Texas Longhorns with newborn calf in Bluebonnets

Texas Longhorns with newborn calf in Bluebonnets

Please note I have a new phone number...

512-517-2708

Alan Maki

Alan Maki
Doing research at the LBJ Library in Austin, Texas

It's time to claim our Peace Dividend

It's time to claim our Peace Dividend

We need to beat swords into plowshares.

We need to beat swords into plowshares.

A program for real change...

http://peaceandsocialjustice.blogspot.com/2013/03/a-progressive-program-for-real-change.html


What we need is a "21st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity" which would make it a mandatory requirement that the president and Congress attain and maintain full employment.


"Voting is easy and marginally useful, but it is a poor substitute for democracy, which requires direct action by concerned citizens"

- Ben Franklin

Let's talk...

Let's talk...

Monday, April 6, 2020

How is it the author of one of the most popular history books in America missed the "Doctrine of Discovery?"

One of the book clubs we participate in, “Important Matters” is reading the book by historian Jill LePore, “These Truths.”


I brought up that right off the bat she missed the “Doctrine of Discovery.”


I sent this to all the members of the book club because when I brought it up it really didn’t get discussed which begs the question how much of our history do we know nothing, or very little about, because the historians, either because they don’t know the history they right about or perhaps intentionally omit the real history to keep us uninformed.


Here is what I wrote:


As we continue to discuss the book “These Truths,” I would like to remind everyone that Jill LePore missed a very important aspect of our history, “The Doctrine of Discovery.”


I brought this up and I don’t think it was discussed in the kind of detail required.


But, my reason for bringing this up again is because we need to read these kinds of books with an open mind that we may not be getting at the truth of our history especially when at issue are the problems relating to the struggles of racially and nationally oppressed peoples and relating to the struggles of working people.


We need to ask how it is that a book like “These Truths” misses such an important issue like “The Doctrine of Discovery” right off the bat so we do a little research to find out what else of importance is being missed that is part of our history relating to still existing problems. Without knowledge of this history it is not possible to resolve the problems created by this history.


Here is a link about “The Doctrine of Discovery:"


https://www.ucc.org/justice_getting-to-the-root-of-it_the-doctrine-of-discovery?fbclid=IwAR0CmaRs3rMtOPGNN1JIO-lqJNwUqaAXso3ABVfNCIOzliT5b4HZ6Kl8hFk

I hope you will check it out and then question with an open mind what else Jill LePore has overlooked in a similar manner in her book that she claims was largely written in order to make us aware of what has been missing in our history as it has been taught.


A question we all might want to ponder:


How do we correct the injustices of today when these injustices have been going on for centuries and we don’t even know and understand the history behind the problems?