Audio-book
Review
By Chet Yarbrough
(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog
The Great Courses: The Skeptic’s Guide to American History
By: Professor Mark A. Stoler
Narrated by Professor Stoler
Mark A. Stoler, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Vermont
Contrary to popular opinion, Professor Stoler argues history does not repeat. Stoler suggests history reflects current beliefs influenced by past remembrance.
What is the truth of history? Is there a truth? Mark Stoler, like many historians, sets out to debunk modern perceptions of history. To professor Stoler, context and interpretation are the arbiters of history’s truth.
The frustration one has with historian’s analysis of the past is with “fact choices” and interpretations. Historians write about the past through the prism of the present. The result confuses readers who seek knowledge and truth.
The value of Mark Stoler’s lectures is realization that facts of history are immutable; interpretation is not. That may be what Conway meant but not what she said. There are no “alternative facts”.
Some suggest Kellyanne Conway’s comment about “alternative facts” means there is no truth.
Councilor to President Trump
An example would be historians who argue about past Presidents by choosing facts of history that support their argument. A past President of the United States is great, average, or awful depending on what facts are chosen and how those facts are interpreted. History seems revised in every generation.
George Washington is the father of our country. Washington made many mistakes as leader of the military during the American Revolution. However, Washington won the most important American battles of the revolution leading to British withdrawal.
Thomas Jefferson sold all his slaves (except for the offspring of Sally Hemmings, his black mistress) to pay debts before his death. He believed blacks were inherently less intelligent than whites. Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence which stated “We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal…”
Abraham Lincoln proposes a plan to ship all American Negroes to another country to solve the issue of slavery. Lincoln executes the emancipation proclamation that frees American slaves.
Franklin Roosevelt supported industry over labor during the depression. He represented the upper-class of society. Roosevelt created jobs for American unemployed with a government financed program, the WPA.
Stoler infers there is truth, but it lies in knowing history is a phenomenon that cannot be separated from the present. The facts of the past do not change but unreported facts are dredged up by subsequent historians and history is revised. We call this revisionist history; i.e. a euphemism for reinterpretation of selected facts of history.
The election is nigh–Stoler infers there is truth that cannot be separated from the present. The facts of the past do not change but unreported facts are dredged up by subsequent historians and history is revised. Which way Trump?
That is why Stoler insists history does not repeat itself while Twain suggests history rhymes. With human nature as it is, the past is always present but in similar; not identical ways. History is not repeating itself. New history is being made based on new facts that fit modern societal norms. Stoler implies context of the present has changed history of the past.
Stoler supports his argument with numerous examples:
- The origin of religious tolerance is not a founding principle of America. Early Americans were as religiously intolerant as the countries from which they came. Stoler suggests religious tolerance evolved in American history through the mechanism of unintended consequence.
- Stoler argues American history is a story of imperialism, and that America has never been an isolationist country.
- Stoler explains George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin Roosevelt remain as the three highest rated Presidents but with interpretations of history that have changed in different eras. Many American Presidents have risen and fallen in the eyes of historians. Wilson fell in part because of disclosed information about his racism. Grant rose in part because of disclosed information about his opposition to Andrew Johnson (Abraham Lincoln’s Vice President) who condoned slavery.
- In Stoler’s opinion, one of the greatest unsung heroes of American history is George Marshall because of his service to country.
- To Stoler, America’s role in WWI and WWII is misleading in many American histories because of misinterpretation of America’s contribution to the war’s beginnings and endings. Nationalism often gets in the way of objective truth when assessing any countries role in war.
- Stoler notes the United States has never had a laissez-faire government. American government has always had an out sized influence over winners and losers in the economy.
Religious Intolerance 
Imperialism George Washington Grant is strongly supported by Abraham Lincoln who reveres and respects Grant’s hard-won battles against the Confederacy. FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT (1882-1945, 32ND PRES. OF U.S.,1933-1945) 
GENERAL GEORGE C. MARSHALL (1880-1959) Under appreciated hero. 
Capitalism is not the problem in America. It is the failure of the S.E.C., the FBI, the President, and congressional legislators to do their job.
Stoler’s lectures are a remembrance of things past, but just as with all historians, Stoler reports facts he chooses to recognize. The value of his lectures is realization that facts of history are immutable; interpretation is not.
Support of capitalism is not the problem in America. It is the failure of the #Federal government’s bureaucracy, the FBI, the President, and Congress to do their jobs
There are no alternative facts in history. Is that a truth or another fiction foisted on every new generation? Is Trump’s challenge to the 2020 election fact or delusion? History will show it to be both.
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