The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
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Asking A Question Out Loud

Something I have always wondered.

I am taking a Hillsdale College course called "The Second World Wars" online. The lecture is done by Victor Davis Hanson.

Something I am wondering. World War II was overseen by the most successful Democratic president in American history, Franklin D. Roosevelt. The success of the United States in that war demonstrates that Roosevelt's vision of central planning actually works. Roosevelt did not run a war the way that someone like George W. Bush did.

There is a history podcast host, Dan Carlin, who says he supports social programs but generally avoids politics as much as is possible. It is clear that his audience is generally right wing even if he is generally progressive.

So my question is this: if the success of America in WWII validates FDR, why is so much content on it directed at a conservative audience? Do progressives have no interest in military history? Just wondering.

Comments

One possibility is that Progressives are researching military history, but not taking the Conservative approach of Hillsdale College.


You're just not looking hard enough! I see it all the time. For example, a very famous "progressive" student of history (and professor of journalism) just found out all kinds of stuff she wants to teach the public on her "fact finding" trip to Hiroshima:

He's basically got her number

Whypipple and most progressives are not proper historians is the current ideology, unless they are willing to research white colonialist agenda since the 1400's.  Here's some whypipple trying to excuse it all with lies. They've always trying to cover up their imperialist colonialist agenda with lies:

 


Don't bring a spoon to a gunfight


It's all racism, all personal

Welcome to the internet. Colleges are safe.


Black Progressives sites may have a slightly different take on WWII because of how Black members of the military were treated, but there is no lack of patriotism in the stories told.

Names and units that come to mind and are talked about with pride include

Doris (Dorie Miller)

https://www.tamupress.com/book/9781623496029/doris-miller-pearl-harbor-and-the-birth-of-the-civil-rights-movement/

761sst "Black Panthers" tank battalion 

https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/black-panthers-761st-tank-battalion

784th tank battalion 

https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/african-american-784th-tank-battalion

The 404the female band

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/seventy-five-years-ago-militarys-only-all-black-female-band-won-victory-against-war-department-180971815/

Blacks in the Women's Army Corp

https://www.army.mil/article/181382/sorting_the_mail_blazing_a_trail_african_american_women_in_wwii

and obviously

The Tuskegee Airmen

https://www.tuskegee.edu/support-tu/tuskegee-airmen
 

I disagree that Progressives are not paying attention to World War II

Edit to add:

I think as other groups reviewers the events of World War II, they may have a different perspective 

This does not mean that they are any less patriotic

In fact, Hannah Nikole Jones opened the NYT 1619 essays with the story of her father who faced segregation and racism when he served in the military, but still patriotically flew the flag of the United States outside his home.

There are darker stories like those of 14 Black soldiers massacre by Nazis and the support Japan received from Black Muslims, but I think, if anything, a deeper dive is being done into how different groups survived World War II. They are all American stories.

 


It also comes to mind that Black Progressives may find little reason to come to Hillsdale for education of World War II because family members reminded them of the Double V campaign. Blacks fought for victory overseas against Germany, Italy, and Japan, and at home from segregation and race. One would expect this reality to be a mere afterthought in a story told by Hillsdale.

https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/double-v-victory

The natural response would be to look to other sources for the full story of World War Two. Perhaps the Hillsdale reputation keeps others from entering the spaces you quote.

Edit to add

I think everyone Progressive, Independent, Centrist, Conservative, etc. feels sadness and a slight chill when they visit the Pearl Harbor Museum. You look down and realize that sailors and Marines are entombed. You note that the submarine is still leaking oil after all these years.


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