed through Séances, but if you're going to use them, please footnote them properly -- I close this edition of the Carnival of Bad History. As always, I invite anyone who's enjoyed it, or who has hated it and thinks they can do better, to volunteer for hosting duties in a future month (has to be future, I'm pretty sure).

Carnival of Bad History #14: Backlog Edition

2007-05-25T02:51:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the "Post-Grading Letdown" edition of The Carnival of Bad History.

epppie at Progressive Historians presents a short history of the "sucker born every minute" line, and a drawing in honor of the opening of the new Creation Museum this coming Monday (that's the bad history part). PZ Myers is gathering posts for a mini-carnival in honor of the biblically literal, anti-evolution extravaganza. When you're done reading John McKay's take-down, you can also check out his rant about "the African language".

Joerg Wolf presents Historical Comparisons: Fritz Stern Publishes "Five Germanys I Have Known", which includes some lovely examples of former SecDef Rumsfeld's argumentum ad nazium.

Jon Swift presents Conservapedia which "gives Christianity its due for being so supportive of the work of Galileo and Copernicus." The scary thing about that is that I've heard versions of that argument elsewhere: that Christianity is at the heart of the scientific revolution....

Speaking of satirists, Mark A. Rayner presents Grandfig: Flying Nun: Mark I posted at the skwib. Heh!

Tim Abbott presents "Jumping" Jack Flashman "Massacres" the Historic Record posted at Walking the Berkshires. It's on the internet, it must be true....

Speaking of error propogation, David Parker presents Willie Lynch: The Making of a Slave posted at another history blog. Follow the links, folks: it's worth it. If you teach US history and haven't come across it before, you will soon.

Sergey Romanov does what he does best -- present real evidence and reasonable interpretation for stuff certain people would rather distort or forget -- this time taking on the well-known pro-Stalinist Grover Furr at Holocaust Controversies. In addition to the historical questions, there's an interesting ethical discussion about posting email exchanges.

The Tour Marm presents The Baptism of Pocahontas: Capitol Offense - Get it Right! posted at The Educational Tour Marm. Wonderful discussion of teaching, internet and public history issues, all spiced with righteous outrage.

Henry Midgley presents Bernard Lewis at the AEI posted at Westminster Wisdom. Midgley was not the only person to note Lewis' historical laziness, but he's the only one who submitted!

CapeTownDissentator presents Mission Accomplished: Now Let's Write Us Some History, a discussion of the relationship between servile narratives and political apathy.

That concludes the submitted material. To avoid derision and confusion in the future, submit your blog article to the next edition of carnival of bad history using our carnival submission form. Past posts can be found on our Sidebar.

Now, a few supplemental items from my files:

Will the public domain stay public? Konrad Lawson notes some brazen attempts to copyright public domain documents. Ralph Luker and Tim Burke note other problems with copyright and permissions.

Brett Holman, when he's not revising our very weak understanding of Guernica, is swooning over bad historical fantasies that never got made into movies. Or, you can see the Giant Nazi Robots over at Orac's place.

Sepoy says that Richard Gabriel's military history of Islam's founder "has, on average, a mistake per sentence." I could identify about one per paragraph without trying too hard.... Speaking of Sepoy, he's tweaking the nose of the AHA, but they're good-humored enough about it that they've approved our panel -- token and all -- anyway.

Tim Burke takes on a Weekly Standard piece on Africa on both facts and interpretations. Oh, and he smacks down VD Hanson and 300 in one blow! (for more 300 fun, start here)

In the "Daily Dose of Insanity" category, This Day in Mythstory provides just what it says: anniversaries with a theme and a twist! If you can't tell when he's kidding, that's a good sign that you need more, not less, history in your life.

Another entry in the "one generation's sarcasm is another generation's Protocols of the Elders of [your hobgoblin here]" category: Anti-Grover Cleveland screed turned into pro-Hawaiian Independence "evidence."

Eric Muller got a surprise this Passover: a Confederate Jew on his Matzo Box. I got one of those, too.

One of the most efficient reminders of what the late Jerry Falwell stood for in his heyday (and beyond) came from this 26-point "Don'ts for Students". It's in favor of history (though the rest of the list suggests limits on that), but not family history, or any creative thinking or social speculation.

Chris Bray's been reading some Frederick Kagan, for kicks: the preface is a hoot.

The Conceptual Guerilla takes on Harvey Mansfield on the unitary executive.

Rob MacDougall posits a dystopian future for historically conscious appliances. But at least our modern appliances let us eat better than we used to.

I've got to end on a positive note: These reconstructed photographs are amazing. For real!

OK, now the bad news: Bad History Needs Hosts even more than it needs submissions. We've got a trickle of submissions, but No Hosts lined up for the future. I'm taking volunteers, and then I'm just gonna start assigning months to people who seem capable, whether they're bloggers, historians or just cranky.

Call for Hosts!

2007-03-26T00:44:00.000-07:00

It's ironic, but the Carnival of Bad History is run by a procrastinator.... Anyway, we need hosts for future editions. Any of them: pick a month. We usually run the carnival late in the month, but the exact date is flexible. Historians, debunkers, lovers of truth or haters of lies, all are welcome!

The Return of CoBH

2007-02-27T10:43:00.000-08:00

The Carnival of Bad History decided to play snowbird and flew off to warmer climes for the month of January. Now it's back, tanned and rested, and ready to do that funky, bad history thing. This month Rob MacDougall does the honors at Old is the New New. Rob serves up a healthy plate-full of debunked quotes, urban legends, jaywalking historians, bat-men on the moon, and holocaust denial, with a nice tall glass of Kool-Aid to wash it down. You won't want to miss this one.

Carnival #12 Supplement

2006-12-24T12:25:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the supplement to the 12th carnival of bad history. Apparently there was some mixup with Blogcarnival.com and their submissions, David Noon ended up doing a lot of work on his own. Here's the blogcarnival submissions, though (with a few unsuitable ones removed):

Tony Blair Pulls a Clinton posted at The Dugout, in which the British apology for slavery falls short of a real historical commemoration.

Pearl Harbor and the longue duree posted at Frog In A Well: Japan, in which I tackle some really sloppy historical causation.

A Machiavellian Perspective on the Middle East Conflict posted at Samson BLinded, is a disturbingly positive comparison between 1917 Russian Bolsheviks and contemporary Israeli right-wingers.

The Armstrong Tautologies posted at Avant News, is a charming satire of the recent technical recovery of Neil Armstrong's lost preposition.

An Occidental-Muslim's Criticism of Empires and Orthodoxies posted at Wa Salaam takes on ~~one of the regular Bad Historians, Bernard~~ a scholar I've never heard of, John Lewis.

The Little Professor had two pieces nominated: My year in books (with a special appendix on Victorian anti-Catholic sermons), a reminder that inarticulate intolerance is nothing new...."; and Department of ironic similarities, in which the pitfalls of making up words to describe your antagonists turn out to be well-established.

The Source of the National Debt, Why It Will NEVER Be Paid, and Why the Federal Reserve Should Be Liquidated, Part 1 of 2 posted at Bill Losapio is a fascinating example of the profligate use of "cabal" and "shady", not to mention basic misunderstandings of economic theory and practice. I never thought, when I first came on board this carnival, that people would self-nominate their own worst work....

Conrad Black: "Let them eat cake" posted at Sox First, in which mega-rich Black compares himself to a French nobleman during the Revolution.

Roy Moore on Keith Ellison posted at another history blog, dismantles, though it's an easy target, blatherings about the "Pilgrim roots" of the US.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of carnival of bad history using our carnival submission form.
Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.
Technorati tags: carnival of bad history, blog carnival.

Bad History Time, Part 12

2006-12-22T13:48:00.000-08:00

The twelfth installment of the Carnival of Bad History is up at The Axis of Evel Knievel. This month we learn how how many battleships were really sunk at Pearl Harbor, get a nomination for the worst ever portrayal of JFK in a movie, discuss the proper name for the unpleasantness in Iraq, and get a big heapin' helpin' of Pinochet.

What's a Henge?

2006-11-21T16:05:00.000-08:00

Natalie Bennett has done a lovely job with The Eleventh Carnival of Bad History. Seems to be a high Stonehenge ratio this month.... Thanks!

The next edition -- Get your Bad Christmas History stories in early! -- will be at Axis of Evel Knievel, which recently hosted the History Carnival. We have a host for January, but it's not too soon to start thinking about hosting next year -- heck, three guys have already started running for president in 2008!

CoBH # 10

2006-10-23T08:25:00.000-07:00

The Carnival of Bad History number 10 is now up for your reading pleasure at Archy.

Wouldn't be Bad if...

2006-10-10T00:03:00.000-07:00

...I could keep to a schedule. Yes, I'm an historian who can't keep track of dates. I didn't note Miland Brown's bravura hosting of our September carnival, nor did I note the fact that our brave founder, John McKay, aka archy will be hosting our next edition in a little over a week.

It's a Bad history carnival, not a neat, tidy chronology carnival, right?

Carnival #8: Liberty and Power

2006-08-20T14:25:00.000-07:00

David Beito of Liberty and Power has Carnival #8 up!

Carnival of Bad History #7

2006-07-20T16:33:00.000-07:00

The seventh installment of this now-monthly event is up at Hiram Hover's. Go on over, have a good bad history time!

Call for Hosts!

2006-06-12T00:40:00.000-07:00

There's been so much great bad history on the web in the last few weeks (e.g. this or this or this), I'm seriously considering doing it myself, but before I do (and because I have other things I need to take care of this week) I want to give a last call for volunteers. Anyone who wants to put their name at the top of one of the most fun carnivals ever, drop a comment, or an e-mail and we will set you up. Late June, anyone?

Bad History Gets Better.... is that good?

2006-05-18T01:15:00.000-07:00

When I posted notice of the First Carnival of Bad History, fellow Cliopatriarch Jonathan Reynolds quipped "Methinks we are only beginning to scratch the surface!"

Four (and a half) CoBHs later -- several of which have featured my work -- I think it's safe to say that we've scratched a lot of surfaces over the last year, but there's lots of pristine bunk out there, just waiting for bloggerly attention. Though I think professional historians have a special obligation to be tech-savvy and publicly outspoken on matters of historical interpretation and discourse, the Skeptics Circle community has been very engaged with historical illogic (e.g. Holocaust denial rebuttal here or here), and the CoBH itself was founded by the eminently skeptical John McKay.

I love this carnival -- its broad participation, its irreverent intolerance for ignorance, its potential as an educators' tool -- and I'm really honored that John has invited me to join the administrative team. It might seem odd for a professional, credentialed historian to take this step -- surely "Carnival of Bad History" will raise a few eyebrows on an academic cv -- but I intend to see this become one of the premier gathering grounds for reality-based snark, furious fact-checking and historical fun.

There will be a few changes coming: After the next quarterly installment, currently scheduled for June 20th, the CoBH will be going to a monthly schedule! It's a cliche, I know, but the blogosphere moves too fast for a quarterly event to maintain anyone's attention, and a healthy carnival needs a good rhythm and regular attention. The increased pace, though, means that we really need hosts! The next edition is scheduled for one month from now, and then we'll have one a month after that, etc. Contact John or I to volunteer, and make your mark in one of the most talked-about carnivals in the blogosphere! Or, if you just want to contribute material, you can send links to us or submit them here; nominations can be of other people's work as well as your own, if it deserves inclusion.

Carnival of Bad History, Winter 2005 edition

2005-12-23T17:19:00.000-08:00

Number four of Carnival of Bad History is up over at Neural Gourmet. This is the biggest and baddest Bad History yet. It has Nazis (how can you do bad history on the internet without Nazis?). It has current events. It has Ninjas. It has woolly mammoths (okay, I sent that one). It even has annoying e-mail from your in-laws. I'm still reading my way through the choice offerings, but I haven't found a bad post yet. Go visit the Neural Gourmet and check out the bad holiday smorgasborg.

Bad History Number Four is on the Way

2005-12-11T12:06:00.000-08:00

We have a host for the next Carnival of Bad History. As we were rapidly approaching to the date for the winter CoBH and still lacked a host I was debating whether to give up on the whole carnival idea or resign myself to permanent hosthood. I was actually in the process of writing a post on the subject when I got a note from Coturnix saying that he had located a host volunteer. The Neural Gourmet has stepped up to the plate to, uh, punt a basket, or whatever it is you do at the plate--I never was very good at the sports metaphor thing. The next CoBH will be held on December 22. That means you have lots of time to write a post, post a post, and submit said post to The Neural Gourmet for inclusion. Have a myth you want to bust? Heard someone say something astonishingly ahistorical? Discovered a great conspiracy theory? Just want to review a bad movie? If it has anything to do with history, this is your chance.

A new record

2005-09-02T11:35:00.000-07:00

Sadly No! discovered this gem while digging through the comments on Lucianne.com.

An earlier post said that New Orleans is 400+ years old. If our country is 229 years old, how is this possible? The Indians had a city here?

For once, my sarcasm fails me.

Bad History? Yes, Bad History!

2005-09-01T10:38:00.000-07:00

The Carnival of Bad History # 3 is here. Horatio at Dodecahedron has the latest edition for your reading pleasure. He's made it a very special Michael Jackson edition. Michael Jackson? Yes Michael Jackson! Horatio has something for everyone. He has Nazis. He has terrorists. He has Intelligent design. He has Paul Harvey. Paul Harvey? Yes, Paul Harvey! History isn't just that highschool class taught by coaches (badly), history is everything. Culture, politics, movies, the good, the bad, and, yes, the ugly. Bad history is mostly the ugly. Go, read up, get inspired, and track down your own bad history for the next carnival.

Prepare for bad history

2005-08-10T22:38:00.000-07:00

We're just three weeks away from the next Carnival of Bad History. Horatio at Dodecahedron has volunteered to be the host. We have some submissions, but we can always use more. Want to review a bad historical movie? Know of a nonsensical conspiracy that needs debunking? Heard a politician or pudit make a really silly analogy? This is your chance to set the record straight. Send your submissions to John at archy, or to CoBH, or to Horatio at Dodecahedron.

Help Wanted

2005-07-25T10:55:00.000-07:00

We've been collecting submissions for the next Carnival of Bad History due the first of September. We will have plenty of content, but we're still looking for a host. If you want to break into the big world of carnivals, this is your chance. Drop us a line.

Time for bad history

2005-05-31T12:53:00.000-07:00

The second full-fledged issue of the Carnival of Bad History is up over at Science and Politics. It's bigger and badder than ever before. Coturnix has gathered fourteen posts from twelve writers. What are you waiting for? Go. Read. Comment. Get inspired and write a contribution to the next carnival.

P.S. - We're looking for a host to publish issue three at the end of August. If you are interested in hosting, drop us a line at the Bad History mailbox.

Call for bad history

2005-05-24T13:11:00.000-07:00

Coturnix at Science and Politics will be hosting the next Carnival of Bad History. It's been a while since the last one and I was on the verge of giving it up whaen Coturnix volunteered to start it back up and give me the benefit of his vast experience hosting carnivals.

Have you seen lately an egregious example of misunderstanding or misuse of history? Was history botched in a movie or TV show you just saw? Was a book or article trying to rewrite history for artistic or political purposes? Does watching History Channel drive you crazy? If so, write about it on your blog, and send me the permalink by late May 30th (midnight EST) to be included in the carnival. You may also want to recommend someone else's blog post.

Based on Coturnix's advice, we'll try running Carnival of Bad History on a quaterly basis. That means anything you've written since early March is fair game for inclusion. Send your links to Coturnix at his place, to me here, or to archy.

Bad History Around the Globe

2005-03-13T10:36:00.000-08:00

This month's issue is devoted to Bad History in other countries -- Britain and China -- as well as the ongoing distortions by the Bush Administration. In some ways, the Bushites seem to be somewhat clumsy and inexperienced at this sort of thing, but then, they have a few more years to hone their skills.

Here in the USA:
Condi Rice continues to mangle or suppress accounts of the Bush Administration's handling of the Al Qaeda threat. Scott Shane's piece in the February 12 New York Times emphasized Rice's contention that a new "Al Qaeda plan" was never submitted to the new administration. In hindsight, we can see that Richard Clarke's sketchy ideas for countering Al Qaeda -- support for the Northern Alliance, destruction of terrorist training camps, covert operations, and scouting by Predator drones -- hardly compares with the masterful strategy that was actually employed after 9/11 -- support for the Northern Alliance, destruction of terrorist training camps, covert operations, and scouting by Predator drones.

Subscribers can get (buy) the whole article at www.nyt.com , and the text also appeared in Truthout.org, www.truthout.org/docs_2005/021205A.shtml .

The United Kingdom:
In Britain, that other Eden, historians have both the advantage and the disadvantage of living right next to a complex, culturally vibrant Continent. How much must one know about doings in France, say, if one specializes in 17th-century social history? A whole lot? Enough to get by? Or what? Our honored guest, Sharon Howard, takes another Briton to task for minimal Continental awareness on the Early Modern Web at http://www.earlymodernweb.org.uk/emn/index.php/archives/2005/03/huh-2/ .

And remember, politically-motivated cross-dressing is NOT just something that Englishmen do. American rebels, true to form, changed the pattern when they rose up against their British cousins. Instead of donning skirts and bonnets, they wore feathers and war-paint. It was probably an effective form of disguise, even if the real Native Americans found it offensive.

In China:
Welcome to the Major Leagues! Here in the People's Republic, truth serves the State, or is quietly eliminated. Once again, the NYT is my source (yeah, I know, a typical latte-sucking East Coast liberal). It seems that the border war between China and Vietnam, which dragged on from 1979 to the late 1980's, is not a pleasant topic to remember. So the memories are neglected. Library materials that covered it have been mysteriously removed. No monuments been raised for the veterans, except for tombstones.

Some theorize that the war was begun to punish Vietnam for overthrowing Pol Pot, whose Khmer Rouge movement was allied with China. At any rate, the Vietnamese gave a good account of themselves (again), and the Chinese offensive soon bogged down.

Howard French's article can be found (as of March 13, 2005) at the International Herald Tribune site, http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/03/01/news/vietnam.html .

My esteemed colleague, John McKay, brought up a great Bad History topic in a recent Archy posting. What are we to make of the "ancient animosities" argument? In the former Yugoslavia, the local-apparatchik line that Serbs have always oppressed Croats, and vice versa, became a self-fulfilling prophecy. What about American news coverage, or even historical accounts, of the Middle East? They say that Jews and Arabs have hated each other for centuries -- except that they haven't. Islam was far more hospitable to the Jews than was Christian Europe. Hostilities over Jewish resettlement in Palestine go back to the mid-20th century, but this hardly adds up to the "centuries of hatred" that we often hear about. Anyone out there for pointing out other Bad History of this type? If allowed to flourish unchecked, it fosters either racism (these people are irrational, and will never stop fighting among themselves), or hopeless determinism (humans are irrational, and will never stop fighting among themselves). I oppose racism, and try to avoid hopeless determinism.

But sometimes I wonder.

Women's History Month

2005-03-02T09:54:00.000-08:00

March is Women's History Month. I'm sure some enterprising bloggers out there can find something to say about that. There must be some myth about women in history that you think needs to be debunked, some well-known woman who has gotten undeserved bad press, or someone unjustly overlooked. This is your chance to set the record straight and gain for yourself the prestige (and traffic) of a major carnival appearance.

Carnival Number One

2005-03-01T10:27:00.000-08:00

The Carnival of Bad History number one is now available for your reading pleasure over at archy. Though the selection is samll it covers the spectrun of bad history from Holocaust denial to popular myths to the silly things our leaders tell us. Go and read them all.

If you are inspired to write something or remember an old post that you think fits, send it to us. It's never too soon to plan the next issue. Carnival number two will also be hosted at archy, but this time Alan gets to write it. The date is March 15.

A Carnival of Carnivals

2005-02-24T11:31:00.000-08:00

It was inevitable that eventually someone would do this. It was also inevitable that that someone would be Coturnix. If you want to better understand the carnival phenomenon, if you just want to find something good to read, or if you are looking for the right venue for your writing, this is the post to check out. Coturnix has managed to round up four dozen carnivals and link to their most current issue. This kind of labor deserves a reward.

Call for Bad History

2005-02-24T11:11:00.000-08:00

I'll be posting the first Carnival of Bad History over at archy next Tuesday. We still have plenty of room for contributions and I'll be accepting till about noon on Monday.

Since this is the first Carnival, I'm very fluid on how old the contributions can be. If you've written anything you think might be relevant since the first of the year or so, send it in.

Also, since this is the first carnival, we're still fine-tuning the concept. Anything even remotely related is acceptable. If you want to correct a bad historical parallel that some talking head pulls out to support their position, send it in. If you have a pet peeve about historical movies, send it in. If you've been doing battle with holocaust deniers, internment apologists, or slavery romanticizers, definately send it in. If you want to debunk a favorite conspiracy theory, send it in. If you just want to bash on The DaVinci Code, send that in too.

Lastly, we need volunteers to be future hosts. The whole point of a carnival is to share the glory.

Send your article links and hosting volunteerances (or whatever you call that) to archy or to Bad History.

PS - Over the next day or so I'll be sending reminders to everyone who contributed, so you'll know you're in.

Bad History in the Social Security Debate

2005-02-06T10:51:00.000-08:00

I think we can expect a lot more of this in the coming months.

In an attempt to promote President Bush's plan to partially privatize Social Security, nationally syndicated radio host and former Reagan administration official William J. Bennett and FOX News managing editor and anchor Brit Hume falsely claimed that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt advocated replacing Social Security with private accounts. In fact, while Roosevelt advocated "voluntary contributory annuities" to supplement guaranteed Social Security benefits, he never proposed replacing those benefits with private accounts.

[...]

Former Social Security associate commissioner James Roosevelt Jr., Roosevelt's grandson, noted in a January 31 Boston Globe op-ed piece: "The implication that FDR would support privatization of America's greatest national program is an attempt to deceive the American people and an outrage."

As a debate tactic, what Bennett and Hume are attempting is as old as written language and probably older. They are attempting to make their ideas unassailable by claiming that they spring from ancient revered authorities. This argument is especially effective with conservative audiences, so it's no wonder that conservative pundits would use it to push forward the agenda of an ultra-conservative president.

As history, Bennett and Hume are committing two sins. The first is misrepresentation or just plain lying. The second is trying to draw an ahistorical parallel. This is the act of pulling historical examples and saying they are relevant to present day issues because of some similarity. There is nothing wrong with using historical examples in debate, but the issues have to match.

In this case, the real problem is the misrepresentation. If the Roosevelt program had been what Bennett and Hume claimed it was, then they would have had a valid parallel. But it wasn't, so they don't. This then undermines the debate tactic. They appealed to a revered authority for support and the authority didn't support them. They lose this round.

Cross posted at archy.

Bad History Rudely Noticed

2005-02-03T09:09:00.000-08:00

The Rude Pundit noticed some faulty memory at work in the state of the union address and in some people's coverage of the audience reaction.

Let's get one thing straight right here, right now, for every right-wing fuck doll in the media who gets up in arms about how "rude" the Democrats were for shouting "No" when Bush stood up last night and said, "Fuck your Social Security. I piss on your retirement": From the Buffalo News on Bill Clinton's 1995 State of the Union speech: "At one point, Republicans even booed. About 20 of them left before Clinton finished talking." What did the Republicans boo for? Because Clinton dared to say that there were some things that government must do.

[...]

Bush ended "his" speech with a quote from Franklin Roosevelt's 1937 Inaugural Address, where Roosevelt included the famous words of poet Arthur O'Shaughnessy, "Each age is a dream that is dying, or one that is coming to birth." Of course, the Republicans are desperately trying to co-opt FDR to justify their destruction of his works. But one wonders if Bush has read the entirety of Roosevelt's Second Inaugural. See, because in the rest of it, Roosevelt said, "We of the Republic sensed the truth that democratic government has innate capacity to protect its people against disasters once considered inevitable, to solve problems once considered unsolvable. We would not admit that we could not find a way to master economic epidemics just as, after centuries of fatalistic suffering, we had found a way to master epidemics of disease. We refused to leave the problems of our common welfare to be solved by the winds of chance and the hurricanes of disaster." Huh. Just the thing that the Republicans booed when Clinton invoked such ideas in 1995.

It's Black History Month

2005-02-01T10:24:00.000-08:00

There has to be some good material inherent in that. Off the top of my head, I think this might be a good time to look at some of the recent Neo-Confederate revisionist literature on master-slave relations in the Old South. Neither Alan nor I specialized in American history, so we aren't the best candidates to write the posts on that. However, I bet someone out there could take care of it.

Condi Rice and Kabul

2005-01-31T11:12:00.000-08:00

One of the alleged qualifications that Condoleeza Rice brings to her job as Secretary of State is expertise on the history and politics of Russia and the former Soviet Union. But in Bob Woodward's Bush At War (Simon & Schuster, 2002; p.219), Rice is quoted as telling the President and the NSC that the Russians never occupied Kabul. Well, the Russians did just that -- in December, 1979. Someone in Rice's position at that time (the President's national security advisor) should have known better. And it is even more disturbing that the American military strategy in Afghanistan, pursuing a simplistic "let's do the opposite of what the Russians did" approach, started with completely inaccurate information. This is political misuse of history.

For accounts of the Soviet invasion occupation of Kabul, see M. Hassan Kakar, Afghanistan : the Soviet invasion and the Afghan response, 1979-1982 (Berkeley : University of California Press, 1995), pp. 21-31, or J. Bruce Amstutz, Afghanistan : the first five years of Soviet occupation (Washington, D.C. : National Defense University Press, 1986), pp. 46-49. The Soviets flew about 5,000 men into Kabul; some of these stormed the Presidential Palace and killed President Amin.

Or, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_invasion_of_Afghanistan .

They like us! They really like us!

2005-01-31T11:05:00.000-08:00

We'd like to thank everyone who's linked or written to us during our first day of business. The response has been amazing. It seems everybody has a favorite historical urban legend or conspiracy theory that they would like to see debunked.

I've already received three contributions for the first issue. Being fairly cautious, I had announced the date of the first issue (over at archy) as March 1 with subsequent issues on a monthly basis. If this level of interest keeps up, we will probably move the date forward.

Beyond the carnival itself, Alan and I are still working out how we will be using this site. We will be occassionally posting on bad history in in the news. If you want to contribute to the carnival, but can't decide on a topic, ckeck back here for suggestions.

Once again, thanks for dropping by.

We're Live

2005-01-29T20:11:00.000-08:00

I'm sending out the announcements that we're up and accepting posts.

We'll work on making the template pretty later.