Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
"It's odd how that Beloit list, and some of the punditry it inspired, seems to assume that you have to have had personal experience of a historical event to know anything about it."
Well, it sure helps! Vietnam was a profound, consciousness raising event for me, because I was old enough to think and happened to be living in Berkeley; whereas the Korean war slid right past me, because I was too young. Vietnam, the assasinations of the 60's, the invasions of Grenada, Panama, the Contra wars in Nicaragua and El Salvador, made in indelible, incontrovertible impression on my generation no books could equal.
BobW
On Aug 24, 2007, at 8:14 AM, Ismail Lagardien wrote:
> Teaching a Class on Africa's International Relations a year ago
> (Aug- Dec) I felt like an ancient freak. Not a single undergraduate
> knew, beyond "a" name (one Nelson Mandela), what apartheid was. I
> didn't know whether to laugh, or cry. But then, some of them
> couldn't discuss McCarthyism, the Watts Riots, Kent State, Tet...
> They had never heard of the Sandinistas/Contras... To his credit,
> one student liked The Clash!!! (and thought he knew about the
> Sandinistas)
It's odd how that Beloit list, and some of the punditry it inspired, seems to assume that you have to have had personal experience of a historical event to know anything about it.
Doug ___________________________________ http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk