Category: american history

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Genteel Racism” in “America’s Providential History”

Mark Beliles and Stephen McDowell’s America’s Providential History, which I started writing about in my pervious post, has been used in Christian schools and in the home-schooling movement since its initial publication in 1989. In American Fascists, Chris Hedges points out that the authors of this textbook define “‘liberty’ as fealty to ‘the Spirit of the Lord.’” Working towards “liberty” means freeing oneself from … Read More Genteel Racism” in “America’s Providential History”

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America’s Providential History: Dominionsim, Totalitarianism, and Fascism

“Throughout this book,” the authors of America’s Providential History write, “we have seen that we must take action to assure that America is re-established on a firm Christian base, and hence, secure our God-given liberties and provide a free and prosperous platform from which we can go and make disciples of all the nations.” America’s Providential History is a Christian textbook used in homeschooling … Read More America’s Providential History: Dominionsim, Totalitarianism, and Fascism

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“The Civil Rights Movement and the Nine-Word Problem” Professional Development Opportunity

As she prepared to close Laurel Fall Camp for Girls, a camp she ran from 1925–1948, Lillian Smith wrote, “I hope that the idea of Laurel Falls will not die. I want to believe that we have started a chain reaction of dreams that will go on touching child after child in our South.” The Lillian E. Smith Center’s programs, specifically its annual P-12 … Read More “The Civil Rights Movement and the Nine-Word Problem” Professional Development Opportunity

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Jim Crow, the Holocaust, and Today

Why? Last summer, I led a directed study, with one student, on Jim Crow and the Holocaust. When the student mentioned to other people the topic of the class, they would stare and respond with one word, “Why?” A lot rests within that one-word question. Why study Jim Crow? Why study the Holocaust? Why think about the links between Jim Crow and the Holocaust? Why … Read More Jim Crow, the Holocaust, and Today

Conversation with Rodney Barnes about “Killadelphia”

For my “Monsters, Race, and Comics” class I’m teaching the first two volumes of Rodney Barnes and Jason Shawn Alexander’s Killadelphia. Recently, I spoke with Barnes about the series. We talked about the ways that the gothic works as both a “politically conservative” for and as a revolutionary form, the role that history plays within the series, the ways that the powerful weaponize fear to … Read More Conversation with Rodney Barnes about “Killadelphia”