[Peace-discuss] Civil War; Holocaust

[Chuck Minne]

Zinn's quote? How about Lincoln's? - that's where the BS starts smelling:
   
  Lincoln's first Inaugural Address, in March 1861, was conciliatory toward the South and the seceded states: "I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so." And with the war four months on, when General John C. Fremont in Missouri declared martial law and said slaves of owners resisting the United States were to be free, Lincoln countermanded this order. He was anxious to hold in the Union the slave states of Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri, and Delaware.

Thomas Mackaman <mackaman at uiuc.edu> wrote:
  
Zinn's quote has some truth behind it, but the attempt to reduce the Civil War to such crude econonomic determinism should be resisted. No less an observer than Karl Marx considered the Civil War to be a truly progressive war. I believe one of his oft-cited quotes was that "labor in the white skin could never be freed so long as labor in the black was branded." The war was indeed about slavery. McPherson's "Battle Cry of Freedom" is worth the read. To paraphrase his memorable quote, Americans shot in 1861 the way they had voted in 1860.

On the Holocaust, Goldhagen should be read critically. To begin with, I believe the book has been roundly criticized by scholars in the field for less than rigorous standards. More importantly, his thesis--that the German people bear responsibility for the Holocaust--is misanthropic. The wsws wrote a vwonderful--and devastating-- review years ago: http://www.wsws.org/history/1997/apr1997/fascism.shtml.

Let me know what you think of it, Ricky.

Best regards,

Tom 
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