All History is Narrative, but not All Narratives are History… 

–A Short Essay on the Differences and Importance of History over Ideological or Self-Aggrandizing Narratives.

by Gabriel Bautista  

Written on July 13, 2020 – Edited December 29 2024

The Historian is not a scientist nor a Philosopher, he is neither an artist nor a novelist. 

Yet, he is put in charge of lining up causes and effects in order, in a line, which represents time and guides the reader to suppose that one thing happens after another in an ever expanding and inevitable waterfall of “facts” or at least that is what it feels like to the reader.

Not only does the Historian need to understand science and art, religion and philosophy, cruelty and hope, envy and arrogance, finance and language, as he is in charge of telling you “the whole world” that no longer exists. 

But he needs to be ONE thing above all else… He MUST be Honest. 

Honesty is not a class taught at Harvard or Yale nor a course for a certification or license. 

YET there is nothing more important than that, Honesty and Fairness in telling the truth about the frailty and greatness of human beings both their exploits and tragedies. 

And THERE we have the problem. 

These days Honesty in Academia is as rare as Honesty in Politics or Journalism. 

A Friend of mine did a post about Reading Howard Zinn who wrote A People’s History of the United States Which I regard as a work of propaganda and ideological fiction, containing intentional omissions and deceitful narratives, a book that nonetheless is featured in the movie Good Will Hunting and a text that is used in many schools and recommended by many teachers! 

Why? Why indeed..

The very first review in Amazon describes it as “An Instrument of Socialist Indoctrination” and “Should be called A Victim’s History of America” but also lauded by many as “the true story”.

Zinn, a self professed Communist (btw calling yourself a Communist should be frowned upon when Communism is responsible for the Deaths of over 100 million people in the 20th century, like calling yourself a Nazi would probably not be celebrated) he sought to vilify the West and its principles under the guise of “scholarship” by calling it  “history”.

My friend wisely and humbly asked me “ What do you recommend instead?” (an act which I deeply respect, it is of the greatest forms of courage; to question one’s assumptions and to look for more information)  Which was exactly the right question, and so I decided to organize something that might benefit him and others in understanding real history, as close as we can manage. 

Not a history that seeks to compare the past with an abstract intertemporal ideal, but a history full of richness of the whole human experience, the great and the horrible. 

A History that takes into account our lowest natures, that of hate, envy, resentment, anger, greed, lust, arrogance and deceit, 

but ALSO 

our highest natures, that of hope, progress, art, beauty, love, purpose, perseverance, freedom, family, legacy and progress. 

Unfortunately there are few alternatives to a neat little book that supposedly tells you “the real story” 

Have you tried reading a History Textbook? 

They are basically unreadable because they are written by a committee and also approved by another bureaucratic committee. Just awful (if you have always had a hard time reading those, now you know you are not crazy, those things ARE awful) 

Why take the time to write about this? 

Because very few things are as important as understanding Your History, because the History of America and of Civilization is what unites us all as people together in a common goal, rather than simply a common religion or language or tradition. It is an experiment that we are all a part of and that we should not take for granted. It is being human. 

Here is some of material that I DO recommend, which contains the harsh realities of human civilization, conquest, slavery, war, famine, disease, injustice and conflicts for power

 BUT ALSO 

the creation of culture, civilization, individual rights, freedoms and responsibilities of the individuals so as to minimize the suffering of existence through family, purpose and meaning. 

Is there a country or a people that you can point to and say there was never any conquest, slavery, war, famine, disease or injustice? 

No. 

That has been the rule and not the exception. 

The Exception is that we CAN point to some people at a few points in history who at great cost to themselves have unilaterally fought to do away with much of the murderous and malevolently unjust customs that were a matter of course of human activity. 

Not to say that we didn’t experience some of the worst injustices in the 20th century for example, but we experienced them in the measure by which we STRAYED from the common goal of the Western cannon rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition, namely the responsibility of the individual in the midst of a short, anguished and sorrowful existence. 

“West” doesn’t mean only European and American peoples, as the examples from Japan, South Korea and Israeli experiments in self governance show. Imperfect as they also are! 

To zoom in on the American experiment, for all its flaws, a group of them said : “let’s make something where not everyone kills each other, at least not most of the time. Is that doable?” That was an exercise in humility and caution, an exercise in modesty and wisdom. 

 They used their inherited judeo-christian moral floor as a starting point and built something that has actually created the most prosperity for the most people that there has ever been. Far short of Utopia, but real tangible progress where people can complain about their troubles while logged into Facebook, in their airconditioned apartment, with working plumbery and electricity, not to mention broadband internet and electric appliances.

Before we change the world or think we can, we do well not to take everything we see for granted. It took nearly 1,000 years after the collapse of the Roman Empire for western Europe to recover a standard of living comparable to the one under Roman rule. “Starting over” takes a long time.  

 You don’t get to “tear the system down” and start from where you are, you lose civilization and you lose more than you think, and I mean that technically, you lose more than what you are NOW aware of.

Do not assume that you can destroy only part of the structure and start to build from there, especially if you start removing parts of the foundation. (which in our modern world we do so too hastily) 

It is in our dark nature to destroy as well as it is in our nature to create. We do well to assess what we really want to do as INDIVIDUALS not as members of “groups”. 

Collectivism is the cancer we have been fighting all along, whether it be in the guise of racism, race supremacy, identity politics, tribalism, cultural revolution, class warfare or collective guilt /collective victimhood.

 It is this process that takes years to download to the younger minds through the process we call education (or at least it should be) We impart the progress we have made so far, so that they can start from where WE left off, and not have to learn the painful lessons that cost much suffering and many human lives, to say nothing of the cost of the irreplaceable and perishable  asset of time. 

That’s Civilization. 

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. 

You take it all in, not just the parts that make you feel like a saint fighting the forces of evil or like a  better  and more intelligent person than the “savages” or “ignorant” people that existed before you. Neither just the parts that make you feel like the helpless victim with the righteous  to expropriate, judge and kill the “oppressors”.

As always, the “secret” is inside each and everyone of us. We have been lazy, we have been sloppy, we have been complacent and full of contempt, and for that, there is always a day of reckoning. 

The only solution is that we take it upon ourselves to educate ourselves for the sake of ourselves. For the sake of forgiveness (of the self and others) for the sake of understanding and compassion, rare virtues in this day and age!

The only antidote against indoctrination and ideology is to understand and take in the FULL narrative, as much as we can manage. 

There aren’t good guys and bad guys. 

We are simultaneously the good guys AND the bad guys. 

Who will win?

We have been too complacent on being the richest. 

Like little rich brats who are squandering our inheritance, and I don’t mean money.

I mean our cultural, technological and societal inheritance.

It’s always the defining moment, will you step up? 

Here are some of my Favorite resources of TRUE Scholarship on history, slavery and human civilization. I am putting special emphasis on Slavery since Howard Zinn calls it the “Original American Sin” (as if there has been no war, no corruption, no abuse of power from all groups at all times)

Will and Ariel Durant: 

If you follow me on social media or have had a chance to talk to me 1 on 1 for any length of time you will know I am a huge fan of the monumental work from Will and Ariel Durant that belongs in everyone’s Library called “The Story of Civilization” 

A collection of 11 Volumes that took them over 60 years to complete! It is a beautiful work of great breath, scholarship and research, not to mention balanced and fair description of the people and the times as they existed. (not as compared with some modern ideal!)

For a discussion on the African Slave trade started by the Arabs around the 9th century and then picked up by the Europeans in the 14th century. Story of Civilization Volume 6 – p. 193

(This is also discussed in the many books and research of Henry Louis Gates who is the Chair of African American Studies at Harvard University. see References)

For a balanced but true account of the excesses but also the hopes of Columbus and his voyage to the Americas Story of Civilization Volume 6 – The Conquest of the Sea (1492-1517) page 258-268. 

For context on the English State at the time of the first Voyage of the Mayflower in 1607. The Story of Civilization Volume 7 – The Great Rebellion 1625-49 page 184-206 also important is page 156-158 for context right before more Colony settlements in Virginia, Bermudas, Newfoundland and Plymouth. 

Each trip was a treacherous 3 month ordeal that you didn’t know if you were going to survive. Remember that, no Booking.com or AirBnB existed to book your stay or to complain and leave a bad review in case you had a bad experience. They may have been the conquerors but they were as fragile and as human as we are.  

For the Gold and Silver extracted (and squandered) from the Americas The Story of Civilization Volume 7 p. 48, 274, 286, 314, 333, 544. 

For the missionary trips ( which offend our secular sensitivities but remember, this was the foundations of their morals and values) The Story of Civilization Volume 7 249-51. Don’t forget the expulsion of the Jews from Spain (the hated and envied Jews) in 1492 (The Story of Civilization Volume 7 page 275) 

For the development of Democracy in the English Colonies in the 1600’s read The Story of Civilization Volume 8 page 200, 259, 311, 713, 714, 715.

For a discussion on the tensions between the Spanish and the British over the control of American colonies and the seas read The Story of Civilization Volume 9 p 101-103.

The African slave trade performed by the Dutch, the Danes, the Portuguese and the British as well as the push by the Quakers in 1727 to end the British share in the Slave trade. The Story of Civilization Volume 9 p 68. 

For how Methodism preaching and Methodist Ideas prepared the English revulsion against the Slave trade look at The Story of Civilization Volume 9 p137. The increasing moral conflict between allowing a world wide institution to exist and to thrive such as slave trade which had their own commercial and institutional benefits for many different constituencies, against the increasing criticism from western thinkers such as Montesquieu, Wesney and Voltaire The Story of Civilization Volume 9 p 354, 358, 135, 726. 

By the year 1750 some American Colonies had passed laws to heavily tax the importation of new African slaves. Mostly on social stability grounds but it does show how fragmented, social and political opinion was (it wasn’t simply the “slavers” vs the “slaves”) The English Crown vetoed that law, claiming that slave trade was one of the most profitable branches of English commerce The Story of Civilization Volume 10 p 708

In 1792 the Danish were the first to abolish Slavery in its dominions (The Story of Civilization Volume 10 p. 649) Followed by England and France (The Story of Civilization Volume 10 p. 670, 693, 935)

More on the campaign in England against slavery and slave trade The Story of Civilization Volume 11 p 359, 363, 512. On page 368 we have a summary of the horrendous conditions that Slaves were traded in and how of about 20,000,000 only about 20% survived the journey. Writers like John Locke, Alexander Pope, James Thomson and others joined the Quakers in the thought campaign against slavery. 

By 1833 Slavery was outlawed in all of the British territories. 

In 1815 the Act of the “Congress of Vienna redistributed the soil of Europe according to the ancient principle that to the victors belong the spoils” This Act basically re-mapped Europe but interestingly enough, through religious pressure it condemned the trade in slaves. 

All this prepared the way socially and psychologically for in 1863 in the U.S. and Abraham Lincoln to emancipate the Slaves and start a new process. One of the last holdouts of Slavery in the Western Hemisphere was Brazil which abolished it in 1888. 

Some extra resources outside of the Story of Civilization that I recommend.

Thomas Sowell: 

For a comprehensive story of Slavery I suggest “Black Rednecks and White Liberals” Chapter 2 “History of Slavery” by Thomas Sowell (He grew up as a black boy in Harlem in the 50’s and is a professor at Stanford’s Hoover Institution) 

History of the United States of America: During the First Administration of Thomas Jefferson 1 Volume 1 by Henry Adams – What I like about this one is that it was first published in 1889 and 1891 so it gives you a good and balanced view of someone writing at that time (less than 30 years after the emancipation proclamation) 

Also “Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story” by Wilfred McClay – what I like about this one is that it is compact and yet authoritative and well written. 

These are some of my favorite resources, it took me a while to put them together, I took the time because I deeply think it is THAT important. If we do away with History, what else have we got?

Preserve it, buy books and keep them.(PHYSICAL BOOKS!)  Put them in your Will to bequeath the next generation, study them, learn them and more importantly, pass them on to the minds of the next generation.

“To fight against untruth and falsehood, to fight against myths or to fight against an ideology that is hostile to mankind, to fight for our memory, for our memory of what things were like—that is the task of the artist. A people which no longer remembers has lost its history and its soul.” 

–Alexander Solzhenitsyn 

References in Order: 

The Story of Civilization Volume 6 – p. 193

The Story of Civilization Volume 6 – The Conquest of the Sea (1492-1517) page 258-268 by Will and Ariel Durant. 

The Story of Civilization Volume 7 – The Great Rebellion 1625-49 page 184-206 also important is page 156-158

The Story of Civilization Volume 7 p. 48, 274, 286, 314, 333, 544. 

The Story of Civilization Volume 7 249-51

The Story of Civilization Volume 7 page 275

The Story of Civilization Volume 8 page 200, 259, 311, 713, 714, 715.

The Story of Civilization Volume 9 p 101-103

The Story of Civilization Volume 9 p 68. 

The Story of Civilization Volume 9 p137

The Story of Civilization Volume 9 p 354, 358, 135, 726. 

The Story of Civilization Volume 10 p 708

The Story of Civilization Volume 10 p. 670, 693, 935

The Story of Civilization Volume 11 p 359, 363, 512 also page 368

Life Upon These Shores: Looking at African American History, 1513-2008 1st (first) Edition by Gates Jr., Henry Louis published by Knopf (2011)

Opted in the NY Times 2010 “Ending the Slavery Blame Game” 

https://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/23/opinion/23gates.html?scp=3&sq=gates%20slavery&st=cse

“Black Rednecks and White Liberals” Chapter 2 “History of Slavery” by Thomas Sowell

History of the United States of America: During the First Administration of Thomas Jefferson 1 

Volume 1 (Cambridge Library Collection – North American History) by henry adams

“Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story” by Wilfred McClay

Quote by Alexander Solchenytsyn from his interview at the BBC in 1976.