374
PARTISAN REVIEW
demonstrated the falseness of Bernal's assertions. There was much confu–
sion after his talk, which caught us by surprise. There were shouts such as
"How dare you take away our heroes?" and "How can you do this?"
It
was very, very clear that many of the staff had been misinformed about
the African impact on classical architecture, classical literature, the classical
world, and they did not appreciate Snowden's lecture. That's just a small
anecdote, but it does indicate that these things, particularly in urban
centers, are pervasive, and that this type of scholarship does find its way
to the elementary and secondary schools.
Edith Kurzweil:
What I find interesting is the fact that history as such,
the history we grew up on, is being delegitimized and considered urum–
portant. There are fewer prerequisites in history , fewer needs to take
courses in history for graduation. And yet, specific histories are being
glorified. That's a kind of interesting contradiction, isn't it?
Jean Elshtain:
This parallels some developments in women 's tudies. I
think initially the impulse, and it's a very good one, is to try to do jus–
tice to those who have been unfairly excluded. For instance, my first high
school text mentioned in a paragraph, maybe, women's suffrage.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony were mentioned, but not
in connnection with women's liberation and abolitionism. Getting all
those stories in seems to be part of constructing the history of a common
culture, a series of engagements. That seems very different to me from the
move toward a kind of compensatory history, where women are cast as
universal victims. This history of women's culture stands then, not only
apart from, but in a necessarily antagonistic relationship to those who are
deluded enough to think that there could be a common culture - which
includes the unfortunate suffragettes who held that view. At that point
you get also the invention of mythical pasts, such as the golden age of
matriarchy, all sorts of nonsense that has not enjoyed a very good repu–
tation in women's studies but is part of some feminist theorizing. Some–
times it gets tied to cynicism about the present political situation, other
times it feeds into loony utopian hopes.
Abigail Thernstrorn:
On this question of the distortions of history in
elementary and secondary schools, James
Q.
Wilson has said that he
doesn't "really worry that national goals will make it easier for some
local high school to teach black nationalism or Iroquois political the–
ory." He sees our national goal as getting "Mary and Johnny ... to read
anything
-
seriously, frequently , and with comprehension."
AI Shanker:
I think that that point of view is part of what's wrong
