I'm Reading Professor ZINN and Am Shattered, So Bear with Me n/t

from pp 83-4, "A People's History of the United States":

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The American Revolution is sometimes said to have brought about the separation of church and state. The northern states made such declarations, but after 1776 they adopted taxes that forced everyone to support Christian teachings. William G. McLoughlin, quoting Supreme Court Justice David Brewer in 1892 that 'this is a Christian nation,' says of the separation of church and state in the Revolution that it 'was neither conceived of nor carried out....Far from being left to itself, religion was imbedded into every aspect and insitution of American life.'

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So far the thrust of this book has been to shatter the school myth of a unified and idealistic people. He says that there was an enormous chasm of class consciousness and conflict, that the Poor Whites weren't that interested in separating from England because there wasn't anything in it for them or for anybody else except for the Colonial upper class, which only substituted itself for the ruling English class and was every bit as rich and richer. He says the Colonial upper class was aware of how rich it was and how much richer it was to become and needed a TOOL to immunize itself from underclass resentment, which it found in the idealistic--and untrue---idealistic language. Some of the Southern colonies didn't participate AT ALL in the fighting, and ---deja vu all over again--- fighting in the war was used as one TOOL (as Shrub says) of engendering support for the Revolution, drafting men into the military where they THEN identified their military camaraderie with the REASONS (as stated idealistically) for separating from England. There were mutinies and their brutal repression all over the place. This book ain't to be dismissed as merely "contrarian". Can you handle the truth?

that's a great book, I ought to look up my copy and have another read of it sometime...

I also have Joe Wilsons book to read too. I have so much to read and seems like no time to do it.

The name of a villain in a crappy sci-fi movie.

If what you posted in post #1 is where you're at that is.

It's certainly a painful yet neccessary read. And, there are moments when I feel inspired--like we can get through this era-o-terra we're in. It's giving history a new dimension that helps me understand it in a way I haven't understood history before, (in school, say.) It should be on everyone's nightstand at some point in their lives.