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by bazooka_penguin 1845 days ago
Honestly, a lot of Americans don't even seem to be aware of massacres committed by former enemies like North Vietnam after they won the Vietnam War. It's not a surprise they're not aware of what a distant ally did outside of the Korean War
1 comments

American history education focuses very heavily on domestic affairs, and is further segmented by local priorities (e.g. “American Civil War” vs. “War of Northern Aggression”)

At least growing up in NYC, domestic history is really focused on domestic affairs. We barely touched the Mexican-American War and the Spanish-American War was kind of a footnote. The World Wars are discussed in that they set up the US as a superpower but the actual implications of that are more or less glossed over (nothing about South American activities, barely anything about the Korean War; I think we talked for one hour in high school about Mossadegh and that was “world history.”) And that’s probably one of the more progressive curriculums in the country; in the past there has been uproar over textbooks in other states saying that slavery was a consensual migration for economic reasons.

> War of Northern Aggression

Are you suggesting this is taught as an alternative lens on the American Civil War? I've never heard this name, and went to public school in the South.

I don't see the previous comment making the note around schooling in particular, but rather that what names people use to describe things kind of tell which sides they want you to see as the good one. It's likely that many people who see themselves as "the good people" while being on the side of the confederate would use that naming instead of calling it a "civil war"

See also: "USA bringing democracy to countries that don't have it" VS "USA invading countries to steer their internal/international policies"

The South is by no means a monolith. I don't expect schools in, say, Atlanta, Richmond, and Fayetteville to be teaching the same things. In fact, schools in NYC and Nassau County often don't teach the same things despite being in the same metro area, due to how highly balkanized school districts are.

So it seems like that particular term has fallen out of favor (coming into prominence and usage during the last breaths of segregation) but there are still alternate names like "War Between the States". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_the_American_Civil_Wa...

One can always rebuke the user by saying, "Oh, you mean 'The War of the Rebellion'?" (The official style, as far as I know of the Army's histories.)