The concept of historical revisionism is rife with pejorative and negative connotations, as James McPherson notes in his article in the American Historical Association “Revisionist Historians”. Oftentimes the concept is equated with deliberate and malicious reworking of historical narratives to serve a purpose, whether political or ideological. His specific reference to this phenomenon in modern times is …
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Cristen Conger’s article, “How Revisionist History Works”, argues the current status of revisionism as a form of history and its current role in society. Revisionism is a way of revising history and fixing misconceptions and falsified information within historical narratives. Conger dissects the legend of George Washington and the cherry tree, she quickly debunks…
Jason Arquette Professor Hirsh Blog 4g September 14th, 2017 The first half of Cristen Conger’s “How Revisionist History Works” strongly illustrates the principles and concepts of modern revisionist history. Conger begins by generally defining this particular form of history as the amendment of previously established historical facts due newly discovered information. This definition is exemplified…
The preface begins by discussing a recent change in how American history is taught and studied. Previously, American history depicted the U.S. as a wonderful peace loving nation that only went to war to protect itself and democracy. Though this America did have its problems and injustices, those issues have since been solved. Such a…
Gar Alperovitz is an American political economist and historian and has done extensive research on the atomic diplomacy. In this article, Alperovitz gives an alternative interpretation as to why the United State dropped the bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He begins with a strong statement calling the traditional explanation “morally comforting” but known to be…
Peter Kirstein is a professor of history at Saint Xavier University, Chicago. He is known for his research on the atomic bomb and studied under Howard Zinn – the author of my textbook in history 2014 (The Twentieth Century). With Kirstein’s knowledge, I felt that his review of Alperovitz’s The Decision to Use the Atomic …
In “Reclaiming Realism for the Left: Gar Alperovitz and the Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb” by Peter Kirstein creates and recognizes the argument that dropping atomic bombs on Japan may not have been entirely necessary and potentially a poor decision by the United States. In the second paragraph, he lets on to his opinion…
For Tuesday’s class, I read the article “The Decision to Drop the Bomb” by James West Davidson. In this article, Davidson examines the decision to drop the atomic bombs on Japan through three theoretical frameworks: Rational actor model Organizational process model Bureaucratic politics model In this blog post, I will attempt to explain the theory …
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Jason Arquette Professor Hirsh Alternative Interpretations September 12th, 2017 Gar Alperovitz’s The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb is a prime example of ‘alternate histories’ in historical literature. These works intend to challenge the standard version of histories (narratives commonly believed by the general public) and illustrate plausible alternative explanations for why an event occurred,…
In “The Decision to Use the Bomb: A Historiographical Update,” J. Samuel Walker explores different perspectives regarding the use of atomic bombs against Japan during World War Two, explaining how and why the central concern shifted over time. Walker states that the initial central issue was whether or not the bomb was necessary to end …
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