History is more than a subject

Being a happy professional weirdo, I’ve been wading through old history recently, journals, diaries and even ships logs of various voyages. Unlike the droning rubbish spouted by your history teacher, which made you switch off from the subject forever, the truth is that history explains why you sit frustrated, riddled with debt, ruled by morons and politically powerless. Welcome to the Matrix, in other words.

People arent always aware locally of just how much history is available online. I suppose it’s partly due to the anal obsession with race which permeates our society and – no pun intended – colours every major achievement since Europeans arrived and brought their own brand of slaughter and flush-toilets to the existing slave trading and tribal warfare which was the norm for the locals.

But let’s back up a bit, and go back to that time where not only were the Poles undiscovered territory, but what we now know as ‘America’ was also unknown. Do some reading of this extract from the Christopher Columbus Journal – the man technically credited with discovering America, as he sat and stared at the waves on his ship.

Then almost a hundred years later, with colonization under way – try this slightly heavy going report on how things were going in the ‘new found land of Virginia’: Thomas Hariot on Virginia.

For a birds-eye view of life unfolding on a daily basis in the 1600’s – the diarist to read, if you’ve never run across him before, is Samuel Pepys. His diary is also available in extract form at Pepy’s Info. For info on who this serious scribbler was, go to Pepys History. And to download some of his diaries – unfortunately though this version is censored, and isnt a ‘complete’ diary ( in its full form its around 11 volumes) download Pepys Diary.

Time moved on, and rumblings against British rule in this new land began, and for those of you who base your history of the American revolution on that Mel Gibson movie, start off at Early America. The see how the exploration of this new continent began, do some reading at Overland Diaries and Letters 1846-1869. Then read this thoughtful and careful sermon by one of the preachers at the time, showing just how seriously the concept of rebelling against a higher authority, was considered: A Discourse.

For a fascinating online presentation detailing how the Civil War affected two communities – go spend some time at The Valley of the Shadow. The concept of slavery is still fairly abstract to most of us, as we’re far too comfortable and removed from that never-ending horror. Take the time to read some of the first person accounts at Excerpts From Slave Narratives.

To get far away from the hairy chested rubbish of Gone with the Wind as valid depictions of the South, browse through the massive collection of material at First person Narratives of the American South.

And for anyone who wonders just how bad things were if you happened to get ill, be very very grateful for modern medicine as you look at From Quackery to Bacteriology.

Later, see how ‘civilization’ is progressing in by taking a read of Samuel Johnson’s journal of his voyage (or ‘tour’) to the Hebrides.

In the UK though, all the previous rollicking whoring began to get dampened down by the onset of the Victorian Era. Interestingly enough, that massively constrained society – like the Japanese – tended to let it all hang out in their literature. Have a look at Victorian Suicide: Mad Crimes and Sad Histories. For a good leaping off point into the oddities of the Victorians, start off at Victorian Web.

Here in SA though, the poo was beginning to hit the fan – here’s a full online book on Guerilla Warfare (Chapter Six covers the Boer war).

And again, to get a sense of what it was like locally, marching around the country in the days before roads and semi-automatic weapons to help you – you really should read Private John Jackson’s Boer War Diary – a first person account of the Boer War by a young soldier on the British side.

Its not widely known that the 1913 Land Act in one day, removed the rights of an entire race – forcing black people out onto the roads in search of somewhere to live. (It was even debated in parliament about making it illegal for black people to be on the roads themselves, so keen were the various businesses to get fast labour). Anyhow, point being – one man went around the country, detailing what he saw amidst the massive social chaos as tens of thousands of black families went from ‘landowners’ to ‘potential servants’ overnight. It’s an amazingly cruel piece of history that I’m surprised Richard Loring hasnt tried turning into a tacky musical yet. Read Sol Plaatjie’s account of The 1913 Land Act.

Then to jump forward in time, to when the Nazi’s took over South Africa for real, and set about creating a bureaucracy disguised as an ideology, try the online book Bureaucracy and Race – Native Administration in South Africa.

So as the Twentieth Century unfolded, modern history began degenerating into evermore efficient methods of killing, for a variety of fake reasons – usually ‘patriotism’ – but the hidden reasons always economic.

For a collection of mostly historical documents, try The World War 1 Document Archive or for the next big weapons testing exercise, try World War 2 Documents.

And staying with modern warfare, rather than go into the many online resources for Vietnam, its perhaps fitting to simply take a look at this one page written by a Vietnam Vet, dealing with his return to Vietnam. He doesnt have particularly good writing skills, and words are often oddly CAPITALISED, but given the millions killed during the war, to stop ‘Communist agression’ – it conveys how useless any reasons for any war, actually are. Read this ex soldiers’ diary on his return to the country he fought in, at A Veterans Diary. For more info, go to Vietnam Diary 1949 – 1972 and War Stories.

As a side thought on war; and to demonstrate the devious war-mongering Hollywood propaganda machine at work, consider the film Saving Private Ryan and its supposed ‘anti-war’ message – then contemplate the words of Vietnam War veteran and novelist Tim O’Brien: “If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waste, then you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie. There is no rectitude whatsoever. There is no virtue.” Read through Just Cause Not Just Wa, and then Mumia Abu-Jamal on Making Reasons For War.

You may recall a few columns back, my pointing out of the concept of using depleted uranium (DU) as being akin to a warcrime. Read Uranium News – a report about the ‘surprise’ (of supposed mainstream scientists) at the high levels of uranium within the Afghan people, since DU weaponry was used there.

And see US Military Massacre – a documentary about the mass slaughter of prisoners of war by the US in Afghanistan, which shocked the EU into calling for an investigation.

And here we are in this supposedly modern and civilized age, where the world has sat and watched an unelected president of the most powerful nation on earth kill 3 000 of his own citizens in a faked fiery ‘terrorist’ attack, and then use this lethal staged theatre event, to attack and invade two innocent countries – and we now wait for the coming expanding skirmishes of a new world war. Start with The Fictional War On Terrorism. Then read this news item: Bush Answers on 911 Overdue.

For the actual maths showing that the World Trade Centre towers had to have been deliberately collapsed, try The Jet Fuel Calculation. Also read this newspaper report about the White House refusing to release information on 911.

Until the next time, if the human urge for war doesn’t get me.